In 1968, athlete David Hemery was voted BBC Personality of the Year after winning the gold medal in the 400m hurdles at the Summer Olympics. Indeed, in the final, at the Estadio Olímpico Universitario in Mexico City on October 15, Hemery ran 48.12 second, beating his nearest pursuers – Gerhard Hennige of West Germany and compatriot John Sherwood – by nearly a second and setting a new world record in the process. In the public poll, Hemery finished ahead of Graham Hill, who won his second Formula One World Drivers’ Championship, following the deaths of his Lotus teammates Jim Clark early in the year, and Marion Coakes, who won the silver medal in individual show jumping at Mexico 1968.
By that stage of his career, Hemery had already won the gold medal in the 120yd hurdles at the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Kingston, Jamaica in 1966 and would go on to defend that title in the newly-metricated 110m hurdles in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1970. He would also win the silver medal in the 110m hurdles at the European Athletics Championships in Athens, Greece in 1969 and two more Olympic medals – silver in the 4 x 400m and bronze in the 400m hurdles – at Munich 1972.
Victory in the 400m hurdles at Mexico 1968 was historically significant, not just because of the world-record time, but because, as the first Briton to win since David Burghley at London 1928, Hemery broke the American strangehold on the event. His winning time would remain a world record for four years and a British record for 22 years. Fittingly, he was presented with his Olympic gold medal by David Burghley and with the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award by Australian Ron Clarke, one of the best-known middle- and long-distance runners of his era.
Hemery retired from international competition in 1972, but later coached at Boston University, was elected inaugural president of UK Athletics, aka British Athletics, and served as vice chairman of the British Olympic Association (BOA). He was created a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE), for services to athletics, in the 1969 New Year Honours.