Adam Gemili

2011–15

Gemili won a silver medal over 100 m at the 2011 European Athletics Junior Championships in Tallinn, Estonia. He also helped the British squad to a silver medal in the 4 × 100 m relay. At the National Junior Athletic League Finals, Gemili won the 200 m in 20.98 s, which was the fastest time by a European junior in 2011. Gemili ran an Olympic qualifying time for the 100 m and won the Sparkassen Gala in Regensburg, Germany on 2 June 2012, just over three weeks prior to the British track trials for the 2012 London Olympics. He beat his previous best time of 10.23 s in the heats, running a time of 10.11 s and then ran a time of 10.08 s in the final. That mark was the second fastest 100 m ever run by a British junior, behind only Dwain Chambers (10.06 s). At the time of his victory, James Dasaolu was the only one other British athlete to have met the Olympic qualifying time for the men's 100 m. Gemili was selected for the British 2012 Olympic 4 × 100 m relay team on 3 July 2012. On 11 July 2012, Gemili finished first in the 100 m at the 2012 World Junior Championships in Athletics, winning the gold medal in a time of 10.05 seconds, breaking the championship record originally established by Darrel Brown in 2002. Besides breaking the British national junior record, Gemili's time ranked second among European juniors (behind Christophe Lemaitre's 10.04 s) and sixth all-time among all juniors, behind only Brown, Jeffery Demps, Marcus Rowland, D'Angelo Cherry and…

Playing career

Formerly a footballer, Gemili was a youth player at Chelsea from the age of eight onwards for seven years, and spent a year at Reading. A defender, he played for Football League Two team Dagenham & Redbridge, and joined Thurrock on loan at the end of August 2011, where he made 12 appearances in the Isthmian League until 30 November. His time had been split between athletics and football; he said of his potential dual careers in 2012, "I hope this year could be a turning point in helping me decide which sport to focus on, but it does depend on what I run this year." In 2012, Gemili switched full-time to athletics.

Coaching career

On 30 March 2026, Gemili announced his retirement from elite athletics, and his return to football with Chelsea as a sprint coach.

Gemili's mother was born in Iran, his father is a Moroccan who moved to Britain in his late teens. At the age of eleven, he attended Dartford Grammar School. Gemili also attended Barking and Dagenham College where he studied for a BTEC Extended Diploma in Sport, and hoped to attend university at some point. After the 2012 Olympics he started studying Sports and Exercise Science with Human Biology at the University of East London, where he wrote his dissertation on the effect of particular warm-up exercises on sprinting performance. Gemili is a member of Blackheath and Bromley Harriers Athletic Club, and also a former football player for Dagenham & Redbridge and Thurrock F.C. having spent seven years in the youth academy at Chelsea.