Liz McColgan

Elizabeth Nuttall MBE (née Lynch, formerly McColgan; born 24 May 1964) is a Scottish former middle- and long-distance runner.

Born Elizabeth Lynch,[1] she grew up in the Whitfield area of Dundee[2] and was a pupil of St Saviour's RC High School.

[5] Earlier that year, she had won the NCAA Division I Indoor Track and Field Championships in the mile representing the University of Alabama.

[2] She missed the rest of the 1990 season due to pregnancy, giving birth to her daughter (future Olympic athlete) Eilish in November.

[6] Just six weeks after her daughter Eilish was born, she contested an international 5 km race in Florida and won a bronze medal at the 1991 World Cross Country Championships.

In June 1991, she ran her lifetime best for the 10,000 m with 30:57.07 in Hengelo, becoming only the third woman to run under 31 minutes, moving to second on the world all-time list behind Kristiansen and narrowly ahead of Bondarenko.

After more than two years struggling with injuries, McColgan finished fifth in the 1995 London Marathon and sixth in the 10,000m final at the 1995 World Championships in Gothenburg.

[10] McColgan retired from competing in August 2001 when she fractured a bone in her foot while training for selection for the 2002 Commonwealth Games.

In 1987 she married Northern Irish athlete Peter McColgan; they had five children together - Eilish, Martin, Eamonn, Kieran and Orla.

[16] She was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire for services to athletics in 1992[17] and inducted to the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame in 2004.