Former middle-distance runner Kelly Holmes was created Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for service to atheletics in the 2005 New Year Honours but, beforehand, had also been voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2004. Kent-born Holmes, then 34, beat rower Matthew Pinsent into second place and cricketer Andrew Flintoff into third in the public vote as predicted by the bookmakers, who made her 1/50 favourite to become the first black woman in history to win the award.
Holmes created one of the abiding images of the Summer Olympics in Athens with her wide-eyed, open-mouthed disbelief at winning the 800m final, which she did by 0.05 seconds from Hasna Benhassi of Morocco. Five days later, Holmes set a new British record, 3:57.90, when beating Tatyana Tomashova of Russia by 0.22 seconds to win the 1500m final. In so doing, she became just the third woman in history to complete the 800m/1500m double and the first Briton to do so since Albert Hill in Antwerp in 1920.
Holmes was competing in her final major championships – she announced her retirement in early December 2005 – and, ironically, the first in which was not hindered by injury. Accepting her award in White City, West London, she said, “After 20 years of dreaming, I finally got my dream once not twice. This is the biggest sporting honour your country can give you and for that I would like to thank the public for voting for me.
Of course, Holmes had not been devoid of success prior to Athens. In fact, she won the bronze medal, and set a new British record, in the 800m and the silver medal in the 1500m at the World Athletics Championships in Gothenburg in 1995, two years before she became a full-time athlete. She also won the silver medal over 800m at the World Athletics Championships in Paris in 2003 and the bronze medal over the same distance at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. Representing England, rather than Great Britain, Holmes also won one silver and two gold medals over 1500m at the Commonwealth Games in Victoria in 1994, Kuala Lumpur in 1998 and Manchester in 2002.