Background

Ethnicity: Sebastian's grandfather was Indian. He was brought up in Yorkshire. His great-grandfather was Irish.

Sebastian Coe was born on September 29, 1956 in London, England, as the oldest of four children born to Peter Coe, an engineer, and Angela Coe, an actress. His father was an athletic man and a cyclist, who encouraged Sebastian to play sports from a young age.

Sebastian loved running from an early age, and was constantly motivated by his father to pursue his passion. At the age of 12, he joined the athletics team Hallamshire Harriers and became a middle-distance specialist in no time. Even though his father had no coaching experience, he took it upon himself to train his talented son.

Education

Sebastian received his primary education from Bridgetown Primary School and Hugh Clopton Secondary School in Stratford-upon-Avon. His family then moved to Sheffield where he attended Tapton Secondary Modern School and Abbeydale Grange School.

Following his graduation from high school, Sebastian Coe studied Economics and Social History at Loughborough University. He was trained by athletics coach George Gandy at the university and represented his university as a runner. Gandy’s training techniques greatly helped to improve Coe’s running.

Career

Coe won his first major race in 1977, an 800-metre event at the European indoor championships in San Sebastián, Spain. He first ran against Ovett in Prague in 1978 in an 800-metre race that neither won. The next year in Oslo, Norway, Coe set his first world records, in 800-metre and one-mile races. At the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow, the graceful Coe was favoured in the 800-metre race, and the powerful Ovett was favoured in the 1,500-metre race, an event in which he and Coe shared the world record. Instead, Ovett won the 800 metres, with Coe taking a silver medal; in the 1,500 metres, Coe accelerated at the final curve and won the gold medal.

Coe set world records in the 800- and 1,000-metre races in 1981, the year his rivalry with Ovett reached a climax. He beat Ovett’s mile record, running it in 3 min 48.53 sec on August 19; only a week later Ovett set another mile record, which was then shattered by Coe with a 3 min 47.33 sec run on August 28. Illness limited Coe’s racing in the next two years, but he rebounded strongly to win another gold medal in the 1,500 metres and another silver medal in the 800 metres at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. He won the 800-metre European championship in 1986, but illness hampered the late years of his career, and he was not chosen to participate in the 1988 Olympic Games.

Sebastian served as a Conservative member of the House of Commons from 1992 to 1997 and was elevated to the House of Lords as a life peer in 2000. In 2004 Coe was named head of London’s bid for the 2012 Olympics. After London was awarded the Games in 2005, he became the chair of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games.

Achievements

• 

  Sebastian Coe was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1982, an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1990, and created a Life Peer as Baron Coe, of Ranmore in the County of Surrey, in 2000.
  
  He is the recipient of several honorary degrees, including an Honorary Doctor of Technology (Hon DTech) by his alma mater, Loughborough University in 1985, and a Doctor of Science (Hon DSc) from the University of East London in 2009.
  
  Coe was appointed to the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) for services to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games in the 2013 New Year Honours.
  
  

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Winning Mind: What it takes to become a true champion
  • Running My Life - The Autobiography
  • Running Free

Politics

Coe was elected as Member of Parliament for Falmouth and Camborne in 1992, for the Conservative Party, but lost his seat in the 1997 general election. He returned to politics for a short time as Leader of the Opposition William Hague's chief of staff, having accepted the offer of a Life Peerage on 16 May 2000. During this time he also ran a marathon, which he completed in 2 hours, 56 minutes and 20 seconds.

Views

Quotations: "My mum was critical in getting me to recognise very early on that although what I was doing was pretty serious, quite selfish, and probably to most people pretty obsessive, there actually was more to life than running quickly twice round a track."

"The characteristic shared by people at the top of their profession is that, to get better, they crave criticism. Most people don't like criticism, but if you are trying to shave two tenths of a second at 800 metres, that is what you crave."

"I can be a bit impatient sometimes. If I'm really focusing on something, I can expect everybody to move at the same pace, and that's probably not massively endearing."

"The great thing about athletics is that it's like poker sometimes: you know what's in your hand, and it may be a load of rubbish, but you've got to keep up the front."

"The biggest fragility in a project is often just the inability to be able to explain to people why you are doing it, and when you're going to do it, and what's going to happen."

"The London Games will be designed for the athletes and we will provide them with the very best venues and the very best conditions to pursue their sporting dreams in London."

"When I moved to Sheffield and went to a secondary modern in the Seventies, there were certain challenges: if you've got a name like Sebastian, you either learn to fight or to run."

"Ask me what makes a champion runner, and I will tell you it helps to have the great good sense to choose your parents carefully."

"In 1981, I spoke at the Olympic Congress. I was scandalised that I was the first athlete to be given that chance. But I made the most of it."

"Good running is the ability to have a very well defined on-board computer. The ability to judge distances when running in traffic."

Membership

In 2003 he became a council member of the International Association of Athletic Federations (IAAF), and he was appointed vice president of the IAAF in 2007.

He is a member of the East India Club, a private gentlemen's club in St James's Square.

Personality

The trait he most deplores in himself is impatience. The trait he most deplores in others is pessimism.

Physical Characteristics: Height: 5 ft 8 1⁄2 in (174 cm).

Coe is colour blind.

Quotes from others about the person

• "On the day there was only one man and on the day Seb Coe was that man".
  
  — Steve Cram, 1984

Interests

• Reading

• Politicians

  Mikhail Gorbachev (for leadership that enabled the peaceful transition from communism in eastern Europe)

• Writers

  Favorite book is Graham Greene's The Third Man.

• Sport & Clubs

  Coe is a supporter of Chelsea Football Club.

• Music & Bands

  He is also a fan of jazz, in particular Billie Holiday and Lester Young.

Connections

Sebastian Coe married Nicky McIrvine, a former Badminton three-day-event champion, in 1990. The couple had four children before divorcing in 2002. He started dating Carole Annett in 2003 and married her in 2011.

Father:

Peter Coe

He was a British athletics coach and coach of his son Sebastian.

Mother:

Angela Coe

Spouse:

Nicola Mclrvine

She is a former Badminton three-day-event champion.

Spouse:

Carole Annett

coach:

George Gandy

References

• Sebastian Coe: Born to Run : The Authorized Life in Athletics
• Sebastian Coe: Coming Back