She achieved the bronze medal in the 400 metres at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and was the fastest woman in the world over 400 m in 2001, with her career best of 49.59 seconds.

She also represented Great Britain at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and won the 200 metres at the 1993 European Junior Championships.

A member of the Birchfield Harriers athletics club, at the age of 12 she topped the UK Under 13 rankings in seven different events.

She became a successful senior athlete with her Olympic medal in Sydney in the "Race of the Games", achieving bronze behind the Australian favourite, Cathy Freeman, in front of 112,000 people at Stadium Australia.

She worked for the BBC at the Olympics in Beijing and London[4] and was the sole field event commentator for the Channel 4 coverage of the Paralympic Games in 2012.

[6] Merry appeared on the BBC One gameshow All New Celebrity Total Wipeout on 25 September 2010, where she struck up a rivalry with John Regis, the man who, in her words, "ate all the pies".

[11] Merry was based in Cardiff while training with Linford Christie, before moving to Bristol after retirement.