As a middle-distance runner, Coe won four Olympic medals, including the 1500 metres gold medal at the Olympic Games in 1980 and 1984. Following Coe’s retirement from athletics, he was a Conservative member of parliament from 1992 to 1997 for Falmouth in Cornwall, and became a Life Peer on 16 May 2000.

Coe held the world 800m record and was favourite for that event. Ovett was unbeaten in 43 races at 1500m or the mile, held the world mile record and was tipped to triumph in the 1500m. Ultimately, though, Ovett won 800m gold after Coe ran a disastrous tactical race, whereas the latter enjoyed redemption in the 1500m.

Incidentally, a few years ago Coe and Ovett, who sadly only raced seven times in 17 years, met over dinner and found they had a lot more in common than they had thought back in their heydays. Yet, inevitably, the same one-upmanship they had felt while chasing each other’s world records had not completely gone away.

He has been a track and field television commentator for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation since 1992. He now lives in Australia and was a part of the BBC’s on-location commentary team for the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. In 1987 a bronze statue of Steve Ovett was erected in Preston Park, Brighton.

Learn More in these related Britannica articles: Steve Ovett and Sebastian Coe, both of Great Britain. Although Ovett won the 800-metre run and Coe the…… …

66 years (October 9, 1955)
Steve Ovett/Age

Carole Annettm. 2011
Nicky McIrvinem. 1990–2002
Sebastian Coe/Spouse

Coe married Carole Annett in summer 2011. On 12 February 2010, Coe was the 19th runner on the 106th day of the Vancouver Olympic Torch Relay.

800 meters
Coe’s rivalries with fellow Britons Steve Ovett and Steve Cram dominated middle-distance racing for much of the 1980s….Sebastian Coe.

Lord Sebastian Coe – British Olympic Association, IOC Member since 2020. International Olympic Committee.

Steve Ovett, left, takes gold in the 800m ahead of Sebastian Coe in the 1980 Moscow Games. Photograph: Sipa Press/Rex Features. On 25 March 1972 a boy called Kirk Dumpleton emerged from the pack to win the Intermediate Boys’ Race at the English Schools Cross-Country Championships in Hillingdon.

Steve Ovett, left, takes gold in the 800m ahead of Sebastian Coe in the 1980 Moscow Games. Photograph: Sipa Press/Rex Features Steve Ovett, left, takes gold in the 800m ahead of Sebastian Coe in the 1980 Moscow Games.

In the runup to the 1980 Olympics Ovett took the unusual step of entering at short notice a race over a mile at Crystal Palace in which Coe was already scheduled to compete. Coe, who had written an Ovett-avoidance clause into his contract, promptly switched to the 800m, and both got to enjoy the taste of victory.

The big rivals of the modern 800m, David Rudisha of Kenya and Sudan’s Abubaker Kaki, have faced each other six times in the past three seasons; Coe and Ovett raced six times in their entire careers, and two-thirds of those meetings came in Olympic finals.