BBC FOUR

BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC. It became a fully dedicated division of the BBC in 2000. It incorporates programmes such as ''Match of the Day'', ''Grandstand'' (discontinued in January 2007), ''Test Match Special'', ''Ski Sunday'', ''Rugby Special'' and coverage of Formula One motor racing, MotoGP and the Wimbledon Tennis Championships.

To improve its coverage of sports news and politics, the BBC created the position of Sports Editor. Mihir Bose was the first post holder, who after leaving in August 2009 was replaced by David Bond in December 2009.

BBC Sport's website is also the UK's biggest and most popular sport website and is increasingly adding video and audio coverage to its scores and text news services.

BBC Sport provides radio coverage for BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio Five Live and BBC World Service

Due to the public status of the BBC, advertising is forbidden and as a result, sports matches covered by BBC Sport are not allowed to be sponsored, although the present commercialisation of sport makes this almost impossible in practice. In the face of increased competition from its rival broadcasters the BBC has softened its stance and is now contractually obliged to refer to certain competitions by their sponsored name under the terms of broadcasting rights deals.

BBC Sport launched a trial of the High Definition television format of the 2006 Football World Cup in HDTV as part of a wider trial of that format by the BBC. With the official launch of BBC HD, live football matches and golf have led the channel's sports output, and the BBC is rumoured to be studying the possibility of airing Premier League highlights in HD. Roger Mosey, Director of BBC Sport, announced in January 2009 that the BBC's aim "is for all our sport production to be in HD by 2012 at the latest".

BBC Sport Interactive was launched in June 2008 on BBC Red Button, it is available on digital cable, satellite and terrestrial by pressing the red button and selecting page 300.

TV Sports rights

Tennis

One of the BBC Sport's most prized pieces of sport is the Wimbledon Tennis Championships. The BBC has televised Wimbledon since 1937 and today produces over 900 hours of footage for display in 159 different countries. BBC One and BBC Two show coverage from 12 noon until 9pm each day. As well as this digital viewers have the option to view uninterrupted coverage of up to five alternative games on BBC Red Button.

Coverage is presented by Sue Barker, while the Wimbledon highlights, titled ''Today at Wimbledon'' are fronted by John Inverdale. Commentators and analysts include Barry Davies, John McEnroe, Boris Becker, Jimmy Connors, John Lloyd, Martina Navratilova, Virginia Wade, Sam Smith, Tracy Austin, Greg Rusedski, Tim Henman, Andrew Castle, Lindsay Davenport, Chris Bradnam, David Mercer, Mark Petchey, Simon Reed, Matt Chilton, Mark Cox, Liz Smylie, Louise Pleming, Andrew Cotter and Ronald McIntosh.

Furthermore, the BBC shows live coverage of both the French Open and the Australian Open, each with the majority of coverage on BBC Red Button and important games (such as a match involving Andy Murray), including both finals shown on BBC One or BBC Two. It also provides coverage of Queen's Club Championships and the ATP World Tour Finals whilst it is being held in London.

The BBC currently holds the broadcast rights for Wimbledon until 2014.

===Football===

International football

The BBC hold joint rights to show the FIFA World Cup until 2014 with ITV. A near equal split of group stage and knockout stage games are shown, including a semi final, and the final which is shown on both networks. A similar agreement exists for the European Championship. All games other than the final group games, which clash, are shown on BBC One or BBC Two, plus BBC HD. During those clashing games the game not shown on BBC One is shown on BBC Red Button. There are also nightly highlights and extensive interactive options.

Some Scotland away games are shown live. The BBC also broadcast highlights of all other Scotland matches. This coverage is usually shown on BBC One Scotland or BBC Two Scotland and simulcast on BBC Red Button for the rest of the UK, though similarly it can appear on the nationwide networks. Similar highlights arrangements exist for some of the Wales and Northern Ireland games.

Domestic football

The BBC also show extensive highlights from the Barclays Premier League. ''Match of the Day'' shows highlights of each Saturday's games while the Sunday games are covered in ''Match of the Day 2''. Football League highlights are shown on the The Football League Show after Match of the Day. ''Football Focus'' airs each Saturday lunchtime to preview the weekend's games, followed later by up to the minute game reports in ''Final Score'' through the afternoon on BBC Red Button and later on BBC One. As the final whistles approach, coverage switches over to BBC One where Final Score continues in England and Wales, with Scottish viewers able to see ''Sportscene Results'' at this time for special focus on the Clydesdale Bank Premier League and the other divisions. SPL highlights are shown, also under the ''Sportscene'' umbrella on Monday evenings. In Northern Ireland a similar service is available, entitled ''Final Score from Northern Ireland''. In addition, BBC Sport also provides Scottish matches for the BBC Alba channel's strand, Spòrs. This includes delayed coverage of SPL matches and live Challenge Cup games.

Beginning in 2009, the BBC air ten Championship matches live annually, as well as one leg of each League Cup semi-final exclusively live and shared live coverage of the Final with Sky Sports. It also shows Football League and League Cup highlights shows.

Highlights and live coverage of the Scottish Cup and Co-operative Insurance Cup is also shown by BBC Sport Scotland, and on BBC Red Button throughout the rest of the United Kingdom.

Presenters

''Match of the Day'' is anchored by Gary Lineker. ''Match of the Day 2'' will be presented by Colin Murray as from the start of the 2010/2011 Premiership season. Murray is also a presenter on BBC Radio Five Live.

Dan Walker hosts ''Football Focus'' having taken over at the start of the 2009/10 season. Former host of the programme Manish Bhasin presents ''The Football League Show'', as well as the BBC's League Cup highlights programme ''The League Cup Show''. Gabby Logan is the current host of ''Final Score'' and also deputises on ''Match of the Day'' and ''MOTD 2''.

Other football hosts include Jake Humphrey who, when not presenting the BBC's Formula 1 coverage,, deputises on ''Final Score'' and ''MOTD 2'', as well as presenting some of the BBC's live Championship coverage. Former Radio 1 DJ and sports reporter Mark Chapman also deputises for Gabby Logan on ''Final Score'', for Manish Bhasin on ''The Football League Show'' and presents occasional live international fixtures. He is also a regular football host on BBC Radio Five Live.

Recent former hosts of football on the BBC include:

Adrian Chiles who hosted ''Match of the Day 2'' since its creation in 2004 as well as the BBC's highlights programmes from big tournaments such as Euro 2008. Chiles also presented coverage of the Olympic Games and BBC Sports Personality of the Year. Chiles left the BBC at the end of the 2009/2010 season and signed with ITV, to front Daybreak as well as leading their football coverage.

Ray Stubbs who departed the network in 2009 to anchor ESPN's newly acquired coverage of the Premier League.

Celina Hinchcliffe who is still with the BBC, but now is a sports reporter for the BBC News Channel and BBC World News.

Pundits

The BBC's main football pundits are Alan Hansen, Alan Shearer, Lee Dixon, and Mark Lawrenson.

Commentators

The BBC's main commentators are Guy Mowbray who commentated on the 2010 Football League Cup Final and the 2010 FIFA World Cup Final, Jonathan Pearce who formerly was a leading commentator for Five, Steve Wilson, Simon Brotherton who also contributes to BBC Radio Five Live and recent addition Steve Bower. BBC Sport Scotland's main commentator is Paul Mitchell. The 2008 UEFA European Football Championship saw the retirement of the long-standing and popular commentator John Motson from live television football commentary, though he continues to work on ''Match of the Day'' and performs frequent live radio commentary for BBC Radio 5 Live.

Summarisers

The BBC uses summarisers when broadcasting live matches. Mark Lawrenson is the usual choice for big games like the FIFA World Cup tournament or the Football League Cup Final, whilst also summarising on BBC Radio 5 Live for Premier League matches. Mark Bright is also used to summarise live matches in the Football League Championship or at the Africa Cup of Nations. Other summarisers are Martin Keown and Iain Dowie.

Regional coverage

Scottish coverage is presented by Richard Gordon, Dougie Donnelly and Dougie Vipond. Jason Mohammad is the host of ''Wales on Saturday'' and other Welsh football.

2010 World Cup coverage team

Gary Lineker was the main presenter of the BBC's coverage of the 2010 World Cup from South Africa, fronting all major matches including games featuring England. The BBC's nightly highlights show was be presented by Match of the Day 2 host Colin Murray. BBC reporters from both live matches and around South Africa include Gabby Logan, Dan Walker, Rob Walker and Colin Patterson. The BBC brought five commentators to the World Cup, these being Guy Mowbray, Jonathan Pearce, Steve Wilson, Simon Brotherton and Steve Bower, who were partnered by co-commentators Mark Lawrenson, Mark Bright, Mick McCarthy and Martin Keown. The BBC's expert panel of Football Pundits included Jurgen Klinsmann, Clarence Seedorf, Emmanuel Adebayor, Alan Hansen, Alan Shearer, Lee Dixon, Gordon Strachan, Roy Hodgson and Harry Redknapp

Rugby union

The BBC holds exclusive rights to the Six Nations championship in the UK. It shows all matches in the tournament live on either BBC One or BBC Two. Coverage of these games is complemented by an interactive service on BBC Red Button. The BBC hold additional rights to the Autumn Internationals for the Irish, Scottish and Welsh sides, as well as highlights of the English team; coverage is again on BBC One or BBC Two.

The BBC held exclusive rights to show the EDF Energy Cup until the 2009/10 season when these rights were acquired by Sky Sports. The BBC holds joint right to show the Magners League, along with S4C, which it shows on Friday evenings on BBC2W and occasionally in Northern Ireland and Scotland and across the rest of the UK on BBC Red Button. Highlights from the Magners League are shown in Scrum V on BBC2W and BBC Red Button alongside briefer highlights in ''Wales on Saturday'' on BBC One. BBC Sport Wales/Chwaraeon Cymru also produces the Welsh language S4C's coverage of the Magners League and EDF Energy Cup under the ''Y Clwb Rygbi'' brand. This is because the BBC is obliged to provide S4C with several hours of programming a week. BBC Two in Wales often shows Wales national rugby union team under-20 Six Nations games, which are also shown on BBC Red Button in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

BBC Sport's rugby union coverage is currently presented by John Inverdale, Gabby Logan, Jill Douglas. The main pundits used are Jeremy Guscott, Jonathan Davies, Andy Nicol, Keith Wood and Stuart Davies. The BBC's commentary team includes Eddie Butler, Andrew Cotter, Brian Moore, Philip Matthews and Jonathan Davies. Bill McLaren was the BBC's main commentator for many years before his retirement in 2002. In 2010, commentator Nick Mullins moved to ESPN after their acquisition of rights to the Guinness Premiership

Rugby league

The BBC covers the Challenge Cup from the round in which the Super League clubs enter. The coverage is shown on BBC One and Two and will usually consist of two matches per round, one on a Saturday and the other on a Sunday. Highlights of the Super League are shown under the ''Super League Show'' title is shown overnight on a Sunday on BBC Two. Produced by BBC Yorkshire in Leeds, the show airs at an earlier mid-morning time-slot for viewers in some of the BBC's northern regions, where Rugby League is most popular. The National League play-offs are also covered on the ''Super League Show''. From 2009, the BBC will hold the rights to show one England international each year.

Rugby League coverage is presented by Clare Balding with the Super League Show fronted by Harry Gration and Tanya Arnold. Ray French, John Kear and Jonathan Davies are the BBC's commentary team while Robbie Paul and Brian Noble are amongst the pundits. Dave Woods is the chief commentator for the Super League Show.

Motor racing

The BBC covered Formula One for many decades until 1996, initially covering the odd race on the calendar, before introducing in 1976 a programme which followed the entire championship. Formula One was shown under the ''Grand Prix'' banner, races were commentated on by Murray Walker, with many co-commentators including James Hunt and Jonathan Palmer. Coverage was expanded in the 1990s, when all qualifying and races were shown live - many with Steve Rider fronting the coverage. The loss of the rights to ITV was seen as an example of the BBC Sport department's decline in the late 1990s, although as with cricket, the BBC continued to broadcast every race live on its radio services.

2009 marked the return of BBC television coverage of Formula One after an absence of 12 years. A five year deal was announced in March 2008, replacing ITV's existing coverage. Jake Humphrey anchors the coverage with David Coulthard and Eddie Jordan acting as pundits. Martin Brundle and David Coulthard provide the commentary (with Brundle also replicating his famous grid walks seen previously on ITV, while Ted Kravitz and Lee McKenzie are the pit lane reporters. Brundle and Kravitz are the only two members of the ITV F1 team who made the move to the BBC F1 team. Legendary commentator Murray Walker, who has commentated on F1 for both the BBC and ITV for over 50 years, returned as part of the team, providing analysis and opinion on the BBC's Formula One website.

The red button coverage offers alternate Radio 5 Live commentary from David Croft, Anthony Davidson and Natalie Pinkham and for the 2009 season a CBBC commentary from Michael "Abs" Absalom, Dan Clarkson and Perry McCarthy was available. The red button also offers a split-screen (showing the main coverage alongside an onboard camera view and a rolling leader board) and a rolling highlights package. The Formula 1 Driver Tracker, provided by FOM, was introduced at the 2010 British Grand Prix and is available both online and on the red button. BBC Three plays a role in the Formula One coverage with a one hour highlights programme. Friday and Saturday's free practice sessions are also shown on the red button.

However, the BBC has sold half of it's F1 rights from the 2012-2018 season. On 29 July, 2011, Sky Sports bought rights to all practice, qualifying and race sessions to every single Formula 1 Grand Prix for the next six seasons. The BBC are to broadcast half of the races per season, including the "key" races, such as the British, Monaco and the last race of the season, however if there are an odd number of races then Sky will take exclusive coverage of the extra race. BBC Radio Five Live will still broadcast all the races and qualifying. Fans are not happy about this.

Motorcycling

In 2003 the BBC won the rights to the MotoGP World Championship. After a successful first season fronted by Suzi Perry, coverage was expanded with more live races, and the contract was extended to the end of the 2013 season. The BBC now shows all MotoGP races, with all qualifying sessions live via the BBC Red Button. From the 2009 season, more coverage is available on qualifying and race days again through the use of the Red Button service. Jennie Gow replaced Perry for 2010, but from 2011 former pitlane reporter Matt Roberts becomes host, alongside the original and unchanged commentary team of Charlie Cox and Steve Parrish. Azi Farni will replace Roberts as pitlane reporter.

BBC Sport has also covered the North West 200 since 2007.

Olympics

The BBC holds the exclusive terrestrial rights to show Summer Olympics and Winter Olympics and has shown live coverage of every Summer Olympics since 1960. This long-standing association between the Olympic Games and the BBC will now include coverage of the 2012 Summer Olympics to be held in London. Presenters for the Summer Olympics and Winter Olympics have included many of the corporation's sports presenters, such as David Coleman, Frank Bough, Des Lynam, Steve Rider, Sue Barker, Clare Balding and Hazel Irvine.

Athletics

For many years, the BBC has covered the biggest events in athletics, stretching as far back as 1954, when Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile. Lead commentator for many decades was David Coleman, until his retirement after the 2000 Summer Olympics. The BBC covers events such as the Commonwealth Games, the World Championships, the European Athletics Championships, domestic British athletics and mass-participation events such as the London Marathon and the Great North Run. From 2010 following a shake up by the IAAF the BBC won the rights to stream live coverage of each Diamond League meeting on the red button, with the two British rounds live on BBC Two and selected meetings on BBC Three. However, it has lost rights to the 2011 and 2013 World Championships to Channel 4. The BBC athletics presenting team consists of Sue Barker, Hazel Irvine, Colin Jackson, Steve Cram, Jonathan Edwards, Denise Lewis, Stuart Storey, Paul Dickenson, Brendan Foster and Michael Johnson.

Horse racing

Although the amount of horse racing on the BBC has declined in recent years, many big races are still to be found on the BBC. The Grand National has for many years been one of the biggest attractions on ''Grandstand'' with audiences around or often in excess of 10 million for the race on a Saturday afternoon. Coverage of other events such as Royal Ascot and the Epsom Derby are also broadcast, with presenter Clare Balding fronting the coverage.

The Derby was won back after many years in 2001, when the BBC also gained rights to the Epsom Oaks, which had only ever previously been shown by ITV and Channel 4 (until 2001, the commercial broadcasters had always held the Epsom contract, but from 1960–1974, in 1977, and in 1979 the BBC had shown the Derby simultaneously with ITV, because it was a protected event which could not be exclusive to either channel). However, many important races have disappeared from the BBC in recent years: the Cheltenham Festival and other Cheltenham meetings went to Channel 4 in 1995, meetings from Newbury moved to Channel 4 in 2002, and after 50 years Glorious Goodwood and other Goodwood meetings were lost to Channel 4 in 2007. Also, in 2007 the Irish Derby, which had been included in ''Grandstand'' and later ''Sunday Grandstand'' for decades, was only shown on At The Races.

The most famous BBC TV racing broadcaster was Peter O'Sullevan, who became one of the first ever TV sports commentators in the immediate post-war years, and stayed with the BBC until 1997.

Golf

The BBC holds exclusive UK rights to live coverage to one of the four men's major golf championships, The Open and joint rights to the US Masters, covering Saturday and Sunday's play live and broadcasting highlights of Thursday and Friday's play. Sky Sports show all four days of The Masters live. The BBC also cover four other European Tour events held in Britain - the BMW PGA Championship and the Scottish Open, although live coverage of these will be restricted to the weekend's play from 2009 under the new contract negotiated with the European Tour. Sky Sports will cover Thursday and Friday play live. It also covers the Women's British Open. Highlights of the Ryder Cup can also be seen on the BBC. Hazel Irvine is the lead presenter on the BBC. The BBC commentary and analysis team includes Peter Alliss, Ken Brown, Maureen Madill, Sam Torrance, Wayne Grady, Jean Van De Velde, Phillip Parkin and Andrew Cotter

Snooker

The 1960s BBC2 programme ''Pot Black'' was arguably the reason for the sport's great popularity over the last 40 years. Snooker produced the largest ever audience for BBC2 with the 1985 World Snooker Championship final between Steve Davis and Dennis Taylor pulling in 19.5 million viewers just after midnight. The sport always pulls in large viewing figures for the BBC through tournaments such as the World Snooker Championships, the Masters and the UK Championship. The coverage is regularly hosted by Hazel Irvine, with Steve Davis, John Parrott, John Virgo and Dennis Taylor

Cricket

The BBC has most recently carried highlights of ICC tournaments such as the 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup, held in the West Indies, and the 2009 ICC World Twenty20 which was staged in England. Highlights of the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup was also broadcasted on BBC.

BBC Red Button offers live Test Match Special radio commentary with on-screen scorecards and graphic for all England's home Test, ODI and T20 matches.

American football

The BBC currently holds the rights to highlights (primarily broadcast on its web site) and live radio coverage of the NFL. Since 2007, the BBC has also broadcast the Super Bowl live on television.

Jake Humphrey presented their play-off highlights show for the first 2 years with Matt Roberts taking over duties in 2010. Both featured in the Super Bowl coverage for 2010. Current studio pundits include Mike Carlson, Rod Woodson, and Jerry Rice.

For Super Bowl XLV, Jake Humphrey took over presenting duties on his own, whilst Matt Roberts did the weekly playoff highlights show leading up to the game. Tiki Barber and Mike Carlson were the two pundits for the Super Bowl, and Carlson also did the playoff highlights as well. They took the game feed from Fox Sports, with the commentary from Joe Buck and Troy Aikman. Michael Johnson hosted a special Inside Sport programme before and after the game for the BBC.

They will again air live weekly radio coverage of the NFL on BBC Radio Five Live Sports Extra and air the Super Bowl on BBC TV and on BBC Radio Five Live in 2012.

Other sports

As well as all of this, BBC shows the BDO World Darts Championships, coverage of the Alpine Skiing World Cup under its ''Ski Sunday'' banner; and briefly covers sports such as road and track cycling, sailing, badminton, table tennis, squash, equestrianism, gymnastics and other minority sports in an attempt to publicise the type of sports that will make up the forthcoming London 2012 Olympics. Presenters for these sports include Jill Douglas and Phil Jones who often report for other areas of BBC Sport.

BBC Sport regained coverage of the Boat Race from ITV Sport who pulled out of coverage after the 2009 event. A 5 year contract was signed by BBC Sport to cover the event from 2010 after last covering the 2004 race.

Previous coverage

Cricket

One of BBC Sport's major criticisms is that it no longer shows any live cricket games, having lost coverage of the Test Matches in 1999 to Channel 4 and later Sky Sports. Coverage was fronted by Tony Lewis for many years. The BBC was also widely criticised for not even bidding for the rights to show home Test matches when the next set of rights between 2006 and 2009 went up for sale, a decision which it also took for the next contract running until 2013 with the corporation claiming it could neither afford the cost of the rights or fit into their schedules. That honour went exclusively (and rather controversially) to Sky, with nightly highlights on Five.

Radio 5 Live and 5 Live Sports Extra broadcast England matches and some county cricket (along with the BBC's various local stations); many of these radio commentaries are simulcast on BBC Red Button with live scorecards.

Motorsport

The BBC also broadcast the World Rally Championships until 2001, when Channel 4 bought the rights. WRC is now shown on ESPN. The British Touring Car Championship was another event the BBC lost when ITV took the broadcasting rights in 2002.

After losing the rights to Formula One and the World Rally Championship, the BBC dabbled in British and World Superbikes for a few years — often showing the World Championship version live. After acquiring the rights to the MotoGP World Championship in 2003 coverage of the World and British Superbikes was dropped, presently picked up by Eurosport with highlights on Channel 4 and ITV4 respectively.

Radio sports rights

BBC Sport has monopolised the sports commentary market on British radio since the BBC's conception but since 2000, has lost coverage of some sporting events to TalkSPORT. BBC Sport broadcasts its radio commentaries on BBC Radio Five Live and BBC Radio Five Live Sports Extra under their Five Live Sports banner and online on the BBC website.

In 2006 BBC Sport won six of the seven available Saturday afternoon broadcast rights packages of 32 games each from the Premier League for three seasons from August 2007.

Sports forum

The BBC also hosts an online sports forum named 606, which was named after the original start-time of the radio programme - six minutes past six. It covers a large variety of topics which include cricket, football, rugby (league and union), tennis, athletics, motorsport and many more. Many sporting teams have their own individual pages where members can post any news or topics relating to that team. Viewers can create their own account, allowing them to write and publish their own articles as well as comment on the topics made by other members. Users can also rate topics on a scale of 1 to 5 (the greater the number, the better the member thinks of it). Staff members can select topics from various categories and label them 'Hot Topics', providing a link to the article from its sports homepage. The forum is heavily moderated, with any off-topic, innapropriate or abusive content generally being removed. This forum will be closed later in 2011.

See also

BBC News

BBC Sports Personality of the Year

Broadcasting of sports events

References

External links

Category:BBC Sport Category:Sports divisions of TV channels Category:Sports radio in the United Kingdom Category:Sports television in the United Kingdom

es:BBC Sport fa:بی‌بی‌سی ورزشی fr:BBC Sport it:BBC Sport ja:BBCスポーツ pt:BBC Sport ru:BBC Sport simple:BBC Sport tr:BBC Sport

playername	Gary Lineker
fullname	Gary Winston Lineker
dateofbirth	November 30, 1960
cityofbirth	Leicester
countryofbirth	England
height
position	Striker
youthyears1	1976–1978
youthclubs1	Leicester City
years1	1978–1985
years2	1985–1986
years3	1986–1989
years4	1989–1992
years5	1992–1994
clubs1	Leicester City
clubs2	Everton
clubs3	Barcelona
clubs4	Tottenham Hotspur
clubs5	Nagoya Grampus Eight
caps1	194
goals1	95
caps2	41
goals2	30
caps3	103
goals3	42
caps4	105
goals4	67
caps5	23
goals5	9
totalcaps	466
totalgoals	243
nationalyears1	1984–1992
nationalteam1	England
nationalcaps1	80
nationalgoals1	48 }}

Gary Winston Lineker, OBE (born 30 November 1960), is a former English footballer, who played as a striker. He is a sports broadcaster for the BBC, Al Jazeera Sports and Eredivisie Live. He remains England's top scorer in the FIFA World Cup finals, with 10 goals.

Lineker began his football career at Leicester City and became known as a prolific goalscorer; despite failing to score in his first ten games, he finished as the First Division's joint top goalscorer in 1984–85 and earning his first England cap. He moved to Everton where he remained a clinical finisher, scoring 38 goals in 52 games. His first team honours came at Barcelona, where he won the Copa del Rey in 1988 and the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1989. He returned to England in 1989, joining Tottenham Hotspur, and over three seasons he scored 67 goals in 105 games and won the FA Cup. Lineker's final club was Nagoya Grampus Eight and he retired in 1994 after two seasons at the Japanese side.

Lineker made his England debut in 1984 and over the following eight years earned 80 caps and scored 48 goals, finishing as England's all-time second highest scorer behind Bobby Charlton. His international goals-to-games ratio remains one of the best for the country and he is regarded as one of the all-time best English strikers. He was top scorer in the 1986 World Cup and received the Golden Boot, the only time an Englishman has achieved this feat. He is also the only player to have won the English golden boot with 3 different clubs (Leicester City, Everton and Tottenham Hotspur). Lineker is noted for never having been cautioned or sent off by a referee during his professional career.

After his retirement from football he was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame. He moved in to broadcasting, working at the BBC, firstly working as a pundit on ''Match of the Day'' before he went on to present the flagship show. Lineker also worked on other programmes at the BBC. He led a consortium that invested in his old club Leicester, saving it from bankruptcy, and was appointed honorary vice-president. Since 1994, Lineker has featured in several television commercials for Walkers Crisps. He has four sons with his ex-wife Michelle and is now married to model Danielle Lineker.

Despite his long career, Lineker was never cautioned by a referee for foul play (never once receiving a yellow or red card). As a result of this accomplishment he was honoured in 1990 with the FIFA Fair Play Award.

In a senior career which spanned 16 years and 567 competitive games, Lineker scored a total of 282 goals at club level. Added to the 48 goals he scored in internationals, he managed a total of 330 first class goals.

Early life

Gary Winston Lineker was born on 30 November 1960 in Leicester to Margaret P. (born Walsham, Norfolk) and Barry Lineker (both born 1939). Gary has one younger brother, Wayne Lineker who is two years younger than he is. Lineker's father, Barry, was a Greengrocer in Leicester and he grew up with his family in the city, playing football with his brother Wayne. Lineker first attended Caldecote primary school, Braunstone and then went to the City of Leicester Boys' School (later The City of Leicester School) on Downing Drive in Evington. He joined Leicester City football club in 1977.

Club career

Leicester City

Lineker began his career at his home town club of Leicester City when he left school in 1977. Lineker began scoring prolifically in the early 1980s, helping Leicester win promotion to the First Division in 1980 and again in 1983. During his time at Filbert Street he finished twice amongst the top flight's leading scorers and winning his first England call up. He helped Leicester win promotion to the top flight in 1983 and was the First Division's joint top goalscorer in 1984–85 (tied on 24 goals with Kerry Dixon). By this stage, however, he was attracting the attention of bigger clubs, and a move from Filbert Street was looking certain.

Everton

In the 1985 close season, Lineker was sold to defending league champions Everton for £800,000, and scored 40 goals in 57 games for his new team. He was again the First Division's leading goal scorer, this time with 30 goals, and helped Everton finish second in the league. While he was at Everton, they reached the FA Cup final for the third year in a row but they lost 3–1 to Liverpool, despite Lineker giving them an early lead when he outpaced Alan Hansen to score. Liverpool (double winners) had also pipped Everton to the title by just two points. "I was only on Merseyside a short time, nine or 10 months in total really, but it was still a happy time personally, while professionally it was one of the most successful periods of my career," he says. "I still have an affinity towards Everton."

Lineker scored three hat-tricks for Everton; at home to Birmingham City in a 4–1 league win on 31 August 1985, at home to Manchester City in a 4–0 home win on 11 February 1986, and then in the penultimate league game of the season on 3 May 1986, when they kept their title hopes alive with a 6–1 home win over Southampton. On his final league appearance, he scored twice in a 3–1 home win over a West Ham side whose title hopes had just disappeared. However, he and his colleagues were denied title glory as Liverpool also won their final league game of the season at Chelsea.

Barcelona

After winning the golden shoe at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, Lineker was signed by Barcelona for £2,800,000. Barcelona were being managed by former Queens Park Rangers manager Terry Venables, who had also brought in Manchester United and Wales striker Mark Hughes.

His Golden Boot-winning performance at the finals led to much anticipation of success at the Camp Nou, and he did not disappoint, scoring 21 goals in 41 games during his first season, including a hat-trick in a 3–2 win over arch rivals Real Madrid. Barcelona went on to win the Copa del Rey in 1988 and the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1989. Lineker played in Barcelona's home and away defeats to Dundee United. Barcelona manager Johan Cruyff decided to play Lineker on the right of the midfield and he eventually lost his place in the first team.

Tottenham Hotspur

Alex Ferguson attempted to sign Lineker to partner his ex-Barcelona team-mate Mark Hughes in attack, but Lineker spurned the Manchester club. Instead, he signed with Tottenham Hotspur in July 1989. Over three seasons, he scored 67 goals in 105 games and won the FA Cup at White Hart Lane.

He finished as top scorer in the First Division in the 1989–90 season, scoring 24 goals as Spurs finished third.

He finally collected an English piece of silverware when he won the 1991 FA Cup Final with Spurs, who beat Nottingham Forest 2–1 despite Lineker's penalty miss. Lineker had contributed to Tottenham's run to the final. In the semi-final he scored twice in a 3–1 win over North London rivals Arsenal.

He was the top-division's second-highest goalscorer in 1991–92 with 28 goals from 35 games, behind Ian Wright, who scored 29 times in 42 games. Despite Lineker's personal performance, Tottenham finished this final pre-Premier League season in 15th place.

Nagoya Grampus Eight

Lineker ended his career with an injury-plagued spell in Japan's J. League with Nagoya Grampus Eight, where he made 23 appearances over two seasons, scoring nine times, before announcing his retirement in the autumn of 1994.

He officially joined Nagoya Grampus Eight after playing his final game for Spurs on 2 May 1992, when he scored the consolation goal in a 3–1 defeat by Manchester United on the last day of the season. He had accepted their offer of a two-year contract on 20 November 1991. Shortly before accepting the offer from Nagoya Grampus Eight, Tottenham had rejected an offer from ambitious Second Division club Blackburn Rovers, who had recently been taken over by steel baron Jack Walker.

International career

He first played for the England national team against Scotland in 1984. He played five games in the 1986 World Cup, and was top scorer of the tournament with six goals, winning the Golden Boot, making him the first and to this day only English player to have done so. He scored the second quickest hat-trick ever at a FIFA World Cup tournament against Poland—in doing so, he became only the second English player to score a hat-trick at a FIFA World Cup. He played most of the tournament wearing a lightweight cast on his forearm. He did score for England in the World Cup quarter-final against Argentina, but the game ended in defeat as Diego Maradona scored twice for the opposition (the first goal being the infamous "Hand of God" handball) and England was out of the competition. Lineker also scored a brace against Paraguay in the second round of the tournament. Lineker combined with Peter Beardsley, who also scored—to effortlessly dismantle the South American team's defence.

In 1988, Lineker played in the Euro 1988, but failed to score as England lost all three Group games. It was later established that he had been suffering from hepatitis.

In the 1990 World Cup, he scored four goals to help England reach the semi-finals after a string of draws and narrow victories. After Andreas Brehme sent England 1–0 down, he scored an equaliser after receiving a pass from Paul Parker and faking two German defenders, but the West Germans triumphed in the penalty shoot-out and went on to win the trophy. Later he quoted: "Football is a simple game; 22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans always win."

He retired from international football with 80 caps and 48 goals, one fewer goal than Bobby Charlton's England record (although Charlton took 26 more caps to score his one extra goal). In what proved to be his last England match, against Sweden at Euro 1992, he was controversially substituted by England coach Graham Taylor, in favour of Arsenal striker Alan Smith, ultimately denying Lineker the chance to equal—or even better—Charlton's record of 49 goals. He had earlier missed a penalty that would have brought him level, in a pre-tournament friendly against Brazil. He was visibly upset at the decision, not looking at Taylor as he took the bench.

He scored four goals in an England match on two occasions and is one of very few players never to have been given a yellow card or a red card in any type of game.

Media career

Following retirement from professional football, he developed a career in the media, initially on BBC Radio 5 Live and as a football pundit before replacing Des Lynam as the BBC's anchorman for football coverage, including their flagship football television programme ''Match of the Day'', and as a team captain on the acerbic sports game show, ''They Think It's All Over'' from 1995 to 2003, where he was heavily (though affectionately) ridiculed for being a "goal hanger", described as "lethal from twelve inches" – a parody of Lineker's short-range scoring prowess. Following the departure of Steve Rider from the BBC, Lineker, who is a keen recreational golfer with a handicap of four, became the new presenter for the BBC's golf coverage. Despite receiving some criticism from his peers, he continued to front the BBC's coverage of the Masters and The Open, where he put his language skills to good use by giving an impromptu interview in Spanish with Argentinian Andrés Romero.

He presented a six-part TV Series for the BBC in 1998 (directed by Lloyd Stanton) called ''Golden Boots'', with other football celebrities. It was an extensive history of the World Cup focusing on the 'Golden Boots' (top scorers).

In 2002, Lineker took on his first acting role, barring roles playing himself in films such as ''Bend It Like Beckham'' or in the adapted-for-television stage play ''An Evening with Gary Lineker'', as the voice of ''Underground Ernie'' on the BBC's children's channel, CBeebies. Both Gary and Michelle Lineker make a 'blink-and-you'll-miss-them' appearance as diners leaving a restaurant in the 1993 Eric Idle film ''Splitting Heirs''.

In 2003, Lineker was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame.

In 2005, Lineker was sued for defamation by Australian footballer Harry Kewell over comments Lineker had made writing in his column in the ''Sunday Telegraph'' about Kewell's transfer from Leeds United to Liverpool. However the jury was unable to reach a verdict. It transpired in the case that the article had actually been ghost-written by a journalist at the ''Sunday Telegraph'' following a telephone interview with Lineker.

In December 2008, Lineker appeared on the ITV1 television programme ''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Christmas Special'' where he and English rugby union player Austin Healey won £50,000 for the Nicholls Spinal Injury Foundation.

In 2009, Lineker and his wife Danielle hosted a series of the BBC's ''Northern Exposure'', following on from Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen from the previous year in visiting and showcasing locations throughout Northern Ireland.

In May 2010, Lineker resigned from his role as columnist for ''The Mail on Sunday'' in protest over the sting operation against Lord Triesman that jeopardised England’s bid to host the 2018 World Cup. Triesman resigned as chairman of the bid and the FA on 16 May 2010 after the publication of a secret recording of a conversation between the peer and a former ministerial aide, during which he claimed that Spain and Russia were planning to bribe referees at the World Cup in South Africa. Lineker currently anchors the English language football coverage for the Al Jazeera network, which is broadcast throughout much of the Middle East.

Walkers advertisements

His popularity has enabled him to appear in a light-hearted series of commercials for Walkers, playing a comical role as an arch-villain which sends up his reputation as a nice guy. He has been fronting these adverts since 1995, making this one of the longest running advertising campaigns ever. Walkers, a Leicester-based British producer of snack foods, temporarily named their salt & vinegar crisps after Lineker in the late 1990s—they were labelled 'Salt-n-Lineker'. This was also because his favourite flavour crisps are Salt and Vinegar. Lineker's involvement with Walkers caused Mark E. Smith, singer with The Fall, to coin the nickname 'Crisp Man' for him.

Video games

Software house Gremlin released ''Gary Lineker's Superstar Soccer'' in 1987, ''Gary Lineker's Superskills'' in 1988, and ''Gary Lineker's Hot Shot'' in 1989 for 8-bit platforms.

In 1998, Lineker provided his voice (along with Des Lynam) for the menu screens in EA Sports' ''World Cup 98''. In 2001, Lineker was approached by game makers Codemasters to front the ''LMA Manager'' series on PlayStation. Lineker would pair up with Alan Hansen, fellow MOTD pundit to voice the post match comments on the game, with Barry Davies voicing the commentary. Since then the game has sold millions of copies and in ''LMA Manager 2006'', Lineker voices news items and the cup draws on the game. In 2004 he was also chosen to front the Codemasters ''England International Football'' game, with him voicing the team selection and the pre- and post-match menus.

Personal life

Lineker is a freeman of the City of Leicester (which entitles him to graze his sheep—should he have any—on Town Hall Square) and he is often referred to as "Leicester's favourite son". As a youngster, he famously worked on his family's stall in Leicester Market. Lineker still helped out on the stall at the height of his playing career during the late 1980s and early 1990s, though usually only in the closed season. His links with cricket were renewed when he was invited to become Honorary President of Kent-based wandering cricket club, Paraguayan Elbows CC. The club, which was founded in 1986, was named in his honour after an incident in that summer's World Cup match between England and Paraguay.

Lineker married Michelle Cockayne in 1986, but they divorced in August 2006. They announced their split in April 2006 but stated that the situation was amicable. They have four sons, George, Harry, Tobias, and Angus. His oldest son George survived a rare form of leukaemia as a baby in the early 1990s; Lineker now supports children's cancer charity CLIC Sargent and has since appeared in adverts encouraging people to give blood as a result. Lineker has been actively involved with other cancer charities such as Leukaemia Busters, where between 1994 and 2005 Gary and Michelle were the charity’s patrons. He has also been involved with Fight for Life and Cancer Research UK.

Gary returned to Leicester City Football Club in April 1995 to feature in a Gordon Banks benefit game. The very next day, Gary was honoured as a Freeman of the City of Leicester.

In October 2002, Lineker announced a £5 million rescue plan for cash-strapped club Leicester City, describing his involvement as charity rather than an ego trip. He said that he would invest a six-figure sum and other members of his consortium would invest a similar amount. Lineker met the fans' group to persuade them to try and raise money to rescue his former club. Another six-figure sum donor was Emile Heskey, who had not only followed in Lineker's footsteps by going to the same school as him, but also went on to play for Leicester City and England. Lineker is now honorary vice-president of Leicester City, along with Gordon Banks and Peter Shilton.

Lineker married Danielle Bux on 2 September 2009, in Italy. The ceremony was attended by friends and family. They went on to win £30,000 for charity in ITV's gameshow Mr. and Mrs.

Career statistics

|- |1978–79||rowspan="7"|Leicester City||rowspan="2"|Second Division||7||1||colspan="2"|—||colspan="2"|—||colspan="2"|—||7||1 |- |1979–80||19||3||1||0||colspan="2"|—||colspan="2"|—||20||3 |- |1980–81||First Division||9||2||1||1||colspan="2"|—||colspan="2"|—||10||3 |- |1981–82||rowspan="2"|Second Division||39||17||5||2||3||0||colspan="2"|—||47||19 |- |1982–83||40||26||1||0||2||0||colspan="2"|—||43||26 |- |1983–84||rowspan="2"|First Division||39||22||1||0||1||0||colspan="2"|—||41||22 |- |1984–85||41||24||4||3||3||2||colspan="2"|—||48||29 |- |1985–86||Everton||First Division||41||30||6||5||5||3||colspan="2"|—||52||38 |- |1986–87||rowspan="3"|Barcelona||rowspan="3"|La Liga||41||20||1||1||colspan="2"|—||8||0||50||21 |- |1987–88||36||16||5||2||colspan="2"|—||9||2||50||20 |- |1988–89||26||6||4||1||colspan="2"|—||8||4||38||11 |- |1989–90||rowspan="3"|Tottenham Hotspur||rowspan="3"|First Division||38||24||1||0||6||2||colspan="2"|—||45||26 |- |1990–91||32||15||6||3||5||1||colspan="2"|—||43||19 |- |1991–92||35||28||2||0||5||5||8||2||50||35 |- |1993||rowspan="2"|Nagoya Grampus Eight||rowspan="2"|J. League||7||1||0||0||5||4||colspan="2"|—||12||5 |- |1994||11||3||0||0||1||0||colspan="2"|—||12||3 340||192||28||14||30||13||8||2||406||221 103||42||10||4||colspan="2"|—||25||6||138||52 18||4||0||0||6||4||colspan="2"|—||24||8 461||238||38||18||36||17||33||8||568||281 |}

|- |1984||1||0 |- |1985||9||6 |- |1986||10||8 |- |1987||7||9 |- |1988||10||3 |- |1989||9||3 |- |1990||15||8 |- |1991||11||10 |- |1992||8||1 |- !Total||80||48 |}

International goals

:''Scores and results list England's goal tally first.'' Wembley Stadium (1923) 16 June 1985 16 October 1985 11 June 1986 18 June 1986 22 June 1986 15 October 1986 18 February 1987 19 May 1987 9 September 1987 14 October 1987 24 May 1988 23 March 1988 28 May 1988 26 April 1989 3 June 1989 7 July 1989 28 March 1990 15 May 1990 11 June 1990 1 July 1990 4 July 1990 22 September 1990 17 October 1990 6 February 1991 26 July 1991 3 June 1991 12 June 1991 13 November 1991 19 February 1992 29 April 1992

# !! Date !! Venue !! Opponent !! Result !! Competition !! Scored
1	26 March 1985	Wembley Stadium ||		2–1	Exhibition game>Friendly	1
2, 3	|	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum		5–0	Friendly	2
4, 6	|	Wembley Stadium (1923)>Wembley Stadium		5–0	1986 FIFA World Cup qualification>1986 World Cup qualifier	3
7, 9	|	Estadio Tecnológico, Monterrey		3–0	1986 FIFA World Cup>1986 World Cup	3
10, 11	|	Estadio Azteca, Mexico City		3–0	1986 World Cup	2
12	|	Estadio Azteca, Mexico City		1–2	1986 World Cup	1
13, 14	|	Wembley Stadium (1923)>Wembley Stadium		3–0	UEFA Euro 1988 qualifying>Euro 1988 qualifier	2
15, 18	|	Santiago Bernabéu, Madrid		4–2	Friendly	4
19	|	Wembley Stadium (1923)>Wembley Stadium		1–1	Friendly (Rous Cup)	1
20	|	Rheinstadion, Düsseldorf		1–3	Friendly	1
21, 23	|	Wembley Stadium (1923)>Wembley Stadium		8–0	UEFA Euro 1988 qualifying>Euro 1988 qualifier	3
24	|	Wembley Stadium (1923)>Wembley Stadium		1–1	Friendly (Rous Cup)	1
25	|	Wembley Stadium (1923)>Wembley Stadium		2–2	Friendly	1
26	|	Stade Olympique de la Pontaise, Lausanne		1–0	Friendly	1
27	|	Wembley Stadium (1923)>Wembley Stadium		5–0	1990 FIFA World Cup qualification>1990 World Cup qualifier	1
28	|	Wembley Stadium (1923)>Wembley Stadium		3–0	1990 World Cup qualifier	1
29	|	Parken Stadium, Copenhagen		1–1	Friendly	1
30	|	Wembley Stadium (1923)>Wembley Stadium		1–0	Friendly	1
31	|	Wembley Stadium (1923)>Wembley Stadium		1–0	Friendly	1
32	|	Stadio Sant'Elia, Cagliari		1–1	1990 FIFA World Cup>1990 World Cup	1
33, 34	|	Stadio San Paolo, Naples		3–2	1990 World Cup	2
35	|	Stadio delle Alpi, Turin		1 – 1 (3 – 4 on pens)	1990 World Cup	1
36	|	Wembley Stadium (1923)>Wembley Stadium		1–0	Friendly	1
37	|	Wembley Stadium (1923)>Wembley Stadium		2–0	UEFA Euro 1992 qualifying>Euro 1992 qualifier	1
38, 39	|	Wembley Stadium (1923)>Wembley Stadium		2–0	Friendly	2
40	|	Wembley Stadium (1923)>Wembley Stadium		2–2	1991 England Challenge Cup>England Challenge Cup)	1
41	|	Mt Smart Stadium, Auckland		1–0	Friendly	1
42, 45	|	Stadium Merdeka, Kuala Lumpur		4–2	Friendly	4
46	|	Stadion Miejski, Poznań		1–1	UEFA Euro 1992 qualifying>Euro 1992 qualifier	1
47	|	Wembley Stadium (1923)>Wembley Stadium		2–0	Friendly	1
48	|	Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow		2–2	Friendly	1

Honours

Club

Leicester City

Football League Second Division: 1980

Everton

FA Charity Shield: 1985

Barcelona

Copa del Rey: 1988

European Cup Winners' Cup: 1989

Tottenham Hotspur

FA Cup: 1991

International

England

Rous Cup: 1986, 1988, 1989

England Challenge Cup: 1991

Individual

English League Top Scorer: 1984–85, 1985–86, 1989–90

English Second Division Top Scorer: 1982-83

FIFA World Cup Golden Shoe: 1986

PFA Players' Player of the Year: 1985–86

FWA Footballer of the Year: 1985–86, 1991–92

References

''Gary Lineker: Strikingly Different'', Colin Malam, Stanley Paul Publications, London, 1993 ISBN 0-09-175424-0

External links

Gary Lineker photos, biography & stats at sporting-heroes.net

English Football Hall of Fame Profile

Gary Lineker's Football Career Home and Abroad

Category:1960 births Category:Living people Category:English footballers Category:British association football commentators Category:England international footballers Category:England B international footballers Category:FC Barcelona footballers Category:Everton F.C. players Category:Leicester City F.C. players Category:Nagoya Grampus Eight players Category:Tottenham Hotspur F.C. players Category:La Liga footballers Category:Expatriate footballers in Spain Category:English expatriate footballers Category:FIFA 100 Category:1986 FIFA World Cup players Category:UEFA Euro 1988 players Category:1990 FIFA World Cup players Category:UEFA Euro 1992 players Category:BBC sports presenters and reporters Category:The Football League players Category:First Division/Premier League topscorers Category:Expatriate footballers in Japan Category:J. League players Category:People from Leicester Category:People from Leicestershire Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire Category:English Football Hall of Fame inductees Category:Association football forwards

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}}

Kenenisa Bekele (Amharic:ቀነኒሳ በቀለ; born June 13, 1982 in Oromia Region, Ethiopia) is an Ethiopian long-distance runner, who holds the world record and Olympic record in both the 5000 metres and 10,000 metres events. He is the reigning Olympic champion over 5000 metres and two time champion over 10,000 metres and the most accomplished runner in IAAF World Cross Country Championships history, with six long (12K) course and five short (4K) course titles. Bekele was unbeaten over 10,000 m from 2003 until his first loss in 2011, and with his vast array of medals, many consider him to be one of the greatest distance runners of all time.

He is the older brother of Tariku Bekele, also an accomplished distance runner.

History

Kenenisa was born in 1982 at Bekoji, in the Oromia Region of Ethiopia, the same town as the Dibaba sisters; Ejegayehu, Tirunesh and Genzebe, and their cousin Derartu Tulu.

In August 2001 he set a new 3000 metres World Junior Record, 7:30.67 in Brussels. The record was broken by Augustine Choge four years later.

For five years in a row, from 2002 through 2006, he took both short (4K) and long (12K) races at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships, a feat no other runner has accomplished even once. In 2004, he broke the world records for the indoor 5000 m, outdoor 5000 m and outdoor 10,000 m.

Kenenisa is renowned for his ability to accelerate very quickly at the end of a long distance race; in Oslo in June 2003, Bekele chased after Kenyan Abraham Chebii and ran a 54.64 final 400 to win the race in 12:52.26. Again in Lausanne on 1 July 2003, Kenenisa recorded a 200 m segment during the last lap in 24 seconds and a 100 m section in 11.xx seconds to run a 52.63 final lap.

Kenenisa has faced his mentor Haile Gebrselassie once in road competition, once in cross country, and six times on the track. Haile defeated Kenenisa on the track in the 2000 Nurnberg 5000 metres, the 2001 Great Ethiopian Run 10 km, and the Cross de l'Acier in December 2001, but lost to Kenenisa in Hengelo 2003 over 10,000 m (26:53 to 26:54), Rome 2003 over 5000 m (12:57 to 13:00), Paris 2003 World Championships over 10,000 m (26:49 to 26:50), Athens 2004 Olympic Games (27:05 to 27:27), and in the 10,000 m in the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games (27:01 to 27:06).

2005 - 2008

On 4 January 2005, Kenenisa's fiancee, 18-year-old Alem Techale, died of an apparent heart attack while on a training run with him. Although it was initially stated that no autopsy was performed, Alem and Kenenisa's manager, Jos Hermens, later said that an autopsy had revealed nothing conclusive about the young woman's death. She was the 2003 World Youth Champion in the 1500 metres and in excellent physical condition.

Over the next several weeks following Alem's death, Kenenisa grieved. He resumed racing on 29 January, and lost indoors over 3000 m to South African Irishman Alistair Cragg after sprinting towards the line with one and a half laps to go, while thinking that there was only half a lap left. Such confusion was presumed to have been caused by his grief. A few weeks later he lost to fellow Ethiopian Markos Geneti over 2 miles. In March, Kenenisa faced his toughest challenge yet. Despite his grief and recent losses on the track, he lined up to defend his long and short course titles at the 2005 IAAF World Cross Country Championships. In dramatic fashion, Kenenisa bested the field in the short course despite a fast pace set by Qatari Saif Saaeed Shaheen. He followed that win with a long course victory the next day over Eritrean Zersenay Tadese and Kenyan rival Eliud Kipchoge. The 2005 World Cross Country double victory is considered by many to be the most amazing of Kenenisa's career to date.

On 8 August 2005, Kenenisa Bekele won the gold medal in the 10,000 m at the 2005 World Championships in Helsinki with a stunning last 200 m spurt.

On 26 August 2005, Kenenisa set the current 10,000 m world record 26:17.53 at the 29th Memorial Van Damme meeting – TDK Golden League – in Brussels, Belgium, slicing nearly 3 seconds off his previous world record 26:20.31, and running with 5000 m halves of 13:09 and 13:08. At the end of 2005 Bekele was voted the'' Track & Field News'' magazine athlete of the year for the second year in a row.

When Kenenisa won the 3000 m at the World Indoor Track & Field Championships in Moscow on 12 March 2006, he became the first athlete in history to be Olympic champion, world outdoor track champion, world indoor track champion, and world cross country champion.

In 2006 he won five out of six ÅF Golden League events (5000 m) in the same season, which earned him a total of $83,333.

On 17 February 2007, he broke the indoor world record over 2000 m in Birmingham, UK, with a time of 4:49.99. His spectacular final 300 m aided this time which would be considered excellent even outdoors.

On 24 March 2007, however, his remarkable racing streak of 27 consecutive victories in cross country races (dating back to his last previous loss in December 2001) came to an end when after leading the race in the penultimate lap of the 2007 IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Mombasa he succumbed to the very hot, humid conditions (which caused more than 1/6 of all competitors to drop out) and was passed by eventual winner Zersenay Tadese on the last lap before Kenenisa dropped out. This was greeted with cheers by the Kenyan crowds, an occurrence which has been frowned upon by the wider athletics community.

He recovered from that rare failure to take the 10,000 metres title at the 2007 IAAF World Championships in Osaka, once again besting his compatriot Sileshi Sihine. During that race, he looked like he was going to be dropped several times over the last 800 metres, but recovered to overtake Sileshi with 150 metres to go and take his third straight world title.

On 18 November 2007, Kenenisa married Ethiopian film actress Danawit Gebregziabher at the Sheraton Addis, in Addis Ababa.

In Edinburgh on 30 March 2008, Bekele won his 6th World Cross Country title (long course - 12k), breaking the three way tie of 5 wins he had previously shared with Paul Tergat and John Ngugi. With this win, Kenenisa laid sole claim to most decorated athlete in IAAF World Cross Country Championships history. He has won 6 long course (12k) individual gold medals, 5 short course (4k) gold medals, 1 junior championship (8k), and 4 team gold medals for a sum total of 16 gold medals. His overall medal count (both individual and team results) stands at 27 medals: 16 gold, 9 silver and 2 bronze.

2008 Beijing Olympics

On 17 August 2008 Kenenisa won gold in the 10,000 m finals with a time of 27:01.17, setting a new Olympic Record in the process. In a race in which 20 men broke the 28 minute barrier and four finished under Bekele's 2004 Olympic record of 27:05.10, he needed his renowned finishing kick to pull out the victory, running a 53.42 second final 400 metres (similar to the 53 second final 400 meter sprint he used to win the gold medal in Athens in 2004 over the same distance).

On 23 August 2008 Kenenisa bested his competitors and won the 5000 m finals, shattering Saïd Aouita's Olympic Record by almost eight seconds with a time of 12:57.82. The race was remarkable for Kenenisa's manner of doing most of the pacing himself before accelerating to a scintillating finish: his last 3000 metres only took 7:35.53, his final 2000 metres 4:56.97, last 1600 metres 3:57.01 (=3:58.6 final mile) and his final lap a punishing 53.87 seconds.

By winning the 10,000/5000 m double in the Beijing Olympics, Kenenisa joined another elite group of athletes: Hannes Kolehmainen (1912), Emil Zátopek (1952), Vladimir Kuts (1956), Lasse Virén (twice, in 1972 and 1976), and Miruts Yifter (1980).

2009 World Championships

Kenenisa won two gold medals at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics, held in Berlin. His double victories in 5000 m (13:17.09) and 10,000 m (26:46.31) were unprecedented and by doing this became the first man to take both the long distance track gold medals at the same World Championships. His talent combination of endurance and speed has made it nearly impossible to defeat Kenenisa when he is in full strength. During the 10,000m race in which Kenenisa was running behind Eritrea's Zersenay Tadesse, the broadcaster declared "it is over, in fact it was over from the start" as the final lap began and Kenenisa returned a close race into a blowout. The IAAF announcer concluded, "this man is probably the greatest distance runner we will ever see." Ethiopia Kenenisa vs Eritrea Zersenay tadesse In spite of his unrivaled success in athletics, he did not experience the mainstream appeal that others such as Haile Gebrselassie did. His quiet demeanour and aversion to interviews did not make him a highly marketable athlete in the Western world. Fellow world record holder Usain Bolt stated that Bekele's achievements had not received the recognition that they deserved.

2010

Kenenisa made a disappointing start to the new year, finishing 4th in the Cross Country International at Edinburgh, in a race he was favored to win. The conditions out on the course did not appear to be favorable to him, with several inches of snow settled over the park. After staying with the lead group for the first few kilometers, team running by a trio of talented Kenyan athletes ran him out of the contest over the last few long laps. Bekele spent the entirety of the indoor and outdoor seasons out, with a ruptured calf muscle. He is expected to return to competition some time in 2011.

Current world records (as of October 2008)

5000 m indoor world record 12:49.60 (Birmingham, on 20 February 2004)

5000 m world record 12:37.35 (Hengelo, on 31 May 2004)

10,000 m world record 26:17.53 (Brussels, on 26 August 2005, breaking his previous record of 26:20.31 from 8 June 2004)

2000 m indoor world record 4:49.99 (Birmingham, on 17 February 2007)

2 mile indoor world best 8:04.35 (Birmingham, on 16 February 2008)

.

Personal bests

]> align=right> 7:25.79 align=right align=right

Distance			! Date	! Location
1500 m	3:32.35	28 September 2007
3000 m	|	7 August 2007	Stockholm
5000 m	12:37.35 (WR) ||	31 May 2004	Hengelo
10,000 m	26:17.53 (WR) ||	26 August 2005	Brussels

Major victories

2009 World Track Champion 5000 m, Berlin

2009 World Track Champion 10,000 m, Berlin

2008 Beijing Olympic Games in Athletics 5000 m, Beijing

2008 Beijing Olympic Games in Athletics 10,000 m, Beijing

2008 African Championships in Athletics 5000 m, Addis Ababa

2008 World Cross Country Championships (12K), Edinburgh

2007 World Track Champion 10,000 m, Osaka

2006 African Championships in Athletics 5000 m, Bambous

2006 World Cross Country Champion in short race (4K), Fukuoka

2006 World Cross Country Champion in long race (12K), Fukuoka

2006 World Indoor Track Champion 3000 m, Moscow

2005 World Cross Country Champion in short race (4K), Saint-Étienne

2005 World Cross Country Champion in long race (12K), Saint-Étienne

2005 World Track Champion 10,000 m, Helsinki

2004 World Cross Country Champion in short race (4K), Brussels

2004 World Cross Country Champion in long race (12K), Brussels

2004 Olympic Champion 10,000 m, Athens

2003 World Cross Country Champion in short race (4K), Avenches

2003 World Cross Country Champion in long race (12K), Avenches

2003 World Track Champion 10,000 m, Paris

2002 World Cross Country Champion in short race (4K), Dublin

2002 World Cross Country Champion in long race (12K), Dublin

2001 World Junior Cross Country Champion 8000 m

References and notes

External links

The Official Kenenisa Bekele Website

Kenenisa Bekele Webpage

Beijing 2008 Men 10000 m - EthioTube Video

Beijing 2008 Men 5000 m - EthioTube Video

IAAF: Focus on Athletes

Haile Gebrselassie| title=Men's 10,000 m World Record Holder| years=8 June 2004 – | after=Incumbent}} Haile Gebrselassie| title=Men's 5,000 m World Record Holder| years=31 May 2004 – | after=Incumbent}} Hicham El Guerrouj|after= Asafa Powell|years=2004 – 2005}} Stephen Cherono|title=Men's 5000 m Best Year Performance|years=2004 – 2009|after=Incumbent}} Haile Gebrselassie Micah Kogo|title=Men's 10,000 m Best Year Performance|years=2004 – 20052007 – 2009|after= Micah Kogo Josphat Kiprono Menjo}} Isaac Kiprono Songok|title=Men's 3000 m Best Year Performance|years=2007|after= Edwin Cheruiyot Soi}}

Category:Ethiopian long-distance runners Category:World record holders in athletics (track and field) Category:Athletes (track and field) at the 2004 Summer Olympics Category:Athletes (track and field) at the 2008 Summer Olympics Category:1982 births Category:Living people Category:Olympic athletes of Ethiopia Category:Olympic gold medalists for Ethiopia Category:Olympic silver medalists for Ethiopia Category:Olympic medalists in athletics (track and field)

ar:كينينيسا بيكيلي ca:Kenenisa Bekele cs:Kenenisa Bekele da:Kenenisa Bekele de:Kenenisa Bekele et:Kenenisa Bekele es:Kenenisa Bekele eu:Kenenisa Bekele fa:کننیسا بکله fr:Kenenisa Bekele gl:Kenenisa Bekele ko:케네니사 베켈레 hr:Kenenisa Bekele id:Kenenisa Bekele is:Kenenisa Bekele it:Kenenisa Bekele he:קנניסה בקלה lv:Kenenisa Bekele lt:Kenenisa Bekele hu:Kenenisa Bekele nl:Kenenisa Bekele ja:ケネニサ・ベケレ no:Kenenisa Bekele pl:Kenenisa Bekele pt:Kenenisa Bekele ru:Бекеле, Кенениса sk:Kenenisa Bekele sl:Kenenisa Bekele sr:Кенениса Бекеле fi:Kenenisa Bekele sv:Kenenisa Bekele uk:Кененіса Бекеле zh:克内尼萨·贝耶查

name	Lewis Hamilton
nationality	British
birth date	January 07, 1985
2011 team	McLaren–Mercedes
2011 car number	3
races	83
championships	1 ()
wins	16
podiums	40
poles	18
points	642
fastest laps	10
first race	2007 Australian Grand Prix
first win	2007 Canadian Grand Prix
last win	2011 German Grand Prix
last race
last season	2010
last position	4th (240 points) }}

Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton MBE (born 7 January 1985) is a British Formula One racing driver from England, currently racing for the McLaren team, and was the Formula One World Champion.

Hamilton was born in Stevenage, Hertfordshire. In December 1995, at the age of ten, he approached McLaren team principal Ron Dennis at the Autosport Awards ceremony and told him, "I want to race for you one day ... I want to race for McLaren." Less than three years later McLaren and Mercedes-Benz signed him to their Young Driver Support Programme. After winning the British Formula Renault, Formula Three Euroseries, and GP2 championships on his way up the racing career ladder, he drove for McLaren in 2007, making his Formula One debut 12 years after his initial encounter with Dennis. Coming from a mixed-race background, with a black father and white mother, Hamilton is often labelled "the first black driver in Formula One".

In his first season in Formula One, Hamilton set numerous records, while finishing second in the 2007 Formula One Championship, just one point behind Kimi Räikkönen. He won the World Championship the following season, ahead of Felipe Massa by the same margin of a single point. Clinching the crown thanks to passing the dry tyre-shod Timo Glock in the wet on the final lap, to take the necessary fifth position. Following that, prestigious motorsport weekly Autosport dubbed him as ''Last Lap Lewis''. He has stated he wants to stay with the McLaren team for the rest of his F1 career.

Following his 2008 title Hamilton struggled with less competitive McLarens, in spite of taking quite a few Grand Prix wins he was not able to challenge for the 2009 championship, and finished a close fourth in 2010, being in mathematical contention until the final round.

Personal life

Hamilton was born on 7 January 1985 in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, England, and was named after American sprinter Carl Lewis. Hamilton's mother, Carmen Larbalestier (now married as Carmen Lockhart), is white British, while his father, Anthony Hamilton, is black British, making him mixed-raced, (Anthony Hamilton's parents emigrated from Grenada to the United Kingdom in the 1950s). Lewis Hamilton's parents separated when he was two, as a result of this he lived with his mother and half-sisters Nicola and Samantha until he was twelve, when he started living with his father, stepmother Linda and half-brother Nicolas (who has cerebral palsy). In early 2011, Nicolas signed with Total Control Racing to start a racing career in the 2011 Renault Clio Cup. Hamilton was raised as a Roman Catholic by his father.

Hamilton's father bought him a radio-controlled car in 1991, which gave him his first taste of racing competition. Hamilton finished second in the national BRCA championship the following year. He said of the time: "I was racing these remote-controlled cars and winning club championships against adults". As a result of this his father bought him his first go-kart as a Christmas present at the age of six. His father told him that he would support his racing career as long as he worked hard at school. Supporting his son became problematic, which caused him to take redundancy from his position as an IT Manager and became a contractor. He was sometimes employed in up to three jobs at a time, while still managing to find enough time to attend all Hamilton's races. He later set up his own computer company as well as working as a full-time manager for Hamilton. Hamilton is now managed by Simon Fuller.

Hamilton was educated at The John Henry Newman School, a voluntary aided Catholic secondary school in Stevenage, Hertfordshire. Alongside his interest for racing, he played football for his school team with current Aston Villa and England international midfielder Ashley Young. Hamilton said that if Formula One had not worked for him he would have been a footballer, being a big fan of Arsenal F.C or a cricketer, having played both for his school teams as a youngster. He subsequently attended, in February 2001, Cambridge Arts and Sciences (CATS), a private sixth-form college in Cambridge. At the age of five Hamilton took up Karate in order to defend himself as a result of bullying at school.

In October 2007, Hamilton announced his intention to live in Switzerland, stating that this was because he wished to get away from the media scrutiny that he experienced living in the United Kingdom. Hamilton admitted under questioning on the television show ''Parkinson'', which was broadcast on 10 November 2007, that taxation was partly responsible for his decision, in addition to wanting more privacy. Hamilton received public criticism from UK MPs including Liberal Democrat MP Bob Russell for avoiding UK taxes. He settled in Luins in Vaud canton on Lake Geneva; other Formula One drivers, including world champions Michael Schumacher, Kimi Räikkönen and Fernando Alonso, also live in Switzerland. Hamilton was one of several super-rich figures whose tax arrangements were singled out for criticism in a report by the charity Christian Aid in 2008.

On 18 December 2007, Hamilton was suspended from driving in France for a month after being caught speeding at on a French motorway. His Mercedes-Benz CLK was also impounded. In November 2007, Hamilton started dating Nicole Scherzinger, the lead singer of the American girl band Pussycat Dolls; it was announced in January 2010 that they split up to focus on their respective careers, however they were seen together at the 2010 Turkish Grand Prix and at the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal, on 13 June 2010.

Hamilton was awarded an MBE by the Queen in the 2009 New Year Honours.

On 18 March 2009, Madame Tussauds unveiled a waxwork of Hamilton in his Vodafone McLaren Mercedes race suit. This wax replica cost around £150,000 and took over six months to complete.

Two days before the 2010 Australian Grand Prix, Victoria Police witnessed Hamilton "deliberately losing traction" in his silver Mercedes-AMG C63, and impounded the car for 48 hours. Hamilton immediately released a statement of apology for "driving in an over-exuberant manner". After being charged with intentionally losing control of a vehicle, Hamilton was eventually fined A$500 (£288), being described as a "Hoon" [boy racer] by the magistrate.

In July 2011 the father of Nicole Scherzinger announced that Hamilton and his daughter were engaged to be married. However, this was denied shortly after by Scherzinger on Twitter.

Early career

Karting

Hamilton began karting in 1993 at the age of eight, at the Rye House Kart Circuit and quickly began winning races and Cadet class championships. At the age of ten he approached McLaren F1 team boss Ron Dennis for an autograph, and told him, "Hi. I'm Lewis Hamilton. I won the British Championship and one day I want to be racing your cars." Dennis wrote in his autograph book, "Phone me in nine years, we'll sort something out then." Hamilton drove for Martin Hines' Zip Young Guns Karting Team. From the Cadet ranks, he progressed through to Junior Yamaha (1997) and Ron Dennis actually called him in 1998 after Hamilton won an additional Super One series and his second British championship. Dennis delivered on his promise and signed Hamilton to the McLaren driver development program. This contract included an option of a future F1 seat, which would eventually make Hamilton the youngest ever driver to secure a contract which later resulted in an F1 drive. |width=21%|align=right}} Hamilton continued his progress in the Intercontinental A (1999), Formula A (2000) and Formula Super A (2001) ranks, and became European Champion in 2000 with maximum points. In Formula A and Formula Super A, racing for TeamMBM.com, his team mate was Nico Rosberg who would later drive for the Williams and Mercedes GP teams in Formula One. Following his karting successes the British Racing Drivers' Club made him a "Rising Star" Member in 2000.

In 2001, Michael Schumacher made a one-off return to karts and competed against Hamilton along with other future F1 drivers Vitantonio Liuzzi and Nico Rosberg. Hamilton ended the final in seventh, four places behind Schumacher. Although the two saw little of each other on the track Schumacher praised the young Briton (see quote box).

Formula Renault and Formula Three

Hamilton began his car racing career in the 2001 British Formula Renault Winter Series. Despite crashing on his third lap in the car in testing, he finished fifth overall in the winter series. This led to a full 2002 Formula Renault UK campaign with Manor Motorsport. Hamilton finished third overall with three wins and three pole positions. He remained with Manor for another year and won the championship with ten wins and 419 points to the two wins and 377 points of his nearest rival, Alex Lloyd. Having clinched the championship, Hamilton missed the last two races of the season to make his debut in the season finale of the British Formula Three Championship. Here he was less successful: in the first race he was forced out with a puncture, and in the second he crashed out and was taken to hospital after a collision with his team-mate Tor Graves. He did show his speed at both the Macau Grand Prix and Korea Super Prix, in the latter he qualified on pole position in his first visit to the track and in only his fourth F3 race. Asked in 2002 about the prospect of becoming one of the youngest ever Formula One drivers, Hamilton replied that his goal was "not to be the youngest in F1 ...[but] to be experienced and then show what I can do in F1".

Later in 2004 Williams would announce that they had come close to signing him but were refused the opportunity due to BMW, their engine supplier at the time, refusing to fund Hamilton's career. Hamilton eventually re-signed with McLaren, and made his debut with Manor in the 2004 Formula 3 Euro Series. They won one race and Hamilton ended the year fifth in the championship. He also won the Bahrain F3 Superprix and raced one of the Macau F3 Grand Prix. Hamilton first tested for McLaren in late 2004 at Silverstone.

Hamilton moved to the reigning Euro Series champions ASM for the 2005 season and dominated the championship, winning 15 of the 20 rounds. This would have been 16 but for being disqualified from one win at Spa-Francorchamps on a technical infringement that caught out several other drivers. He also won the Marlboro Masters of Formula 3 at Zandvoort. After the season British magazine ''Autosport'' featured him in their "Top 50 Drivers of 2005" issue, ranking Hamilton 24th.

GP2

Due to his success in Formula Three, he moved to ASM's sister GP2 team ART Grand Prix for 2006. Just like their sister team in F3, ART were the leaders of the field and reigning champions having taken the 2005 GP2 crown with Nico Rosberg. Hamilton won the GP2 championship at his first attempt, beating Nelson Piquet, Jr. and Timo Glock.

His performances included a dominant win at the Nürburgring, despite serving a penalty for speeding in the pit lane. At his home race at Silverstone, supporting the , Hamilton overtook two rivals at Becketts, a series of high-speed (up to 150 mph in a GP2 car) bends where overtaking is rare. In Istanbul he recovered from a spin that left him in eighteenth place to take second position in the final corners. He won the title in unusual circumstances, inheriting the final point he needed after Giorgio Pantano was stripped of fastest lap in the Monza feature race. In the sprint race, though he finished second with Piquet sixth, he finished twelve points clear of his rival.

His 2006 GP2 championship coincided with a vacancy at McLaren following the departure of Juan Pablo Montoya to NASCAR and Kimi Räikkönen to Ferrari. After months of speculation on whether Hamilton, Pedro de la Rosa or Gary Paffett would be paired with defending champion Fernando Alonso for , Hamilton was confirmed as the team's second driver. He was told of McLaren's decision on 30 September, but the news was not made public until 24 November, for fear that it would be overshadowed by Michael Schumacher's retirement announcement.

Formula One career

2007 season

It was announced prior to the start of the season that Hamilton would be partnering defending double World Champion Fernando Alonso who had joined McLaren after leaving Renault. On his debut at the , he qualified fourth and finished third in the race, becoming the thirteenth driver to finish on the podium in his first F1 career race (excluding those in the first ever World Championship round). In Bahrain, Hamilton got his first front-row start, qualifying and finishing second behind Felipe Massa. Hamilton again finished second behind Massa in the , to take the lead in the drivers championship. This meant that Hamilton broke Bruce McLaren's record of being the youngest driver to ever lead the world championship.

Hamilton finished second behind Alonso at Monaco and afterwards suggested he was prevented from racing his team mate. The FIA cleared McLaren following an investigation. Hamilton had both his first pole position and first victory of his F1 career in the at Montreal. He led for most of the race even after the safety car was deployed four times increasing the chances of him being overtaken. A week later Hamilton won the , also from pole position, becoming the first Briton since John Watson in 1983 to win an F1 race in the US, and only the second person, after Jacques Villeneuve, to win more than one race in his rookie Formula One season since the first year of the Championship.

By finishing third at Magny-Cours behind Ferrari drivers Kimi Räikkönen and Felipe Massa, Hamilton extended his lead in the Driver's Championship to 14 points. This was the first time in his F1 career he finished a race in a lower position than he started, and the first time he had been passed on the race track in Formula One. He took pole at his home Grand Prix at Silverstone and led for the first 16 laps, but slipped to third, 40 seconds behind Räikkönen and Alonso.

During qualifying for the , Hamilton crashed at the Schumacher chicane after a problem with the wheel nut caused by the air gun used on his car. He was taken to the circuit's medical centre on a stretcher with an oxygen mask and drip, but was conscious throughout. He was unable to complete qualifying and his existing laptime was surpassed by all other competitors during Q3, thus he qualified in tenth position. After a final medical check on Sunday morning, Hamilton was cleared to race. During a heavy rainstorm which caused the race to be red-flagged Hamilton slid off into a gravel trap, however as he kept his engine running he was lifted back on to the circuit and able to rejoin the race after the restart. His ninth place finish in this race was his first non-podium and non-points finish, enabling title contenders Alonso and Massa to reduce Hamilton's championship lead.

Hamilton won the from pole position following a controversial qualifying session. Alonso had set the fastest time, but was relegated five places down the grid to sixth for preventing Hamilton to leave the pit lane in time to complete his final qualifying lap. Kimi Räikkönen stayed within five seconds of Hamilton for the entire race (excluding pit stop periods). McLaren were docked any constructor's points earned during the race due to the incident in qualifying.

After declaring he had restored his relationship with Alonso, Hamilton qualified second in Turkey. After dropping to third at the first corner, Hamilton looked set for a podium finish with 15 laps remaining, but a right-front tyre puncture forced him to crawl back to the pits, leaving him to finish fifth meaning his championship lead was cut once more.

Alonso beat Hamilton in the Italian and Belgian Grands Prix, leaving Hamilton with a two-point lead in the title race. However he extended his lead to 12 points after winning the in heavy rain after Alonso crashed. Following the race Hamilton was investigated by the race stewards over his involvement in an incident behind the safety car, which saw both Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber crash out of the race while following the McLaren. The trio were cleared on the Friday of the weekend.

After securing pole position in China, which saw changeable weather conditions, Hamilton retired from the race. He experienced considerable tyre wear, notably his right rear, and he ran wide into the gravel trap in the pitlane where his car beached, recording the first retirement of his Formula One career. It was later revealed that Bridgestone became unnerved at the glaringly worn tyres and advised McLaren to order him to make a pit stop, which McLaren refused to do, believing it would be counterproductive. Hamilton himself couldn't tell the full extent of the tyre problem as raindrops were in his wing mirrors. Hamilton thus went into the final race of the season four and seven points ahead of Alonso and Räikkönen respectively.

In the he failed to finish in a championship-winning position, finishing the race in seventh after being as low as 18th place during the race, due to two incidents. In the first he was passed by Räikkönen away from the line before being boxed in by Massa and Räikkönen into the first corner, and 'wrong-footed' by Räikkönen mid-corner, Hamilton was passed by Alonso in Turn 3. Hamilton attempted to re-pass Alonso in turn four, but ran wide, dropping four places to eighth. The second problem started on lap 9 when Hamilton encountered a gearbox problem, which meant that he was stuck in neutral and could not select any gears. The gearbox became operational again after Hamilton switched settings on his steering wheel, but he lost 40 seconds while his car was coasting. For most of the race, Massa was leading with Räikkönen in second. If this had been the case come the chequered flag with Hamilton in seventh place, Hamilton would have become world champion. After the second round of pit stops, Räikkönen stayed out a couple of laps longer than Massa and took the lead. Once in front Räikkönen made no mistakes in the remaining laps and won the race to become the Formula One world champion.

On 21 October 2007 it was announced that the FIA were investigating BMW Sauber and Williams for fuel irregularities, the BMW drivers had finished in fifth and sixth place, and if they were to be excluded Hamilton would be promoted to fifth and would win the 2007 Drivers World Championship by one point over Räikkönen. Ultimately no penalty whatsoever was given to any team as there was "sufficient doubt as to render it inappropriate to impose a penalty", though McLaren officially appealed this decision. Hamilton subsequently told the BBC he does not want to win an F1 title through the disqualifications of other drivers. A precedent had been set in 1995 when Michael Schumacher, then of Benetton-Renault, and David Coulthard, then of Williams-Renault, were both found guilty of possessing illegal fuel in their cars and in that situation both drivers were initially docked drivers points, but for unspecified reasons it would transpire over a week later that constructor points would be docked instead.

Ahead of the world championship finale, Hamilton answered a question about what it would mean to him to become the first black champion, saying: "It will show that not only white people can do it, but also black people, Indians, Japanese and Chinese. It will be good to mean something." Having made few public remarks about his ethnicity since becoming an F1 driver, Hamilton added: "Outside of Formula One my heroes are foremost my father, then Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King. Being black is not a negative. It's a positive, if anything, because I'm different. In the future it can open doors to different cultures and that is what motor sport is trying to do anyway".

Team tensions

Hamilton's relationship with McLaren team boss Ron Dennis dates back to 1995, with the first indication that Hamilton was unhappy with his team appearing after he finished second at Monaco in 2007. After post-race comments made by Hamilton which suggested he had been forced into a supporting role, the FIA initiated an inquiry to determine whether McLaren had broken rules by enforcing team orders. McLaren denied favouring double world champion Fernando Alonso, and the FIA subsequently vindicated the team, stating that: "McLaren were able to pursue an optimum team strategy because they had a substantial advantage over all other cars. They did nothing which could be described as interfering with the race result".

The tensions within the team surfaced again at the 2007 Hungarian Grand Prix. During the final qualifying session for the race Hamilton was delayed in the pits by Alonso and thus unable to set a final lap time before the end of the session. McLaren pointed out that Hamilton had disobeyed an earlier instruction to let Alonso pass in qualifying, for fear of losing his own position. Alonso was relegated to sixth place on the starting grid, thus elevating Hamilton (who had originally qualified second) to first, while McLaren were docked constructors championship points. Hamilton said he thought Alonso's penalty was "quite light if anything" and only regretted the loss of constructors' points. Hamilton was reported to have sworn at Dennis on the team radio following the incident. British motorsport journal ''Autosport'' claimed that this "[led] Dennis to throw his headphones on the pit wall in disgust (a gesture that was misinterpreted by many to be in reaction to Alonso's pole)". However McLaren later issued a statement on behalf of Hamilton which denied the use of any profanity. As a result of these events, the relationship between Hamilton and Alonso temporarily collapsed, with the pair not on speaking terms for a short period. In the aftermath it was reported that Hamilton had been targeted by Luca Cordero di Montezemolo regarding a Ferrari drive for .

Following the stewards' investigation into the incident at the 2007 Japanese Grand Prix, Alonso stated: "I'm not thinking of this championship anymore, it's been decided off the track. The drivers' briefing has no purpose. You go there to hear what Charlie Whiting and the other officials say. Twenty one drivers have an opinion, Charlie and the officials another, and so it's like talking to a wall".

The rivalry between Hamilton and teammate Alonso led to speculation that one of the pair would leave McLaren at the end of the 2007 season and Alonso and McLaren subsequently terminated their contract by mutual consent on 2 November 2007.

2008 season

On 14 December 2007, it was confirmed that Heikki Kovalainen who drove for Renault in 2007 would drive the second car for McLaren-Mercedes for the 2008 Formula One season alongside Hamilton. In January 2008, Hamilton signed a new five-year multi-million pound contract to stay with McLaren-Mercedes until the end of the 2012 season.

Hamilton won the first race of the 2008 season, the , having qualified on pole position. In Malaysia, he finished fifth after duels with Mark Webber and Jarno Trulli. He had been demoted to ninth on the grid, from fourth, for impeding Nick Heidfeld's flying lap. In Bahrain, Hamilton destroyed his car during a practice crash. He continued with a spare chassis and took third place in qualifying. In the race, after a bad start, he crashed into the back of Alonso's Renault finishing 13th. This led to him being overtaken in the Drivers' Championship by Kimi Räikkönen and Nick Heidfeld. He was back on the podium in Spain finishing third from fifth on the grid. Hamilton finished second in Turkey, and won the a fortnight later, putting him in the lead of the championship.

He achieved his eighth career pole position in Montreal but he crashed into the back of Räikkönen during the race, after failing to see that the Finn was waiting at a red light at the end of the pit lane. Both cars were forced to retire and Hamilton was given a 10 position grid penalty for the next race, the , as a result of this incident. At that race, Hamilton overtook Sebastian Vettel at the chicane on lap 1 but missed the apex and was given a drive through penalty which he served on lap 13, finishing the race in 13th. Despite an error in qualifying that saw him start fourth on the grid, Hamilton went on to win the in difficult, wet conditions. His performance was stated as being one of his best drives to date. Hamilton himself said in the post race press conference that it was his most difficult and most meaningful win.

In the next race at Hockenheim, Hamilton started from pole position, building up an 11 second lead over second-placed Felipe Massa early in the race. After stopping and re-emerging in the lead, McLaren then decided to keep Hamilton out on-track when the safety car was deployed mid-way through the race. When Hamilton finally pitted, he came out in fifth place, jumping to third after his team-mate let him by and Nick Heidfeld pitted. He then overtook Massa and Nelson Piquet, Jr. for the lead, eventually winning by 9 seconds.

Hamilton won the on the road, however he was later judged to have gained an unfair advantage by cutting a chicane when he used a tarmac run off area to avoid hitting Kimi Räikkönen. McLaren said that their telemetry showed Hamilton backed off to let Räikkönen past but Hamilton was given a 25 second penalty, thereby dropping him to third. As a result his main title rival Massa inherited the win. Hamilton's lead in the drivers' championship was cut to two points, and a subsequent appeal by McLaren to the FIA World Motor Sport Council was rejected on the grounds that the case was inadmissible. The Italian Grand Prix was won by Sebastian Vettel in the Toro Rosso. Both Massa and Hamilton failed to capitalise on the weather and each other's poor grid positions finishing sixth and seventh respectively. This result cut Hamilton's lead in the Championship to one point. Hamilton finished third at the next race in Singapore, while Massa failed to score any points, allowing Hamilton to increase his championship lead to seven points.

At Fuji, Hamilton took pole in qualifying. His closest rival for the Championship title, Felipe Massa, could only manage to qualify fifth. As the race began Kimi Räikkönen made a good start from second position, getting ahead of pole-sitter Hamilton. Hamilton moved down the inside before the first corner, out-braking himself and running wide. This forced some of the drivers behind him to go off the track, including the cars of Räikkönen and Heikki Kovalainen, for which Hamilton was given a drive-through penalty. A second incident followed soon afterwards, on the second lap, when Hamilton attempted to pass Massa into the chicane at turn 10. Hamilton pulled alongside the Ferrari and as Massa ran wide into the corner, Hamilton made a move to pass him. Massa then ran up inside Hamilton and the cars collided at the second bend of the chicane, pushing the McLaren into a spin. Massa was later given a drive-through penalty for this move. Hamilton, who had been in sixth place behind Massa, dropped down to last place but managed to regain some places and managed to finish the race in 12th position. However Massa finished seventh after being given an extra point after a penalty was given to Toro Rosso's Sébastien Bourdais. This meant that with just two races to go Hamilton led the World Championship by five points from Massa.

At the penultimate race of the season, the , Hamilton was much faster than all the other cars in the practice sessions, and qualified on pole position. He went on to win the race from Felipe Massa and Kimi Räikkönen, taking a 7 point lead in the World Championship into the last race of the season. Speaking afterwards, Hamilton said "All weekend we have had God on our side as always, and the team did a phenomenal job in preparing the car, which has been a dream to drive." Hamilton needed to finish at least fifth in the to secure the World Championship. After a hard fought race Hamilton was in fifth but, after rain, and in the closing laps of the race, Sebastian Vettel of Scuderia Toro Rosso took the fifth position away from Hamilton. Had the race ended then, this would have given the driver's title to Massa.

On the final lap of the race first Vettel and then Hamilton managed to pass Timo Glock of Toyota, after Glock (unlike Hamilton) had risked staying on the track with dry-weather tyres, despite the rain. This moved Hamilton back up to fifth, ensuring that he finished one point ahead of Massa overall and winning the 2008 title. Hamilton's overtaking move happened after Massa had crossed the line to win. This meant that Hamilton had clinched the 2008 Formula One World Championship, becoming the youngest driver to win the title, as well as the first black driver. He is also the first British driver to win the World Championship since Damon Hill triumphed in 1996.

;Racial abuse On 4 February 2008, Hamilton was verbally heckled and otherwise abused during pre-season testing at the Circuit de Catalunya in Catalonia by several Spanish spectators who wore black face paint and black wigs, as well as shirts bearing the words "Hamilton's ". Hamilton became widely unpopular in Spain because of his rivalry with Spanish former team-mate Fernando Alonso. The FIA have warned Spanish authorities about the repetition of such behaviour. In reaction to this behaviour, the FIA announced on 13 February 2008 that it will launch a "Race Against Racism" campaign.

Shortly before the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix, a website owned by the Spanish branch of the New York-based advertising agency TBWA and named "pinchalaruedadeHamilton" (burst Hamilton's tyre) was featured in the British media. The website contained an animated image of Interlagos that allowed users to leave nails and porcupines on the track for Hamilton's car to run over. Among thousands of comments left since 2007, some included racial insults. His rival Fernando Alonso condemned the racist supporters.

2009 season

A year after winning the 2008 Australian Grand Prix from pole position, Hamilton started the season-opening from 18th place on the grid after the McLaren team incurred a penalty for changing his malfunctioning gearbox during qualifying. Hamilton benefited from a late crash between Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel and BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica to move into fourth place by the end of the race. He was then promoted to third after Jarno Trulli was penalised for overtaking him under safety-car conditions. During a post-race stewards' hearing, Hamilton and McLaren officials told stewards they had not purposely let Trulli pass, but it was revealed by release of the McLaren race radio communication that this was not true. Hamilton was then disqualified from the race for providing "misleading evidence" during the stewards' hearing. He later privately apologised to FIA race director Charlie Whiting for having lied to the stewards.

Over the next six races, Hamilton qualified outside the top ten three more times, twice qualifying as high as fifth. He scored minor points at the Malaysian, Chinese and Bahrain Grands Prix. A chance for points, and even hopes for a podium finish came at the Nürburgring when he again qualified fifth, but a puncture on the first lap caused by a collision with Mark Webber sent him down to 19th as the McLaren limped back to the pits damaging the floor and undertray. With the car's aerodynamics damaged he finished 18th, last and the only driver in the race lapped.

Hamilton's fortunes were reversed at the Hungaroring, the tenth round of the season. A KERS-assisted start from fourth place saw him take second place by the first corner, before losing it to Mark Webber at the next turn. Hamilton repassed Webber on lap five and following Alonso's retirement on lap 13, he led the remainder of the race to finish 11.529 seconds clear of Räikkönen and take his 10th career win and the first for a KERS-equipped car. McLaren's return to form continued in Valencia, where Hamilton qualified on pole position for the first time in the season, heading a McLaren one-two with team-mate Heikki Kovalainen. In the race a poor pit stop by the mechanics lost Hamilton first place but he finished a steady second behind Rubens Barrichello's Brawn.

Hamilton crashed out of the next two races, the Belgian and Italian Grands Prix, going out of third place on the last lap of the Italian race when chasing Jenson Button for second. This mathematically eliminated his chances of defending his title. In September, at the , Hamilton took his second win of the season. He finished third at the next two races, the Japanese and Brazilian Grands Prix, starting the latter event from 17th on the grid. In the inaugural , Hamilton was quick throughout the practice sessions and qualified on pole, six tenths of a second quicker than Sebastian Vettel who was second on the grid. Hamilton led the race, but retired on lap 20 due to a rear brake problem, his first technical-related retirement in Formula One.

Kovalainen left the team at the end of the year, and like Alonso he was upset with the team's favouritism of Hamilton. According to Kovalainen, Hamilton always had priority for the newest parts, and Kovalainen was forced to carry more fuel during qualifying, reducing his qualifying times.

2010 season

After a difficult 2009 season Hamilton was set out to challenge for the title hoping for a better season for him and McLaren. For the new season Hamilton would drive alongside new teammate, Jenson Button, while Heikki Kovalainen moved to Lotus Racing.

Hamilton finished third in Bahrain, having qualified fourth on the grid. In Australia, Hamilton failed to make the top ten in qualifying, starting the race from eleventh place on the grid. He ran as high as third, before ending the race in sixth, after a late-race collision with Mark Webber. The Malaysia saw him in the top three positions in all practice sessions, but a misjudgement on the weather by his team in qualifying, left him on tyres that were unfavourable for the wet conditions. This restricted him to 20th on the grid for the race, before he came through to finish sixth. He was given a warning during the race, after he weaved four times over a straight trying to break the tow that Vitaly Petrov was receiving and was not intending to block him. After the race the rules were clarified by stewards to only allow a driver to weave once even if they are only trying to break a tow.

Hamilton qualified in sixth position in Shanghai, making up four places in the race and achieving a second place finish, behind teammate Jenson Button. This completed the team's first 1–2 finish since the 2007 Italian Grand Prix. The race saw multiple brief periods of rain, and two safety car periods, which upset the order and resulted in many overtaking manoeuvres. Hamilton was involved in a pit lane incident with Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel, for which both later received a reprimand from race stewards, Hamilton for his second consecutive race after the Petrov incident in Malaysia. Hamilton qualified third for the , and by the end of the race he was running in second behind Mark Webber and set the fastest lap of the race on the third last lap. The next lap, he speared off into the gravel trap and came in contact with the wall, destroying the left front suspension and putting him out of the race. It appeared that his front left tyre received a puncture and blew out but it was later confirmed by McLaren that the wheel rim had failed and destroyed the tyre, sending Hamilton into the barrier. Despite running in the top three for most of the race, he was classified outside the points.

The next weekend at Monaco Hamilton qualified and finished 5th. For the , Hamilton qualified a season's best 2nd, behind Mark Webber. He was overtaken by 3rd placed Sebastian Vettel, but managed to reclaim the place soon after. Hamilton was then promoted to 1st after Vettel and Webber collided with each other on Lap 40. Hamilton's teammate, Jenson Button was then in 2nd behind him and later overtook Hamilton, but Hamilton retook the lead in the first corner after a few near collisions. Both drivers held back then and cruised to a the finish, with Hamilton taking his first victory of the 2010 season, promoting him to 3rd in the Drivers Championship.

Prior to the Turkish Grand Prix in 2010, Hamilton evidently had both of his ears pierced, as he was sporting black studs in each ear on the grid before the race, however despite FIA policy prohibiting the wearing of earrings and jewellery at grand prix, the FIA stated that they had no issue with Hamilton's freshly pierced ears. Hamilton qualified on pole for the , continuing a 100% pole record at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. After setting his pole lap, Hamilton received instructions from his team to stop on circuit due to a lack of fuel in the car which would not be equivalent to the level necessary for a sample to be taken by the FIA. Hamilton was reprimanded after failing to complete his in-lap in a sufficient time, while his team received a $10,000 fine. This fine did not appear to affect Hamilton who won the race and promoted him to lead the Drivers Championship. A day after the Grand Prix Hamilton flew back into the UK and drove Ayrton Senna's championship winning MP4/4. Hamilton had been denied the chance to drive it in 2009 when the car had a gearbox problem the day before he drove it at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Hamilton was clearly excited and overcome with emotion and described it as 'one of the best days of his life'. He also stated that he had 'ticked off one of his dreams' by driving the car.

Hamilton qualified third in Valencia and passed Mark Webber at the start of the race. He went up the inside of Vettel into the second corner but was run out of room by Vettel, jumped over the kerbs and made slight contact which resulted in some damage to his McLaren. When the safety car was deployed after Webber's 300 km/h flying crash, Vettel and Hamilton were on the pit straight. Vettel passed the second safety car line before the safety car exited the pits while Hamilton just missed making the line by about 0.5s. Hamilton passed the safety car after the second safety car line instead of decelerating to follow the safety car. Fernando Alonso was a second behind Hamilton and was disadvantaged by having to remain behind the safety car. Alonso complained on the radio to his team which led to the stewards investigating the incident and penalising Hamilton with a drive through penalty. The stewards announced the penalty 20 minutes after the incident which allowed Hamilton to make a gap before serving the penalty and kept him in second place. This angered Alonso and the Ferrari team as the penalty did not alter the results, leading Hamilton to accuse Alonso of "sour grapes", although the pair reconciled before the next race.

Hamilton finished second behind Vettel and retained his lead in the drivers championship. He finished second at Silverstone and fourth at Hockenheim, while in Hungary, Hamilton qualified fifth but retired during the race due to gearbox problems, losing the championship lead to Webber. Despite running into the gravel at Spa-Francorchamps, Hamilton won his third race of the season and reclaimed the championship lead.

Hamilton crashed out of the Singapore Grand Prix in a racing incident with Mark Webber on lap 35. Webber had overtaken Hamilton during his pitstop, then Hamilton attempted to overtake Webber whilst Webber was lapping Virgin Racing's Lucas di Grassi. The resulting collision ended Hamilton's race while Webber went on to finish third.

2011 season

Hamilton began the season finishing second in the behind winner Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull, despite having to deal with a damaged floor on his McLaren. In the , he qualified second and finished seventh on-the-road, struggling partly due to tyre wear and being tagged by Ferrari's Fernando Alonso in the closing stages. Both Hamilton and Alonso received 20-second time penalties post-race, which dropped Hamilton to eighth place behind Kamui Kobayashi, while Alonso remained sixth. He took his first win of the season in China, overtaking race leader Vettel with just a few laps remaining. He then finished fourth in Turkey, and second behind Vettel in Spain, after pressuring him for the lead in the closing stages.

In Monaco, he qualified tenth after Q3 was red-flagged before he could set a competitive time due to a heavy crash from Sergio Pérez. He passed Schumacher at the start, but was then re-passed at the Grand Hotel hairpin. Later on he tried to pass Massa at this point, and hit Massa's side pod, stopping both temporarily. After this he passed and sent Massa into the barriers in the tunnel, putting him out of the race. He was then given a drive-through penalty. Later on, he was being lapped whilst battling with several other drivers. He braked to avoid Adrian Sutil, who had run wide, this caused Alguersuari to rear-end Hamilton, breaking his rear wing. This crash red-flagged the race as Petrov had hit the wall and injured himself. Hamilton's wing was repaired, and on the restart he sent Maldonado into the barriers, putting him out of the race too. He eventually finished 6th, one lap down. He was then given a 20 second time penalty for his crash with Maldonado, but did not drop him down the order. Hamilton later criticised the stewards after the race. At the , Hamilton attempted to pass teammate Button on the start/finish straight, though lack of visibility in wet conditions meant that Button was unaware of Hamilton's presence and they collided. Button carried on to victory and Hamilton retired with suspension damage.

Hamilton qualified third in Valencia, and dropped to fifth at the start, but he passed Massa during the pit stop phase to finish fourth. He qualified tenth at Silverstone, and moved up to sixth on the first lap. He later moved up to fourth place, but was told to conserve fuel towards the end of the race, and started being caught up by Massa. Massa passed him on the last lap, but Hamilton moved ahead at the final corner and marginally held on to fourth position. He qualified second at Germany, and took the lead from Webber at turn 1. Webber undercut Hamilton during the pit stops to take the lead, but Hamilton re-took the lead after the second set of pit stops, where Webber emerged just behind him and he passed Alonso round the outside of turn 2 to take his second victory of 2011. Another front-row start followed at Hungary and had many exciting battles for the lead with Button. He span whilst in the lead at one point and sent Paul di Resta onto the grass, for which he received a drive-through penalty, but recovered to finish fourth.

After qualifying second for the 2011 Belgian Grand Prix, Hamilton failed to finish for only the second time in the season after a collision with Sauber driver Kamui Kobayashi.

Records

Hamilton has matched or set the following records in Formula One: Most consecutive podiums from debut race: 9 – 2007 Australian GP – 2007 British GP (previous record was 2 by Peter Arundell – 1964 Monaco GP – 1964 Dutch GP) Most consecutive podiums for a British driver: 9 – 2007 Australian GP – 2007 British GP (tied with Jim Clark – 1963 Belgian GP – 1963 South African GP) Youngest driver to lead the World Championship: 22 years, 4 months, 6 days – at the 2007 Spanish GP (previous record was 23 years, 7 months, 22 days by Fernando Alonso at the 2005 Malaysian GP) Most wins in a debut season: 4 – 2007 Canadian, USA, Hungarian and Japanese GPs (equalling Jacques Villeneuve, 1996 European, British, Hungarian and Portuguese GPs) Most pole positions in a debut season: 6 – 2007 Canadian, USA, British, Hungarian, Japanese and Chinese GPs (previous record was 3 held jointly by Jacques Villeneuve () and Juan Pablo Montoya ()) Most points in a debut season: 109

In his debut season, Hamilton took the record of Youngest World Drivers' Championship runner-up, at 22 years and 288 days, previously held by Kimi Räikkönen at 23 years and 360 days. In 2009, this record was taken by Sebastian Vettel, who was 22 years and 122 days when he secured runner-up position in the championship.

Hamilton is the first driver of black heritage to compete in Formula One (although Willy T. Ribbs tested an F1 car in 1986) and the first driver of black heritage to win a major race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in any discipline. In addition, he is the third youngest driver to achieve an F1 pole position, and the fourteenth F1 driver to achieve a podium finish on his debut.

During the 2007 European Grand Prix at the Nürburgring, Hamilton became the first driver to have his car recovered by a crane and put back on the track during an F1 race, although several drivers have been pushed back onto the circuit by the marshals without mechanical aids when judged to be in a dangerous position, such as Michael Schumacher during the 2003 European Grand Prix. Since then, the FIA have now banned the use of mechanical assistance to help move a car back onto the track, meaning that Hamilton became the first and the last driver to have his car recovered by crane back onto the track.

Lewis Hamilton's contract for the McLaren driver development program made him the youngest ever driver to secure a contract which later resulted in an F1 drive.

Driving style

Hamilton is known for his aggressive and interesting driving style. He commonly uses oversteer to control the car's direction change. Confidence in car control allows Hamilton to excel in wet conditions as demonstrated in his performance at the 2008 British Grand Prix. Confidence is also demonstrated when overtaking, as reflected in his 32 overtakes in 4 races during .

His aggressive style often attracts the attention of critics. For example, critics argued that Hamilton's defensive weaving during the 2010 Malaysian Grand Prix in attempt to break the tow of Vitaly Petrov's chasing Renault was potentially dangerous. Hamilton was quick to defend himself to these accusations, but race director Charlie Whiting clarified after the race that such weaving would favour a penalty in the future.

Helmet

Due to the fact that Hamilton has said in the past that Ayrton Senna was his hero, some people assumed that his helmet is yellow in honour of him. In actuality it was made yellow so that his father could tell which kart his son was driving back in his karting days. Hamilton chose the colours blue, green and red and they were originally in a ribbon design; however, Hamilton later felt that the design was "a bit old hat" so it was changed. In later years a white ring was added and the ribbons moved forward to make room for adverts and logos.

During the 2010 Monaco Grand Prix, Hamilton had an altered helmet design with the addition of a roulette wheel image on the top. Hamilton had said, "...I'll also be wearing a specially-painted helmet for the occasion. When you see it, you'll know why I'll be hoping for it to swing the odds in my favour."

Racing results

Career summary

! Season	! Series	! Team	! Races	! Wins	! Poles	! F/Laps	! Podiums	! Points	! Position
! 2001	align=left		4	0	0	0	0	?	5th
2002	align=left		13	3	3	5	7	274
	align=left	4	1	1	2	3	92	5th
2003	align=left		15	10	11	9	13	419
	align=left	2	0	0	0	0	0	NC
	align=left	2	0	0	0	1	24	12th
	align=left	2	0	0	0	0	25	27th
	align=left	1	0	1	0	0	N/A	NC
		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	NC
2004	align=left		20	1	1	2	5	69	5th
align=left	1	1	0	0	1	N/A
	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	14th
align=left	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	14th
2005	align=left	align=left rowspan=2	20	15	13	10	17	172
align=left	1	1	1	1	1	N/A
! 2006	align=left		21	5	1	7	14	114
! 2007	align=left	align=left	17	4	6	2	12	109
! 2008	align=left	align=left	18	5	7	1	10	98
! 2009	align=left	align=left	17	2	4	0	5	49	5th
! 2010	align=left	align=left	19	3	1	5	9	240	4th
! 2011	align=left	align=left	12	2	0	2	4	146*	5th*

Season in progress.

Complete Formula Renault 2000 Eurocup results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

! Year

! Entrant

! 1

! 2

! 3

! 4

! 5

! 6

! 7

! 8

! 9

! DC

! Points

! Manor Motorsport

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! 92

Complete British Formula Three results

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! Year

! Entrant

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! 3

! 4

! 5

! 6

! 7

! 8

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! 12

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! 19

! 20

! 21

! 22

! 23

! 24

! DC

! Points

!Manor Motorsport

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NC

0

Complete Formula Three Euroseries results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

! Year

! Entrant

! Chassis

! Engine

! 1

! 2

! 3

! 4

! 5

! 6

! 7

! 8

! 9

! 10

! 11

! 12

! 13

! 14

! 15

! 16

! 17

! 18

! 19

! 20

! DC

! Points

! Manor Motorsport

! Dallara F302/049

Mercedes-Benz in motorsport>HWA-Mercedes

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! 5th

! 68

ART Grand Prix>ASM Formule 3

! Dallara F305/021

Mercedes-Benz in motorsport>Mercedes

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Complete GP2 Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

! Year

! Entrant

! 1

! 2

! 3

! 4

! 5

! 6

! 7

! 8

! 9

! 10

! 11

! 12

! 13

! 14

! 15

! 16

! 17

! 18

! 19

! 20

! 21

! DC

! Points

! ART Grand Prix

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Complete Formula One results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

! Year

! Entrant

! Chassis

! Engine

! 1

! 2

! 3

! 4

! 5

! 6

! 7

! 8

! 9

! 10

! 11

! 12

! 13

! 14

! 15

! 16

! 17

! 18

! 19

! WDC

List of Formula One World Championship points scoring systems>Points

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes-Benz HighPerformanceEngines>Mercedes

McLaren McLaren MP4-22>MP4-22

!

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Mercedes-Benz HighPerformanceEngines

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McLaren Mercedes-Benz HighPerformanceEngines>Mercedes

McLaren McLaren MP4-23>MP4-23

!

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Mercedes-Benz HighPerformanceEngines

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McLaren Mercedes-Benz HighPerformanceEngines>Mercedes

McLaren McLaren MP4-24>MP4-24

!

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! 5th

! 49

Mercedes-Benz HighPerformanceEngines

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! 5th

! 49

McLaren Mercedes-Benz HighPerformanceEngines>Mercedes

McLaren McLaren MP4-25>MP4-25

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! 4th

! 240

Mercedes-Benz HighPerformanceEngines

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! 4th

! 240

McLaren Mercedes-Benz HighPerformanceEngines>Mercedes

McLaren McLaren MP4-26>MP4-26

! Official Web Site Career details Lewis Hamilton biography – McLaren.com [[Jamie Green">Mercedes-Benz HighPerformanceEngines

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! 5th*

! 146*

*Season in progress. Did not finish, but was classified as he had completed more than 90% of the race distance. Half points awarded as less than 75% of race distance was completed.

References

Further reading

Written by Hamilton

(also in paperback )

Written by others

(also in paperback ) (also in paperback )

External links

Official Web Site

Career details

Lewis Hamilton biography – McLaren.com

title = Formula Three Euroseries Drivers' Champion | years=[[2005 Formula Three Euroseries season|2005 | after= Paul di Resta}} Nick Heidfeld(1997) | title = Monaco Formula Three SupportRace Winner| after = nonerace not held since | years = 2005}} Alexandre Prémat | title = Formula Three MastersWinner| after = Paul di Resta | years = 2005}} Nico Rosberg | title = GP2 SeriesDrivers' Champion | years=2006 | after= Timo Glock}} Kimi Räikkönen | title = Formula One World Champion| after = Jenson Button | years = }} Juan Manuel Fangio (1950) and Giuseppe Farina (1950)3 wins | title = Most Wins in a debut Formula One season4 wins | after = Incumbent | years = 2007, tied with: Jacques Villeneuve (1996)}}

Fernando Alonso24 years, 58 days(2005 season) | after = Sebastian Vettel23 years, 134 days(2010 season) | years = 23 years, 300 days(2008 season)}}

Danny Watts | title = AutosportBritish Club Driver of the Year | after = James Pickford | years = 2003}} Tiago Monteiro | title = AutosportRookie Of The Year | after = Sebastian Vettel| years =2006–2007}} Jenson Button | after= Jenson Button| years=2007–2008}} Jenson Button | title = AutosportBritish Competition Driver of the Year | after = Allan McNish| years = 2007}} Fernando Alonso | title = AutosportInternational Racing Driver Award | after = Jenson Button| years = 2007–2008}} Sebastian Vettel|title=Lorenzo Bandini Trophy|years=2010|after= Nico Rosberg}} Amélie Mauresmo | after = Rebecca Adlington | title = Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year | years = 2008}} }}

Category:1985 births Category:Living people Category:People from Stevenage Category:Black British sportspeople Category:English racecar drivers Category:English Formula One drivers Category:English people of Grenadian descent Category:McLaren Formula One drivers Category:Formula One World Drivers' Champions Category:GP2 Series drivers Category:GP2 Series Champions Category:Formula Three Euroseries drivers Category:Formula Three Euroseries Champions Category:British Formula Renault 2.0 drivers Category:Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 drivers Category:German Formula Renault 2.0 drivers Category:Monaco Grand Prix winners Category:CIK-FIA Karting World Championship drivers Category:English Roman Catholics Category:British karateka Category:BRDC Gold Star winners Category:Segrave Trophy recipients Category:Members of the Order of the British Empire Category:British expatriates in Switzerland

ar:لويس هاملتون ast:Lewis Hamilton bs:Lewis Hamilton bg:Луис Хамилтън ca:Lewis Hamilton cs:Lewis Hamilton cy:Lewis Hamilton da:Lewis Hamilton de:Lewis Hamilton et:Lewis Hamilton el:Λιούις Χάμιλτον es:Lewis Hamilton eo:Lewis Hamilton eu:Lewis Hamilton fa:لوئیز همیلتون fr:Lewis Hamilton gl:Lewis Hamilton ko:루이스 해밀턴 hi:लुईस हैमिल्टन hr:Lewis Hamilton id:Lewis Hamilton it:Lewis Hamilton he:לואיס המילטון jv:Lewis Hamilton lv:Luiss Hamiltons lb:Lewis Hamilton lt:Lewis Hamilton hu:Lewis Hamilton mr:लुइस हॅमिल्टन ms:Lewis Hamilton nl:Lewis Hamilton ja:ルイス・ハミルトン no:Lewis Hamilton nn:Lewis Hamilton pl:Lewis Hamilton pt:Lewis Hamilton ro:Lewis Hamilton ru:Хэмилтон, Льюис sq:Lewis Hamilton scn:Lewis Hamilton simple:Lewis Hamilton sk:Lewis Hamilton sl:Lewis Hamilton szl:Lewis Hamilton sr:Луис Хамилтон sh:Lewis Hamilton su:Lewis Hamilton fi:Lewis Hamilton sv:Lewis Hamilton te:లెవీస్ హామిల్టన్ th:ลูวิส แฮมิลตัน tr:Lewis Hamilton uk:Льюїс Гамільтон vi:Lewis Hamilton zh:劉易斯·咸美頓

name	Steve Davis
birth date	August 22, 1957
birth place	Plumstead, London
sport country
nickname
professional	1978–present
high ranking	1
current rank	48
prize money	£5,614,630 (up to the end of 2008/2009) is an English professional snooker player. He has won more professional titles in the sport than any other player, including six World Championships during the 1980s, when he was the world number one for seven years and became the sport's first millionaire. He has won 28 ranking events in total, second only to Stephen Hendry. Davis' achievements also include three Masters and a record six UK Championship titles. In 1988 he became the first player to complete snooker's Triple Crown in a single season. He is also a former four-time World Doubles champion with Tony Meo and won the World Team Classic/World Cup four times with England. In 1982, he became the first player to compile a televised maximum break and is one of four players to have compiled over 300 competitive century breaks. Though he has not won a major tournament since 1997, he continues to play snooker at a high level and reached the quarter-finals at the 2010 World Championship. He was still ranked in the world's top 16 at the age of 50, and is ranked number 48. Outside of snooker Davis is a known writer, pool and poker player. He played at the Mosconi Cup between 1994 and 2004 as a member of Team Europe, winning the event in 1995 and 2002. He was made an MBE in 1998 and an OBE in 2001. He now combines his playing career with his role as an established television analyst and occasional commentator for the BBC's snooker coverage. Career In the book ''Masters of the Baize'', a detailed comparison and ranking of snooker pros, authors Luke Williams and Paul Gadsby rated Davis as the third greatest snooker player of all time behind Joe Davis and Stephen Hendry. , Davis has won a record 80 professional titles from 115 finals, 28 of them in ranking events. His record of six world titles in the modern era has been bettered only by Hendry and no player has yet matched his tally of six UK titles. Davis has also compiled over 300 competitive centuries during his career. In 2011 he was inducted to World Snooker's newly created Hall of Fame along with seven former World Champions. Early career Davis was introduced to snooker by his father Bill, a keen player, who took him to play at his local working men's club at the age of 12. He started playing at the Lucania Snooker Club in Romford, where at the age of 18 the manager of the club brought his talent to the attention of Barry Hearn, chairman of the Lucania chain of snooker halls. Hearn became Davis' friend and manager. Paid £25 a match by Hearn, Davis toured the country, taking part in challenge matches against established professionals such as Ray Reardon, John Spencer and Alex Higgins. Around this time he was given the nickname "Nugget" because, according to Hearn, "you could put your case of money on him and you knew you were going to get paid." Davis won the English Under-19 Billiards Championship in 1976. One of his last wins as an amateur was against another future professional Tony Meo in the final of the Pontin's Spring Open of 1978. A year later he successfully defended his title, this time defeating another of his future rivals, Jimmy White, 7–4 in the final. Davis turned professional on 17 September 1978 and made his professional television debut on Pot Black, where he played against Fred Davis. He made his World Championship debut in 1979, losing 11–13 to Dennis Taylor in the first round. Dominance of snooker Davis came to public prominence after his performance at the 1980 World Championship, where he reached the quarter-finals, defeating defending champion Terry Griffiths en route, before losing to Alex Higgins. Davis won his first major title in the same year – the UK Championship – during which he beat Griffiths 9–0 in the semi-finals and Higgins 16–6 in the final. This began an 18-month period of dominance. He won the Classic and then the International Masters and English Professional titles in 1981, and became the bookmakers' favourite to win the 1981 World Championship, despite being seeded only 15. Davis reached the final by defeating Jimmy White in the first round, Higgins in the second round, Griffiths in the quarter-finals and defending champion Cliff Thorburn in the semi-final. Davis's 18–12 victory over Doug Mountjoy in the final confirmed bookmakers' early predictions, and in celebration his manager Barry Hearn charged across the arena to lift him up in the air. He would go on to reach seven out of the next eight world finals. He followed up his world title win with a 9–0 final victory over Dennis Taylor in the International Open and then retained the UK Championship with a 9–0 whitewash over White in the semi-finals and a 16–3 win over Griffiths in the final. This began a period of six months in which Davis and Griffiths contested almost all the major tournament finals. During this run, in January 1982, Davis made television sporting history when he compiled the first televised maximum break at the Classic at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Oldham, against John Spencer,though he subsequently lost 8–9 in the final against Griffiths. In 1982 Davis won his first Masters title, defeating Griffiths 9–6 in the final. Davis's 18-month period of dominance ended at the 1982 World Championship, when he succumbed to the so-called "Crucible Curse", suffering a 1–10 loss to Tony Knowles in the first round. Later that year, he couldn't win a third consecutive UK title as he lost in the quarter-finals against Griffiths. Following those two setbacks, he won the World Doubles Championship title with partner Tony Meo. In 1983 Davis regained the world title with a session to spare in the final, defeating an overwhelmed Thorburn 18–6; Thorburn had seen his previous three matches go to a deciding frame and a late finish. Davis lost 15–16 to Higgins in the 1983 UK Championship final, despite having led 7–0 at one point of the match. In 1984, he became the first player to retain his world title at the Crucible Theatre by beating Jimmy White 18–16 in the final. He also regained the UK title in 1984 defeating Higgins 16–8. Black ball final At the 1985 World Championship, Davis dropped only 23 frames en route to the final, where his opponent was Dennis Taylor. He looked set for a third consecutive world title after an opening session of near-faultless snooker gave him a 7–0 lead, which he extended to 8–0 in the evening session, but Taylor recovered to trail only 7–9. From 11–11 the pair traded frames before Davis forged ahead to lead 17–15. Taylor won the next two frames to level the match at 17–17 and force a deciding frame. With the scores close, Taylor potted the final colours to leave the black as the winner-takes-all ball. After a series of safety shots and attempts at potting it, Davis over-cut the black, leaving Taylor with a reasonably straightforward pot to secure the championship. The "nailbiting" finale drew 18.5 million viewers, a record post-midnight audience on British television and a record audience for BBC Two. The finish was voted the ninth greatest sporting moment of all time in a 2002 Channel 4 poll. Davis and Taylor met again in the final of the 1985 Grand Prix, but this time Davis won in the deciding frame. At 10 hours 21 minutes, it remains the longest one-day final in snooker history. In the 1985 UK Championship final Davis trailed 8–13 against Willie Thorne, who missed a blue off the spot which would have given him a 14–8 lead. Davis won the frame and then seven of the next eight to win 16–14. At the 1986 World Championship, Davis defeated White 13–5 in the quarter-finals and Thorburn 16–12 in the semi-finals, Davis's opponent in the final was Joe Johnson, who had started the tournament as a 150–1 outsider. Davis lost the match 12–18. The result did not affect his position at the top of the world rankings, as he had won the UK Championship, the Grand Prix and the British Open in the 1985/1986 season. At the end of 1986 he beat Neal Foulds 16–7 to retain the UK Championship. Davis started 1987 by winning the Classic, beating defending champion Jimmy White 13–12. At the World Championship, he defeated Griffiths 13–5 in the quarter-final, and White 16–11 in the semi-final. In the final he again met Johnson, and established a 14–10 lead after the third session. Johnson won the first three frames of the last session, but Davis won four of the last five frames to win the match 18–14 and regain the title. In beating Johnson he became the first player to win the UK Championship, Masters and World Championship in the same year. In December he retained his UK title with a 16–14 final win against White. In 1988 retained the Classic, and the Masters title with a 9–0 final whitewash of Mike Hallett, won the World Cup with England and won his fourth Irish Masters title. In the World Championship Davis defeated Hallett 13–1, Tony Drago 13–4 and Thorburn 16–8 en route to the final, where he met Griffiths. Davis established a 5–2 lead after the first session, but Griffiths levelled at 8–8 after the second. On the second day of the match Davis took ten out of thirteen frames to win 18–11 and claim his fifth world title. Davis won the first ranking event of the 1988/1989 season with a 12–6 win over White in the International Open; in the same match, he became the first player to make three consecutive century breaks in a major tournament. In October, Davis won the Grand Prix, beating Alex Higgins 10–6 in the final to hold the World, UK, Masters, Grand Prix, Classic and Irish Masters titles simultaneously. However, his four year unbeaten run at the UK Championship came to an end in December with a 3–9 semi-final loss to Hendry. He did not win another major title that season until the 1989 World Championship, where he beat Hendry 16–9 in the semi-finals before going on to complete the heaviest victory in a world final of the modern era with an 18–3 win over John Parrott, his last world championship to date. In October he retained the Grand Prix, beating Dean Reynolds 10–0 in the final, the first whitewash in a ranking event final. By the end of the 1980s, Davis was snooker's first millionaire. 1990–2005 In the 1990 World Championship, Davis was denied an eighth consecutive appearance in the final by Jimmy White, who won their semi-final 16–14. Davis was replaced as world number one by Stephen Hendry at the end of the 1989/90 season. He was ranked number 2 for the 1990/1991, 1991/1992, 1994/1995 and 1995/1996 seasons. He reached the semi-finals of the World Championships in 1991 and 1994. He also won the Irish Masters in 1990, 1991, 1993 and 1994, the Classic and the Asian Open in 1992, the European Open in 1993, and consecutive Welsh Open titles in 1994 and 1995. His successful defence of his Welsh Open title in 1995 is to date his last ranking title. Davis's last victory in a major tournament came at the 1997 Masters. Trailing his opponent Ronnie O'Sullivan 4–8 in the final, he won the next six frames to secure a 10–8 win. Davis dropped out of the top 16 for the 2000/2001 season, and failed to qualify for the World Championship for the next two years. After failing to qualify for the World Snooker Championship for the first time in his professional career in 2001, Davis felt that retiring would be the easy thing to do, but as he still liked the challenge of snooker, he continued playing, and regained his place back in the top 16 for the 2003/2004 season. He was runner-up in the 2004 Welsh Open to O'Sullivan, losing 8–9 after having led 8–5. In 2005 he reached the quarter finals of the World Championship, losing to eventual winner Shaun Murphy. 2005–present At the 2005 UK Championship, held in York, Davis reached his 100th major career final, and made his first appearance in the UK final since 1990. En route he beat defending champion Stephen Maguire 9–8, a win which included a 145 break; and then Stephen Hendry 9–6 in the semi-finals to reach the final, where he lost 6–10 against Ding Junhui. Before the World Championships Davis brushed off suggestions of retirement, and he reached the second round, where he lost to Murphy. Davis's performances through the 2006/2007 season, including reaching the UK Championship quarter-finals and the Welsh Open semi-finals, ensured he was still a top 16 player at the age of 50. He dropped out of the top sixteen a year later, but showed form in the 2008/2009 season by reaching the quarter-finals of both the Shanghai Masters and Grand Prix, the first time he had reached consecutive ranking event quarter-finals since 1996. At the World Championship Davis lost in the first round 2-10 Neil Robertson. After the match he again dismissed talk of his retirement. In the first two tournaments of the 2009/2010 season Davis failed to qualify for the televised stages as he lost 4–5 against Matthew Selt in the Shanghai Masters and 0–5 against Mark Davis in the Grand Prix. In the next tournament, the UK Championship, he defeated Michael Judge 9–7 to set up a first round match against Hendry, which he lost 6–9. Davis started 2010 by failing to qualify for the Welsh Open and the China Open, losing 2–5 against Dominic Dale and 3–5 against Mike Dunn respectively in the final qualifying round. In March he qualified for the World Championship for a record 30th time by defeating Adrian Gunnell 10–4. In the first round Davis defeated Mark King 10–9, becoming the oldest player to win a match at the Crucible since Eddie Charlton beat Cliff Thorburn in 1989. In the second round against defending champion John Higgins, a 1–20 favourite, Davis led 6–2 after the first session, 9–7 after the second session, and ultimately won 13–11, a win Clive Everton described as "the greatest upset in the 33 years the Crucible has been hosting the championship." This made him the oldest world quarter-finalist since Charlton in 1983. In the quarter-final match against Australian Neil Robertson, Davis recovered from a 2–12 deficit to force the match into the third session, eventually losing 5–13. On 29 April 2010, to mark the 25th anniversary of their black-ball final of 1985, Davis appeared with Dennis Taylor before the beginning of the first semi-final, to stage a humorous re-enactment of their historic final frame. Taylor entered the arena wearing a pair of comically oversized glasses, while Davis arrived sporting a red wig. Davis started the 2010/2011 season by qualifying to the televised stages of Shanghai Masters, whitewashing Rod Lawler 5–0, but lost in the first round 3–5 against Jamie Cope. He lost his qualifying matches in the next two tournaments, he lost 1–3 against Peter Ebdon in the last 64 of the World Open and 2–9 against Mark Joyce in the last 48 of the UK Championship. Davis reached the third qualifying round of the German Masters, but was whitewashed by Ryan Day 0–5. Davis lost his first qualifying matches of the next two tournaments. He was beaten by Joe Jogia 3–4 in the Welsh Open and 4–5 by James Wattana in the China Open. Davis narrowly reached the last qualifying round of the World Championship, by defeating Jack Lisowski 10–9, but lost against Stephen Lee 2–10. Davis started the 2011/2012 season at number 44, his lowest rank since turning professional. Other sports From 1994 to 2007, Davis played in professional nine-ball pool events regularly. He was instrumental in the creation of the Mosconi Cup, and has represented Europe in the tournament on eleven occasions, and was a member of the team's 1995 and 2002 wins; his victory against the US's Earl Strickland clinched the 2002 competition for Europe. In 2001, Davis nearly won his first singles title in pool at the World Pool League. However, Efren Reyes defeated him 9–5 the final. Sid Waddell gave him the nickname "Romford Slim" and said he was Britain's answer to the famous American pool player Rudolf "Minnesota Fats" Wanderone. Davis dislikes eight-ball pool as played on English-style tables in British pubs and clubs, considering it a "Mickey Mouse game" because of its under-sized cue ball in relation to the other balls, but made it clear that he is only critical of the game when it is played with an undersized cue ball. Davis has also become a proficient poker player, with successful appearances at televised tournaments; one of these included an appearance at the final table of the 2003 Poker Million together with fellow snooker player Jimmy White, who eventually won. Later, at Event 41 of the 2006 World Series of Poker, Davis finished 579th, winning US$20,617. At Event 54 of the 2008 World Series of Poker he finished 389th, winning $28,950. At Event 56 of the 2010 World Series of Poker he finished 131st, winning $5,491. He is also a keen chess player and was, for a while, the President of the British Chess Federation. His initial lack of emotional expression and somewhat monotonous interviewing style earned him a reputation as boring. As a result, the satirical television series ''Spitting Image'' gave him the ironic nickname ''"Interesting"''. Davis himself now plays upon this image and says it helped him gain acceptance from the public. It led to him co-authoring the comedic book, ''How to Be Really Interesting'' (1988), with Geoff Atkinson, the front cover of which shows Davis mocking his perceived dullness, dressed in boxing regalia holding a cue. He has published numerous other books, five relating to snooker: ''Successful Snooker'' (1982), ''Frame and Fortune'' (1982), ''Steve Davis: Snooker Champion'' (1983), ''Matchroom Snooker'' (1988) and ''The Official Matchroom 1990''; two relating to chess in 1995 with David Norwood: ''Steve Davis Plays Chess'' and ''Grandmaster Meets Chess Amateur''. He also authored three cookbooks in 1994: ''Simply Fix – the Steve Davis Interesting Cookbook No 1 – Interesting Things to Do With Meat'', ''Simply Fix – The Steve Davis Interesting Cookbook No 2 – Interesting Things to Make with Poultry'', and ''Simply Fix – the Steve Davis Interesting Cookbook No 3 – Interesting Things to Make Using Vegetables''. Davis appeared as a commentator for the BBC's snooker coverage and as a guest on television quizzes such as ''They Think It's All Over'' and ''A Question of Sport''. He appeared in a baked beans advertisement in the 1980s (featuring snooker commentator Ted Lowe with the pay-off line ''"really interesting"'' and Davis 'assessing' his beans on toast as if it were a snooker situation, and chalking his cutlery). In 2007, his image was used as the epitome of "reliability" in a series of advertisements for Irish Life. He featured in a spoof online viral promoting the Nintendo DS game ''World Snooker Championship Season 2007–08'', in which he parodied a Nicole Kidman Brain Training advert. In 2010 Davis made a cameo appearance in ''The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret'' as himself. In 1986 he joined musical duo Chas & Dave and several other snooker stars of the time (under the name "The Matchroom Mob") on the novelty record Snooker Loopy, which was a Top 10 hit in the United Kingdom. A year the later they released a follow-up single, the ''Romford Rap'', although this only reached #91 in the UK charts. Since 1996 he has presented a show dedicated to progressive rock and the Canterbury scene on his local radio station, Phoenix FM. Personal life In 1988, Davis was named the BBC Sports Personality of the Year and was made an MBE. He was awarded an OBE in 2001, and is currently honorary president of the Snooker Writers' Association. Davis is a big fan of the French progressive rock band Magma, and even organised a concert in London so he could watch them. Davis is on the board of Leyton Orient football club, which he has revealed to be more of a gimmick; Davis has been a Charlton Athletic fan most of his life, and Barry Hearn is the Orient chairman. He lives in Brentwood, Essex, and divorced from his wife Judith in 2005 after 15 years of marriage. Together, they have two sons called Greg (born 1991) and Jack (born 1993). Performance and rankings timeline
Style	"background:#EFEFEF;" | Welsh Open
Style	"text-align:center; background:#white;"|LQ
Style	"background:#EFEFEF;"| China Open
Style	"background:#EFEFEF;" |
style	"text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R
style	"text-align:center; background:#ffebcd;"|QF
style	"text-align:center; background:#0f0;"|W
style	"text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R
style	"text-align:center; background:#0f0;"|W
style	"text-align:center; background:#0f0;"|W
style	"text-align:center; background:thistle;"|F
style	"text-align:center; background:thistle;"|F
style	"text-align:center; background:#0f0;"|W
style	"text-align:center; background:#0f0;"|W
style	"text-align:center; background:#0f0;"|W
style	"text-align:center; background:yellow;"|SF
style	"text-align:center; background:yellow;"|SF
style	"text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R
style	"text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|2R
style	"text-align:center; background:yellow;"|SF
style	"text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R
style	"text-align:center; background:#ffebcd;"|QF
style	"text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|2R
style	"text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|2R
style	"text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R
style	"text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|2R
style	"text-align:center; background:#white;"|LQ
style	"text-align:center; background:#white;"|LQ
style	"text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R
style	"text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R
style	"text-align:center; background:#ffebcd;"|QF
style	"text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|2R
style	"text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R
style	"text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R
style	"text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R
style	"text-align:center; background:#ffebcd;"|QF
style	"text-align:center; background:#white;"|LQ
colspan	"34" | Non-ranking tournaments
Style	"background:#EFEFEF;" | Masters
style	"text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R
style	"text-align:center; background:#0f0;"|W
style	"text-align:center; background:#ffebcd;"|QF
style	"text-align:center; background:#ffebcd;"|QF
style	"text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R
style	"text-align:center; background:yellow;"|SF
style	"text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R
style	"text-align:center; background:#0f0;"|W
style	"text-align:center; background:yellow;"|SF
style	"text-align:center; background:yellow;"|SF
style	"text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R
style	"text-align:center; background:#ffebcd;"|QF
style	"text-align:center; background:#ffebcd;"|QF
style	"text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R
style	"text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R
style	"text-align:center; background:#ffebcd;"|QF
style	"text-align:center; background:#0f0;"|W
style	"text-align:center; background:yellow;"|SF
style	"text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R
style	"text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R
style	"text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|WR
style	"text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R
style	"text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R
style	"text-align:center; background:#ffebcd;"|QF
style	"text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R
style	"text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R
style	"text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R
Style	"background:#EFEFEF;" | Premier League
colspan	"34" | Former ranking tournaments
Style	"background:#EFEFEF;" | Classic
Style	"background:#EFEFEF;" |
style	"background:#EFEFEF;" | British Open
Style	"background:#EFEFEF;" |
style	"text-align:center; background:#00ff00;"|W
style	"text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|2R
style	"text-align:center; background:thistle;"|F
style	"text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|2R
style	"text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|2R
style	"text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|2R
style	"text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|2R
style	"text-align:center; background:#ffebcd;"|QF
style	"text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R
Style	"background:#EFEFEF;" | Irish Masters
Style	"background:#EFEFEF;" | Malta Cup
style	"text-align:center; background:yellow;"|SF
style	"text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R
style	"text-align:center; background:#ffebcd;"|QF
style	"text-align:center; background:#00ff00;"|W
style	"text-align:center; background:#ffebcd;"|QF
style	"text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|2R
style	"text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R
style	"text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R
style	"text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R
style	"text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|A
style	"text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R
style	"text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|2R
style	"text-align:center; background:#ffebcd;"|QF
style	"text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R
style	"text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R
style	"text-align:center; color:#cccccc;"|NR
Style	"background:#EFEFEF;" | World Open
style	"text-align:center; color:#cccccc;"|NH
colspan	"34" | Former non-ranking tournaments
Style	"background:#EFEFEF;" |
Style	"background:#EFEFEF;" | Scottish Masters
Style	"background:#EFEFEF;" | Irish Masters
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style	"text-align:center; width:30px;"|LQ
style	"text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|#R
lost in the early rounds of the tournament(rr	round robin)
style	"text-align:center; background:#ffebcd;"|QF
style	"text-align:center; background:yellow;"|SF
style	"text-align:center; background:thistle;"|F
style	"text-align:center; background:#0f0;"|W
style	"text-align:center; width:30px;"|A
style	"text-align:center; width:30px;"|NH
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- !scope	"row" style"background:#ffa07a;"|Runner-up
-bgcolor	"dfe2e9" !scope"row" style"background:#98FB98"|Winner
- !scope	"row" style"background:#ffa07a;"|Runner-up
- !scope	"row" style"background:#98FB98"|Winner
- !scope	"row" style"background:#98FB98"|Winner
- !scope	"row" style"background:#98FB98"|Winner
- !scope	"row" style"background:#98FB98"|Winner
- !scope	"row" style"background:#98FB98"|Winner
- !scope	"row" style"background:#98FB98"|Winner
- !scope	"row" style"background:#98FB98"|Winner
- !scope	"row" style"background:#98FB98"|Winner
- !scope	"row" style"background:#ffa07a;"|Runner-up
- !scope	"row" style"background:#98FB98"|Winner
- !scope	"row" style"background:#98FB98"|Winner
- !scope	"row" style"background:#98FB98"|Winner
- !scope	"row" style"background:#ffa07a;"|Runner-up
- !scope	"row" style"background:#ffa07a;"|Runner-up
- !scope	"row" style"background:#98FB98"|Winner
- !scope	"row" style"background:#98FB98"|Winner
- !scope	"row" style"background:#ffa07a;"|Runner-up
- !scope	"row" style"background:#ffa07a;"|Runner-up
- !scope	"row" style"background:#98FB98"|Winner
-style	"background:#d0f0c0;" !scope"row" style"background:#98FB98"|Winner
- !scope	"row" style"background:#98FB98"|Winner
-style	"background:#ffffcc;" !scope"row" style"background:#98FB98"|Winner
-style	"background:#d0f0c0;" !scope"row" style"background:#98FB98"|Winner
- !scope	"row" style"background:#98FB98"|Winner
- !scope	"row" style"background:#98FB98"|Winner
- !scope	"row" style"background:#98FB98"|Winner
- !scope	"row" style"background:#98FB98"|Winner
-style	"background:#d0f0c0;" !scope"row" style"background:#ffa07a;"|Runner-up
- !scope	"row" style"background:#98FB98"|Winner
- !scope	"row" style"background:#98FB98"|Winner
- !scope	"row" style"background:#ffa07a;"|Runner-up
- !scope	"row" style"background:#ffa07a;"|Runner-up
- !scope	"row" style"background:#98FB98"|Winner
- !scope	"row" style"background:#ffa07a;"|Runner-up
- !scope	"row" style"background:#98FB98"|Winner
- !scope	"row" style"background:#98FB98"|Winner
- !scope	"row" style"background:#ffa07a;"|Runner-up
- !scope	"row" style"background:#ffa07a;"|Runner-up
-style	"background:#d0f0c0;" !scope"row" style"background:#ffa07a;"|Runner-up
- !scope	"row" style"background:#98FB98"|Winner
- !scope	"row" style"background:#ffa07a;"|Runner-up
} team finals: 11 (9 title, 2 runner-ups) {| class	"sortable wikitable plainrowheaders"
- !scope	"col" width"80"|Outcome !scope"col" width"20"|No. !scope"col" width"50"|Year !scope"col" width"200"|Championship !scope"col" width"120"|Team/partner !scope"col" width"250"|Opponent(s) in the final !scope"col" align"center" width"70"|Score !scope"col" class"unsortable" width"30"|Ref.
- !scope	"row" style"background:#98FB98"|Winner
- !scope	"row" style"background:#ffa07a;"|Runner-up
- !scope	"row" style"background:#98FB98"|Winner
- !scope	"row" style"background:#98FB98"|Winner
- !scope	"row" style"background:#98FB98"|Winner
- !scope	"row" style"background:#ffa07a;"|Runner-up
- !scope	"row" style"background:#98FB98"|Winner
- !scope	"row" style"background:#98FB98"|Winner
- !scope	"row" style"background:#98FB98"|Winner
- !scope	"row" style"background:#98FB98"|Winner
- !scope	"row" style"background:#98FB98"|Winner
} pro-am finals: 2 (2 titles) {| class	"sortable wikitable plainrowheaders"
- !scope	"col" width"80"|Outcome !scope"col" width"30"|No. !scope"col" width"50"|Year !scope"col" width"250"|Championship !scope"col" width"200"|Opponent in the final !scope"col" align"center" width"100"|Score !scope"col" class"unsortable" width"30"|Ref.
- !scope	"row" style"background:#98FB98"|Winner

External links

Category:Article Feedback Pilot Category:1957 births Category:People from Plumstead Category:Living people Category:English snooker players Category:Masters Champions (snooker) Category:Trick shot artists Category:English players of English billiards Category:English pool players Category:English sports broadcasters Category:BBC Sports Personality of the Year winners Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire Category:Snooker writers and broadcasters

bg:Стийв Дейвис cs:Steve Davis de:Steve Davis et:Steve Davis fr:Steve Davis it:Steve Davis he:סטיב דייוויס hu:Steve Davis nl:Steve Davis ja:スティーブ・デイビス no:Steve Davis pl:Steve Davis pt:Steve Davis ro:Steve Davis ru:Дэвис, Стив sk:Steve Davis fi:Steve Davis sv:Steve Davis tr:Steve Davis zh:史蒂夫·戴维斯