Sally Gunnell

Sally Gunnell has been involved with Aviva since we began our partnership with British Athletics. She's has been involved in many of our schemes both in the community and in the classroom. As a mother of three, she has been particularly involved in the Aviva Athletics Academy programmes to encourage kids to be healthy and active. Sally also works closely with Aviva Health to share her tips on the benefits of an active lifestyle.

Sally Gunnell is one of Britain's favourite athletes. She started her career as a member of the Essex Ladies Athletics Club. Initially, she was an accomplished long jumer and pentathlete, but she later turned her focus to the sprint distances and hurdling.

Sally won the 400m hurdles at the 1992 Summer Olympic Games in Barcelona. She also took gold in the 400m hurdles at the 1993 World Championships in Stuttgart, setting the world record as she did so. Although her time is no longer the world record, it remains the British record at 52.74.

She was unable to defend her Olympic title at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games due to injury. After a recurrence of an old Achilles tendon injury, she retired from athletics in September 1997.

Sally is the only woman to have held the European, World, Commonwealth and Olympic 400 metre hurdles titles at the same time.

A fit and healthy mum of three Sally has a passion for getting families active and is still keen to challenge herself, running the 2007 London Marathon in the impressive time of 3 hour 50 minutes.  She spends a lot of her time working as a motivational speaker and supporting charities such as The British Heart Foundation, GLL Sports Foundation and the NSPCC.