Paula Radcliffe: 'My last London Marathon was emotional - my body was falling apart but I never wanted it to end'
ok.co.ukAs the BBC Sports Personality of the Year celebrates its 70th anniversary this week, OK! chats exclusively to one of its most iconic winners - long-distance runner Paula Radcliffe.
Paula, 49, won the trophy back in 2002, becoming the first woman to do so in over a decade, and beating a certain footballing golden boy.
She was especially grateful for the win, she tells us, because it was voted for by members of the public “filling in a coupon and sending it in”, rather than simply clicking a button. “I grew up watching Sports Personality every year, it was a bit like the London Marathon, we’d all sit down at home and watch it,” she remembers. “The fact people went to so much trouble to vote, it really meant a lot, especially given who I was up against that year.” Paula’s win left fellow nominee David Beckham empty-handed - a fact her teenage daughter was stunned to recently learn “We were actually watching the Beckham documentary recently and I said, ‘he was second when I won it’, she was like, ‘no!?.” Throughout her incredible professional career - which included several Commonwealth, European and World Championship titles, as well a plethora of wins at the London Marathon.
Her career took her - and those watching and supporting her - on something of an emotional rollercoaster. She dominated the professional marathon circuit throughout the noughties, after achieving massive success in cross country and 5,000 and 10,000m events in the nineties.
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