In 1979, athlete Sebasian Coe was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year, ahead of cricketer Ian Botham and footballer Kevin Keegan. In his acceptance speech, he said, “I’d just like to thank everybody who voted and bought their copy of the ‘Radio Times’,” and also referred to “great help from Mr. [George] Gandy [Director of Athletics ] at Loughborough [University].
Coe had won a bronze medal in the 800 metres at 1978 World Athletics Championships in Prague, Czechoslovakia, one place behind compatriot Steve Ovett, with whom he would dominate middle-distance races for much of the next decade. However, the summer of 1979 belonged to Coe; on July 5, in Oslo, Norway, he ran 1:42.33 for 800 metres, beating the previous world record set by Alberto Juantorena, on July 17, also in Oslo, he ran 3:48.95 for a mile, beating the previous world record set by John Walker and finally, on August 15, in Zürich, Switzerland, he ran 3:32.03 for 1,500 metres, beating the previous world record set by Filbert Bayi.
Coe went on to win four Olympic medals, including gold medals in the 1,500 metres at the Summer Olympics in Moscow in 1980, where Ovett finished third, and in Los Angeles, where Ovett did not finish and subsequently collapsed with chest pains. All told, he set set 12 world records, nine outdoors and three indoors, the most notable of which was 1:41.73 for 800 metres, sent in Florence, Italy in 1981, which stood until equalled by Kenyan-born Wilson Kipketer in Stockholm, Sweden in 1997. Kipketer went on to break the 800m world record, twice, later that year.
Off the track, Coe was was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1991. He served as a Conservative Member of Parliament for Falmouth and Camborne between 1992 and 1997 and, in 2000, was granted a life peerage, becoming Lord Coe, of Ranmore in the county of Surrey. He was promoted to Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in 2006 and appointed Companion of Honour (CH) in 2012. In recent years, he has been best known as President of World Athletics and Chairman of the British Olympic Association.