Charles van Commenee

Additionally, he has personally coached athletes to international medals, including Denise Lewis, Kelly Sotherton and Huang Zhihong.

Charles van Commenee was born in Amsterdam, Holland, the son of Otto (a heavy industry worker) and Ineke (a woman of Indo Eurasian heritage).

As a young man he was interested in athletics, competing in the decathlon at club level, but several injuries forced him to give up the sport.

[1][2] Van Commenee first became involved in coaching at the age of eighteen; he began teaching children while studying for a degree in physical education.

[5] The coach showed his stubborn and determined temperament when in 1996 he withdrew from managing the Dutch Olympic team because he felt that one of his trainees, Sharon Jaklofsky, was receiving unfair treatment.

"[1]Van Commenee also worked with less prominent athletes, helping them improve their performances through sheer hard work—he coached Lieja Koeman at the Olympics and although the shot putter was ranked 23rd in the world she managed to finish ninth in the competition.

[3] As director he took on responsibilities for British athletes including Dean Macey, Ashia Hansen and Jonathan Edwards, though they all retained personal coaches.

Van Commenee was considered for the job but ultimately decided to leave the UK in favour of becoming technical director of the Netherlands athletics team.

[9] Charles van Commenee stepped down as UK Athletics head coach after the team failed to meet his medal target at the 2012 Olympics in London.