Jonathan Edwards (triple jumper)

Jonathan Edwards
CBE

Edwards at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Personal information
Full name	Jonathan David Edwards
Nationality	English
Born	(1966-05-10) 10 May 1966 Westminster, London, England
Education	West Buckland School
Alma mater	Van Mildert College, Durham University
Height	182 cm (6 ft 0 in)
Weight	71 kg (157 lb)
Sport
Sport	Athletics
Medal record Men's athletics Representing Great Britain Event 1st 2nd 3rd Olympic Games 1 1 0 World Championships 2 1 2 World Indoor Championships 0 1 0 European Championships 1 0 1 European Indoor Championships 1 0 0 Commonwealth Games 1 2 0 Total 6 5 3 Olympic Games 2000 Sydney Triple jump 1996 Atlanta Triple jump World Championships 1995 Gothenburg Triple jump 2001 Edmonton Triple jump 1997 Athens Triple jump 1993 Stuttgart Triple jump 1999 Seville Triple jump World Indoor Championships 2001 Lisbon Triple jump Goodwill Games 1998 New York Triple jump  2001 Brisbane Triple jump  European Championships 1998 Budapest Triple jump 2002 Munich Triple jump European Indoor Championships 1998 Valencia Triple jump Representing England Commonwealth Games 2002 Manchester Triple jump 1990 Auckland Triple jump 1994 Victoria Triple jump

Jonathan David Edwards, CBE (born 10 May 1966) is a British former triple jumper. He is an Olympic, double World, European, European indoor and Commonwealth champion, and has held the world record in the event since 1995. Edwards is widely regarded as the greatest male triple-jumper in history.

Following his retirement as an athlete, Edwards has worked as a sports (primarily athletics) commentator and presenter for BBC television, before moving to Eurosport. Formerly a devout Christian, he also presented episodes of the BBC Christian worship programme Songs of Praise, but ended his association with the programme in 2007 when he said he had lost his faith. In 2011 he was elected President of the Wenlock Olympian Society following the death of its then President, Roy Rogers. He was a member of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games for the 2012 games.

Education

Edwards was born in Westminster, London and attended West Buckland School in Devon where his potential for the triple jump was spotted at an early age. He was a strong all-rounder, and on leaving received the school's top award for sporting and academic excellence, the Fortescue Medal.

Contemporaries with Edwards at West Buckland School included Victor Ubogu and Steve Ojomoh, both former Bath and England Rugby international players. Edwards now has a Sports Hall at West Buckland named after him, The Jonathan Edwards Sports Centre. Edwards then studied Physics at Durham University, attending Van Mildert College.

Athletics career

Due to his strong Christian beliefs during his athletic career, discussed in more detail below, he initially refused to compete on Sundays, but eventually decided to do so in 1993. This decision proved timely, since the qualifying round at that year's World Championships took place on a Sunday. He went on to win the bronze medal.

In his breakthrough year of 1995, Edwards produced a jump of 18.43 m (60 feet 5+1⁄2 inches) at the European Cup. The leap was wind assisted and did not count for record purposes, but it was a sign of things to come as he capped an unbeaten year with a historic gold medal performance at the World Championships, in which he broke the world record twice in the same meeting. On his first jump, he became the first man to legally pass the 18-metre barrier with a jump of 18.16 m (59 feet 7 inches). That record lasted for about 20 minutes. His second jump of 18.29 m made him the first to jump 60 feet. During his commentary for the 2008 Summer Olympics, Edwards observed that during the 1995 World Championships, he felt as if "he could jump as far as he needed to". Later that same year, Edwards became the BBC Sports Personality of the Year.

During 1996 Edwards went into the 1996 Summer Olympics as favourite and world record holder, but it was American Kenny Harrison who took the gold with a jump of 18.09 m. Edwards walked away with the silver after a leap of 17.88 m (the longest ever jump not to win gold). Edwards won the gold medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics, and was appointed a CBE shortly thereafter. He also won golds at the 2001 World Championships and 2002 Commonwealth Games. At one point in 2002, Edwards held all the gold medals for the "four majors" (Olympic Games, World Championships, Commonwealth Games and European Championships). He retired after the 2003 World Championships.

Post-athletics career

Jonathan Edwards at the University of Ulster Winter Graduation Ceremony, Tuesday, 19 December 2006

Following his retirement, Edwards has pursued a media career as a television presenter mainly working for the BBC as a sports commentator and presenter, and on programmes such as Songs of Praise until he gave up this programme, due to his loss of faith, in February 2007.

Edwards regularly presents BBC coverage of athletics. When he is not presenting coverage, Edwards often provides expert analysis on field events as part of the BBC commentary team.

Edwards also received an Honorary Doctorate from Heriot-Watt University in 2002.

After retiring from competition, Edwards became a keen recreational cyclist and has presented the BBC's coverage of cycle racing since 2012. He also covered the 2014 Winter Olympics for the BBC and the 2014 Winter Paralympics for Channel 4.

Edwards also served as a presenter for the Olympic Announcement ceremonies during the IOC sessions in Guatemala in 2007 and Copenhagen in 2009.

In 2004, Edwards joined with Paula Radcliffe on an Olympic Special Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?. The pair raised £64,000 for charity with half of that sum going to the British Olympic Association and a quarter of the sum going to Asthma UK.

In 2011, Edwards became President of Wenlock Olympian Society, organisers of the annual Wenlock Olympian Games held in Shropshire.

He was a member of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, representing athletes in the organisation of the 2012 Summer Olympics.

In February 2016, after 13 years with the BBC, Edwards announced that he had agreed to join Eurosport on an exclusive contract as the channel's lead presenter from 2017, although he would continue working for the BBC and Channel 4 on their coverage of the 2016 Summer Olympics and Paralympics alongside duties with Eurosport until the end of 2016, with his first anchoring role for the pay TV channel being the 2016 European Aquatics Championships in May in London.

International competitions

Year	Competition	Venue	Position	Event	Result
Representing Great Britain and England
1987	Universiade	Zagreb, Yugoslavia	9th	Triple jump	15.96 m
1988	Olympic Games	Seoul, South Korea	23rd (q)	Triple jump	15.88 m
1989	World Cup	Barcelona, Spain	3rd	Triple jump	17.28 m
1990	Commonwealth Games	Auckland, New Zealand	2nd	Triple jump	16.93 m (w)
1992	Olympic Games	Barcelona, Spain	35th (q)	Triple jump	15.76 m
	World Cup	Havana, Cuba	1st	Triple jump	17.34 m
1993	World Indoor Championships	Toronto, Canada	6th	Triple jump	16.76 m
	World Championships	Stuttgart, Germany	3rd	Triple jump	17.44 m
1994	Goodwill Games	Saint Petersburg, Russia	7th	Triple jump	16.57 m
	European Championships	Helsinki, Finland	6th	Triple jump	16.85 m
	Commonwealth Games	Victoria, Canada	2nd	Triple jump	17.00 m
1995	World Championships	Gothenburg, Sweden	1st	Triple jump	18.29 m
1996	Olympic Games	Atlanta, United States	2nd	Triple jump	17.88 m
1997	World Championships	Athens, Greece	2nd	Triple jump	17.69 m
1998	European Indoor Championships	Valencia, Spain	1st	Triple jump	17.43 m
	Goodwill Games	Uniondale, United States	1st	Triple jump	17.65 m
	European Championships	Budapest, Hungary	1st	Triple jump	17.99 m
1999	World Championships	Seville, Spain	3rd	Triple jump	17.48 m
2000	Olympic Games	Sydney, Australia	1st	Triple jump	17.71 m
2001	World Indoor Championships	Lisbon, Portugal	2nd	Triple jump	17.26 m
	World Championships	Edmonton, Canada	1st	Triple jump	17.92 m
	Goodwill Games	Brisbane, Australia	1st	Triple jump	17.26 m
2002	Commonwealth Games	Manchester, United Kingdom	1st	Triple jump	17.86 m
	European Championships	Munich, Germany	3rd	Triple jump	17.32 m
	World Cup	Madrid, Spain	1st	Triple jump	17.34 m
2003	World Indoor Championships	Birmingham, United Kingdom	4th	Triple jump	17.19 m
	World Championships	Paris, France	12th	Triple jump	16.31 m

Personal bests

• Triple Jump – 18.29 m (WR), 18.43 m (w +2.4 m) (not ratified due to excessive wind conditions)
• 100 m – 10.48 s
• Long jump – 7.41 m

Awards

An honorary doctorate was conferred upon him at a ceremony at the University of Exeter on 21 January 2006.

Later in the same year, an honorary doctorate of the university (DUniv) was conferred upon him at the winter graduation ceremony of the University of Ulster (19 December 2006).

Edwards also received an Honorary Doctorate from Heriot-Watt University in 2002.

Personal life

Edwards lives with his wife in Newcastle upon Tyne. They have two sons.

Edwards was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian opposing Scottish independence in the run-up to the 2014 referendum on that issue.

Religious beliefs

Edwards initially refused to compete on Sundays due to his devout Christian beliefs, a decision that cost him a chance to compete in the 1991 World Championships. However, in 1993, after much deliberation and discussion with his father (a vicar), he changed his mind, deciding that God gave him his talent in order for him to compete in athletics. He once said "My relationship with Jesus and God is fundamental to everything I do. I have made a commitment and dedication in that relationship to serve God in every area of my life."

He presented episodes of the Christian television show Songs of Praise until 2007. In June 2007, in an interview in The Times, Edwards said: "When you think about it rationally, it does seem incredibly improbable that there is a God." In the same interview, he stated: "Looking back now, I can see that my faith was not only pivotal to my decision to take up sport but also my success... I was always dismissive of sports psychology when I was competing, but I now realise that my belief in God was sports psychology in all but name." He also said: "I feel internally happier than at any time of my life."

External links

• Jonathan Edwards at World Athletics
• Jonathan Edwards at European Athletics (archive)
• Jonathan David Edwards at Olympics.com
• Jonathan David Edwards at OlympicChannel.com (archived)
• Jonathan Edwards at Olympic.org (archived)
• Jonathan Edwards at Olympedia
• Jonathan Edwards at IMDb
• http://www.mtc-uk.com/talent/jonathan-edwards/
• http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/athletics/sydney-medallist-emabrrassed-by-god-fervour/story-e6frfgkx-1225815303222
• Jonathan Edwards, Interview on London's 2012 Olympic Games