Tom_Bosworth

Tom Bosworth

Tom Bosworth

British race walker

Thomas Stewart Bosworth MBE (born 17 January 1990) is a British two-time Olympic race walker who holds three World bests, including the World Best for the 1Mile race walk, 5:31.08.[1]

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He also holds six British records, won 13 British Championships gold medals, a silver Commonwealth Games medal[2] and is a World European Olympic Games finalist. Bosworth is currently ranked 1st overall in the UK for 20 km. He was also selected to carry the Olympic Torch through Potternewton, Leeds.

Career

Bosworth currently trains full-time at the UK Race Walking centre in Leeds, at Leeds Met University.

He holds British records for walking 3 km, 5 km, 10 km and 20 km, with his Personal Best for 20 km at 1:19:38.

He first set the 20 km British record in Dudince, Slovakia in March 2016 to beat a 20 km race walk mark set by Ian McCombie in 1988, clocking 80:41 and taking 81 seconds off McCombie's record.

He is also the British Record Holder for the 10 km race walk, set in 2015, along with the 5000m race walk, set in Birmingham at the 2018 British indoor team trials to qualify for the World Indoor Championships.

Along with the World Record for the 1Mile race walk won at London Diamond League, 2017, Bosworth is World Record holder for the 3000m indoor race walk at IAAF Indoor Grand Prix Glasgow, 2018, and the 3000m outdoor race walk at the Muller Anniversary Games, London, 2018.

He has won six British Outdoor Championships in 2011, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018, along with six British Indoor Championships, his first in 2015 followed by 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020.

Bosworth qualified for the 2020 Summer Olympics[3] after coming second at the 2021 British Athletics Marathon and 20km Walk Trial.[4]

Bosworth was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2024 New Year Honours for services to race walking.[5]

Achievements

Medals

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Records held

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Personal bests

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International competitions

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Media and public speaking

Bosworth has made several media appearances, including his appearance on Sky TV's show “Game Changers”,[6] commentating for the BBC at the 2014 European Athletics Championships, and again for Eurosport at the 2015 World Athletics Championships.

Championing LGBT rights and mental health in sport alongside his athletic career, Bosworth has spoken openly about both.[7]

Bosworth came out as gay on the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire show on 13 October 2015.[8] In the interview he explained that his family, friends and fellow sports athletes had known that he was gay for a number of years, and the coming out was to a wider audience to answer lingering questions from fans and to be himself. In the interview he told the BBC that he had been in "a really happy relationship" for the last four-and-a-half years.[9] He proposed to and was accepted by his now-fiancé, Harry Dineley on Copacabana Beach during the Rio Olympics.[10]

In 2018, he said that he was ready to risk prison to defend LGBT rights in Qatar during the 2019 World Athletics Championships.[11][12]

In publications by the BBC, SkySports[7] and the Telegraph among many others, Bosworth speaks about his mental health and how he overcame a period of depression. Alongside media appearances, he now also regularly visits schools and universities, to talk about his experiences as a professional athlete, LGBT equality, the importance of mental health and how sport can be of great benefit.

He has also spoken to the Culture, Media and Sport parliamentary committee, met with the Chairman of the FA to discuss homophobia in football, written piece for the Times Sport Newspaper on “drugs in sport”,[13] addressed National Governing Bodies on behalf of Sport England and spoken at Wembley for Stonewall F.C.

References

  1. [1]
    Lewis, Tim (9 July 2021). "Three Years Ago, Race Walker Tom Bosworth Tried to Take His Own Life. Now He's Competing for Medals at the Olympics". Esquire. Retrieved 30 November 2021.
  2. [2]
    "Tom Bosworth". Team England. Retrieved 1 August 2023.
  3. [3]
    "Tom Bosworth claims Olympic Games spot". Kent Online. 26 March 2021. Retrieved 1 August 2023.
  4. [4]
    "GB Marathon Trials: Chris Thompson and Stephanie Davis take Tokyo Olympics spots". BBC Sport. 26 March 2021. Retrieved 26 March 2021.
  5. [5]
    "No. 64269". The London Gazette (Supplement). 30 December 2023. p. N17.
  6. [6]
    "Sky TV's show "Game Changers"".
  7. [7]
    Williams, Rebecca (2020). "Tom Bosworth: Team GB race walker opens up on sexuality and mental health". Sky Sports News.
  8. [8]
    "Tom Bosworth: British Olympics hopeful comes out as gay". BBC Sport. 13 October 2015. Retrieved 13 October 2015.
  9. [9]
    "Tom Bosworth & partner Harry Dineley". Tom Bosworth Instagram Account. 13 October 2015. Archived from the original on 24 December 2021. Retrieved 13 October 2015.
  10. [10]
    Hunt, Elle (16 August 2016). "Olympic marriage proposals continue with Tom Bosworth popping question to boyfriend" – via The Guardian.
  11. [11]
    "Team GB's only gay athlete ready to risk prison to defend LGBT rights in Qatar". Independent.co.uk. 22 July 2018.
  12. [12]
    "Openly gay Team GB athlete ready to risk prison defending LGBTQ rights in Qatar". GAY TIMES. 23 July 2018. Retrieved 1 August 2023.
  13. [13]
    Bosworth, Tom (2017). "Drugs in Sport". The Times Newspaper.
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