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Christian Malcolm says he is relishing the chance to help future generations of British athletes to global success after being appointed Olympic Programme Head Coach.
Wales’ former sprint ace will take over the role later this year once he returns from Australia where he is been Head of Performance and Coaching for Athletics Australia since February last year.
“Words can’t describe how excited I am to have the opportunity to take this role on and be part of a new start for British Athletics. As an athlete I knew I wanted to give back to the sport when I finished competing.
“In all my coaching and advisory roles so far, I have wanted to help athletes avoid the errors I made and support them and their coaches to get the best out of themselves. I’ve worked with some world class coaches throughout my career whilst competing, as part of the GB relay set up and whilst at Athletics Australia. They’ve all helped me to grow in various ways, but I know my first coach Jock Anderson would have been the most pleased to see me take this role and use all that he taught me about helping athletes prepare.
"Everyone at Welsh Athletics is delighted to hear of Christian’s appointment, and we look forward to working with him once again." said @jwilliams1500 as @ChristianM200 is appointed Head Coach of @BritAthletics https://t.co/frRskbU8DL
— Welsh Athletics (@WelshAthletics) September 3, 2020
“I’m very excited to be re-joining British Athletics at this time. Jo (Coates) and Sara (Symington) have a great outlook as to what the sport can achieve from playground to podium. There is a new energy and drive and I’m looking forward to helping athletes and coaches towards success in Tokyo, Paris and beyond.”
Malcolm has been coaching since retiring from athletics in 2014 having won World junior sprint double gold in 1998.
He’d went on to compete in four Olympic Games and won European Indoor gold and silver, World Indoor and European Championship silver, Commonwealth silver and bronze, as well as two World bronze medals as part of the GB & NI 4x100m relay team.
Newport-born Malcolm had previously been British Athletics technical lead for sprint relays, a position he held from March 2015 to December 2019. The highlight of that was the double sprint relay medals won by the 4x100m teams at the home World Championships London 2017.
The women’s team won silver, whilst the men’s 4x100m team won a global gold sprint relay medal for the first time since the Athens Olympics in 2004.
This achievement saw Malcolm named jointly Coach of the Year at the 2017 BBC Sports Personality awards, alongside Stephen Maguire, who was also in the running for the position, and Benke Blomkvist.
As a coach to individual athletes he has also enjoyed success in the para athletics programme, most notably in his role as a Performance Coach at Disability Sport Wales for just under three years. He coached Jordan Howe to T35 100m silver and Rhys Jones to a personal best – finishing fourth in the T37 100m – at the World Para Athletics Championships London 2017.
Joanna Coates, CEO at British Athletics, said: “I am really pleased to appoint Christian to this role. His credentials are numerous but most impressive was the energy and vision he had for the Head Coach role during the recruitment process.
“The panel were incredibly impressed by both his technical knowledge and approach to high performance – putting the athlete first, championing welfare and also a change in culture that will really enhance the World Class programme.
“Alongside Sara, Christian will bring a fresh new approach to the performance team as we head towards Tokyo and future Olympic cycles.”
