Isle of Wight athlete Kelly Sotherton won 9 podium places for England and Great Britain in major championships in 3 events: the Heptathlon, Pentathlon and 4 X 400 relay, making her a real sporting legend.
She also took 7 gold medals representing the Isle of Wight in 2 Island games at Jersey in 1997 and Gotland in 1999.
Kelly is 1 of a notable line of British pentathletes/heptathletes, which includes Olympic gold medallists Mary Rand, Mary Peters, Denise Lewis and Jessica Ennis-Hill.
Many of Ms Sotherton’s medals have been awarded post-competition after those finishing ahead of her in the competitions were disqualified for doping.
Ms Sotherton retired from athletics in 2012 after failing to recover from a back injury, but has continued to participate in sporting disciplines and make appearances in the media.
Kelly does not come from a privileged background. She was born in Newport on 13th November 1976 and was brought up by her single mother on a council estate.
Her athletics career began at the Sports Day in Caversham House Primary School in Ryde (now Dover Park). She subsequently went to Bishop Lovett Middle School and Ryde High School.
Kelly has said about her early sporting achievements:
“I was probably one of those kids that everybody was annoyed at and hated at school because I did everything, every after school club, every after school sport possible. I just did it because I just loved being part of a team and my friends did the same. And then after a certain age, probably at age about ten or 11, I started to really focus on netball, hockey and athletics.
“I had to go to Portsmouth to get all my competition and training because they were the only place that had an athletics track that was near me. So I had to get a train and a boat to go training and compete every week.”
Kelly was said to have been bullied at school for her sporting prowess by girls who resented her success. They were said to have waited for her to come out of school, but she always outran them.
Kelly says:
“I like to think of those girls thinking, ‘we used to pick on her and look at where she’s got to’.”
While at school, Kelly played netball for the Isle of Wight and won 2 English Schools’ Championships in the Heptathlon. Her 1st major success came representing the Isle of Wight in the 1997 Jersey Island Games where she took gold in 6 events: the 100m, 100m Hurdles, Long Jump, High Jump, 4X100m Relay and 4X400m relay.
1n 1998, Ms Sotherton moved to the Midlands where she became a member of Birchfield Harriers Athletics Club. She made her Senior British team debut in 2002 at the late age of 26.
Kelly’s 1st Olympic success came in 2004 when she won bronze in the Heptathlon in the Athens Summer Olympics behind Carolina Kluft (Sweden, Gold). In 2005, she took silver in the Heptathlon in the European Indoor Championship (again behind Kluft, 6 years her junior).
Ms Sotherton’s greatest achievement came in March 2006 when she took gold in the Heptathlon at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne ahead of Kylie Wheeler (Australia) and teammate Jessica Ennis.
Further medals followed with silver in the Pentathlon in the European Indoor Championships in Birmingham in 2007 and a further silver in the same event in the World Indoor Championships in Valencia, Spain.
Her swansong came in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing with bronze medals in the Heptathlon and 4X400 relay.
Sotherton retired in 2012 at the age of 35 when her back injury prevented her from competing at the 2012 London Olympics.
Since retirement, Kelly has made regular appearances in the media on Talksport and Radio 5 Live. In 2013, she ran the London Marathon, the Deloitte Ride Across Britain from Land’s End to John O’Groats and the London Triathlon. She is a performance coach, who has worked with Wasps Rugby and Warwickshire County Cricket Club. She has also taken up golf.
She was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2020 New Year’s Honours and led the Athletics Team at the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games.
In 2018, Kelly Sotherton finally received her bronze medals for the 2008 Beijing Olympics after 2 of the athletes who had finished ahead of her were disqualified for doping.
Kelly said of the experience:
“I feel like I’ve had a great career, because I knew in my heart of hearts they were my medals. So, I kind of feel vindicated now. I feel more at ease and at peace, if that makes sense.
“When you say I’m a three time Olympic medallist, not many people can say that, if hardly any. So I feel a massive great sense of achievement and then being topped off three years later with an MBE to confirm what I had achieved again probably ten years late because I probably would have got the MBE ten years ago too.
“So everything comes late to me. But I think these things are worth waiting for, right?”
Well done, obviously Kelly progressed her career
by moving off the island.
Is this not proof devolution is good for the Island.
What would be even better is for others to not look down, sneer, bully and generally belittle kids for poverty not of their making. That way they wouldn’t feel they have to leave to find a community that accepts them for who they are and the talents they possess. She survived, and thrived. Well done Kelly and her clever, single Mum.
Well said.