Christian Malcolm has been confirmed as the new Olympic head coach of UK Athletics (UKA).
The former sprinter, who competed for Great Britain & Northern Ireland at four Olympic Games and won world, European and Commonwealth medals, has been head of performance and coaching at Athletics Australia since January 2019 and took up his new post later 2020.
It is understood that Malcolm was selected for the UKA role ahead of Scottish Athletics’ performance and coaching director Stephen Maguire and former UKA and Athletics Canada head coach Peter Eriksson, and he will now work with athletes and coaches to prepare for the postponed Tokyo Olympics next summer.
I have loved my time here in Melbourne with @AthsAust. I have relished the opportunity to work with such a great team of people. Special thanks to athletes, coaches, @Pres_AthsAust @AthsAust_CEO @Faichs and the @AthsAust board and community. pic.twitter.com/aKX2lDDIaQ
— Christian Malcolm Sports Academy (@cmsportsacademy) September 4, 2020
“Words can’t describe how excited I am to have the opportunity to take this role on and be part of a new start for British Athletics,” Malcolm said. “As an athlete, I knew I wanted to give back to the sport when I finished competing.”
During his own sprinting career, which saw him feature on the cover of AW on a number of occasions (pictured), Malcolm won double world junior gold in 1998 before claiming multiple major medals for Great Britain and Wales.
He retired from competition in 2014 and went on to become British Athletics’ technical lead for sprint relays, a position he held from March 2015 to December 2019. In 2017 he was jointly named coach of the year with Maguire and Benke Blomkvist at the BBC Sports Personality awards, following the double sprint relay success achieved by the 4x100m teams at the home World Championships in London.
