Laura Muir

Laura Muir
Muir after her 3000 m win at the 2017 European Indoor Championships in Belgrade
Personal information
Born (1993-05-09) 9 May 1993 (age 30)
Inverness, Scotland, United Kingdom
EducationUniversity of Glasgow (2018)
Height1.63 m (5 ft 4 in)
Weight49 kg (108 lb)
Sport
CountryGreat Britain & N.I.
Scotland
SportAthletics
Event(s)Middle-, Long-distance running
ClubDundee Hawkhill Harriers & Glasgow University
Nike
Coached byAndy Young (2011–2023)
Alan Mackintosh (–2011)
Achievements and titles
Olympic finals
  • 2016 Rio de Janeiro
  • 1500 m, 7th
  • 2020 Tokyo
  • 1500 m,  Silver
World finals
  • 2013 Moscow
  • 800 m, 9th (sf)
  • 2015 Beijing
  • 1500 m, 5th
  • 2017 London
  • 1500 m, 4th
  • 5000 m, 6th
  • 2019 Doha
  • 1500 m, 5th
  • 2022 Eugene
  • 1500 m,  Bronze
  • 2023 Budapest
  • 1500 m, 6th
Personal bests

Laura Muir (/mjʊər/; born 9 May 1993) is a Scottish middle- and long-distance runner. She is the 2020 Tokyo Olympic silver medallist in the 1500 metres, having previously finished seventh in the event at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Muir won the bronze medal at the 2022 World Championships, and has three other top five placings in 1500 m finals at the World Athletics Championships, finishing fifth in 2015, fourth in 2017 (where she was also sixth in the 5000 metres) and fifth in 2019. She is a two-time European 1500 m champion from 2018 and 2022 as well as the 2022 Commonwealth Games 1500 m champion and 800 metres bronze medallist.

Indoors, she is a two-time 2018 World Indoor Championship medallist, earning silver at 1500 m and bronze at 3000 metres, and a British record five-time European Indoor champion, including the 1500 m/3000 m double in 2017 and 2019 as the first athlete in history to achieve the 'double-double' at a European Indoor Championships. With Muir's fifth title for the 1500 m in 2023, she became the first ever Brit to claim five golds at the event, increasing her overall tally to seven European titles.

Muir first broke the British record in the 1500 metres in July 2016. She set the current record in 2021 at the Tokyo Olympics, which ranks her in the world all-time top 15. In 2017, she broke the European indoor records at both the 1000 metres and 3000 metres, and also set a British record for the indoor 5000 metres. Muir added a British record at the 1000 m in 2020, and the next year, she also broke the Scottish record in the 800 metres. Her British record time for the Mile run in 2023, ranks her in the world all-time top 10. Muir is also a two-time 1500 m Diamond League winner. She is a multiple British champion.

Early life

Born on 9 May 1993 in Inverness, Scotland, Laura Muir was raised in Milnathort, Perth and Kinross since age three. She attended Kinross High School, the same school as 400 m hurdler Eilidh Doyle along with her brother Rory who is two years younger than her.

She studied veterinary medicine at the University of Glasgow, graduating in 2018. One of her lecturers was veterinary pathologist, distance runner and teammate at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, Hayley Haining.

Career

Muir made her international debut at the 2011 European Cross Country Championships, when she was part of the Great Britain junior women's team that won gold. At the end of the year, she was a nominee in the Daily Record Young Athlete of the Year awards.

At the 2013 World Championships in Athletics in Moscow Muir represented Great Britain in the 800 metres; she reached the semi-finals with a personal best time of 2:00.83.

In July 2014, at the Diamond League event in Paris, she ran 4:00.07 in the 1500 metres to break Yvonne Murray's 27-year-old Scottish record. The same month, she competed in this event at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, but was clipped from behind with 100 m to go and placed 11th with a time of 4:14.21. Muir failed to qualify from the 1500 m heats at the European Championships in Zürich in August with a time of 4:14.69. She called her run "a messy race".

She finished fifth over the 1500 m at the 2015 World Championships held in Beijing in a time of 4:11.48.

2016

On 22 July, Muir broke Kelly Holmes' British record for the 1500 metres with a time of 3:57.49 to win the Diamond League event in London's Olympic Park.

The 2016 Rio Olympic Games were unsuccessful for her, as a tactical 1500 m final saw her fade from third to seventh at the finish line in 4:12.88. The winner, Faith Kipyegon of Kenya in 4:08.92, ran the last 800 metres in 1:57.2.

Less than two weeks later, on 27 August, Muir improved her own UK record by more than two seconds with a world-leading time of 3:55.22 to win the event at the Diamond League meet in Paris. A few days later, she became only the third British woman to win a Diamond Trophy as she won the 1500 m title with a second-place finish in Zürich, with the third fastest ever mark by a Briton. She overtook Kipyegon in seventh and won with her in the overall standings. Her mark from Paris made her the fastest woman in the world over 1500m for the year.

2017

On 4 January, racing the 5000 metres for the second time ever, Muir broke 25-year-old British indoor record held by her fellow Scot Liz McColgan, clocking 14:49.12 in Glasgow. She was the only competitor as it was a mixed 3K race. Exactly a month later, she set a European indoor 3000 metres record in Karlsruhe in a time of 8:26.41, beating Russian Liliya Shobukhova's mark by 1.45 seconds and reigning Olympic 5000 m silver medallist Hellen Obiri. On 18 February, Muir broke the European indoor 1000 metres record at the Birmingham Indoor Grand Prix. With her time of 2:31.93 (within a second of the world record), she beat Russian Yuliya Chizhenko's European record and Kelly Holmes's British best.

Laura Muir (R) and Faith Kipyegon (L) lead the pack in the 1500 m final at the 2017 London World Championships.

Muir continued her record-breaking form in March, dominating at the European Indoor Championships in Belgrade. She took gold in the 1500 m event, breaking Kelly Holmes's British record and Doina Melinte's 32-year old championship best along the way, and followed it up by taking a second title in the 3000 m event with another championship record the next day. She became only the second woman to achieve this double at the European Indoor Championships after Poland's Lidia Chojecka, and only the second UK athlete after Colin Jackson to win two European Indoor titles at the same event.

She doubled up outdoors at the World Championships held in London, finishing fourth in the 1500 m and sixth in the 5000 m.

Following the championships, she announced that she would miss the 2018 Commonwealth Games in April in order to focus on her veterinary medicine exams.

2018

In March, Muir competed at the World Indoor Championships in Birmingham, where she won the bronze medal in the 3000 m, followed by a silver medal in the 1500 m two days later. Both events were won by Genzebe Dibaba.

In August, she won the 1500 metres title at the European Championships Berlin 2018, her first-ever major outdoor medal as the first British woman ever to win the European 1500 m gold.

She followed this breakthrough by securing her second Diamond League title over 1500 metres in Brussels, her first since the move of the series to a championship format. Muir produced one of the most impressive wins of her career, beating three of the four fastest women in the world that year (Shelby Houlihan, Hassan and Gudaf Tsegay).

2019

In February, Muir broke the 31-year-old British indoor mile record held by Kirsty Wade by more than five seconds, stopping the clock at the world third-fastest time of 4:18.75 at the Birmingham Indoor Grand Prix. She was 1.61 s short of a European record.

At the home 2019 European Indoor Championships in Glasgow, Muir (L) completed historic 1500 m/3000 m 'double-double'.

In March, she became the first athlete in history to achieve the 'double-double' at a European Indoors as she defended both her 1500 m and 3000 m titles at Glasgow 2019, improving her own championship record at the longer distance.

Muir finished fifth over the 1500 m at the Doha World Championships in a time of 3:55.76.

2020–21

During pandemic season in 2020, Muir broke Kelly Holmes' British record for the 1000 metres by almost two seconds in a time of 2:30.82, when finishing second behind Kipyegon at the Monaco Diamond League. She won all her three 1500 m races (Stockholm Diamond League, Chorzów, Berlin), with all times under 3:58.50. She also recorded victories in two of her six 800 m competitions (Marseille, Ostrava).

On 9 February 2021, she started her season well in Liévin, France, becoming the first British woman to break the four-minute barrier in the indoor 1500 m, and taking the record back from her Scottish training partner Jemma Reekie. Muir finished second behind Gudaf Tsegay with a time of 3:59.58 to move to fifth on the world indoor all-time list. Over 1500 m she then won the USATF Grand Prix in Eugene, Gateshead Diamond League, and came third in Rome Diamond League (behind only Hassan and Kipyegon). At the end of June, she lost to both Keely Hodgkinson and Reekie in the 800 m at the British Championships in 2:00.24 to set a personal best of 1:56.73 in July, when winning the Monaco Diamond League.

At the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics in August 2021, Muir won the silver medal in the 1500 metres in a time of three minutes 54.50 seconds, improving her own British record. She beat reigning world champion in the event, Sifan Hassan (3:55.86), finishing behind only Kipyegon who ran 3:53.11. It was Scotland's first individual Olympic medal in any track event since the 1988 Seoul Games, when Liz McColgan won 10,000 m silver.

2022

Muir (second from the right) races in the 800 m heat of the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.

During the indoor season, Muir was unable to run for two months due to a stress fracture of her right femur, which occurred in February. Despite this, at the World Championships Eugene 22 in July, she emerged with bronze. She ran her third-fastest time ever for a 1500 m race with 3:55.28, finishing behind Tsegay in 3:54.52 and Kipyegon who claimed gold in 3:52.96.

About two weeks later, Muir completed in just a 24-hour span the 800 m/1500 m double at the XXII Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, earning bronze in a photo-finish in the 800 m (0.01 s ahead of Natoya Goule and behind Mary Moraa and Hodgkinson) and, in the absence of Kipyegon, winning decisively gold for the 1500 m.

The 29-year-old continued her fine season successfully defending her 1500 m European title just 12 days after her Commonwealth gold. Muir dominated the event at the European Championships Munich 2022.

She capped her medal-winning season on the road in September, with another strong showing and a course record of 4:14.8 at the New York's Fifth Avenue Mile. Her time, the fastest in the event's 41-year history, would place her fourth on the world all-time list if it was achieved on the track. There was a Scottish sweep as Jake Wightman won the men's race for the third time.

2023

Muir opened her indoor season in USA in February with victories at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Boston (3000 m) and at the Millrose Games in New York (prestigious Wanamaker Mile). She then won the 1000 m at the World Indoor Tour Final in Birmingham. She rounded off her indoor campaign by collecting her fifth European indoor title at Istanbul 2023 in March, competing in the 1500 m to become the first Brit in history to claim five golds at the European Indoors, as the accomplishment broke her tie with Colin Jackson and Jason Gardener.

At the end of the month, Muir and Reekie split from trainer Andy Young, who coached her since she was 18 in 2011, after quitting a training camp in South Africa.

2024

In January 2024, Muir was awarded a retrospective European Indoor bronze medal after Russian athlete Yelena Korobkina was found guilty of doping offences. Muir had finished 4th in the 3000m at the 2015 event in Prague.

Achievements

Laura Muir races in the 4 x 1 km mixed relay at the Great Edinburgh International Cross Country in 2018.
Muir (far left) en route to her 1500 m silver at the 2018 World Indoor Championships in Birmingham, with Sifan Hassan and Genzebe Dibaba (R).
Laura Muir (R) and Laura Weightman (L) celebrate their 1500 m 1–3 at the 2018 European Athletics Championships in Berlin.

All information taken from World Athletics profile.

Personal bests

Type Event Time (m:s) Date Place Notes
Outdoor track 800 metres 1:56.73 9 July 2021 Monaco
1000 metres 2:30.82 14 August 2020 Monaco NR
1500 metres 3:54.50 6 August 2021 Tokyo, Japan NR
One mile 4:15.24 21 July 2023 Monaco NR
3000 metres 8:30.53 26 August 2022 Lausanne
5000 metres 14:42.63 9 June 2023 Paris, France
Indoor 800 metres 1:58.44 1 February 2020 Glasgow, United Kingdom
1000 metres 2:31.93 18 February 2017 Birmingham, United Kingdom European record
1500 metres 3:59.58 9 February 2021 Liévin, France NR
One mile 4:18.75 16 February 2019 Birmingham, United Kingdom
3000 metres 8:26.41 4 February 2017 Karlsruhe, Germany European record
5000 metres 14:49.12 4 January 2017 Glasgow, United Kingdom NR

International competitions

Year Competition Venue Position Event Result
Representing  Great Britain /  Scotland
2011 European Cross Country Championships Velenje, Slovenia 30th Junior race 14:06
2012 World Junior Championships Barcelona, Spain 16th 3000 m 9:40.81
2013 European Indoor Championships Gothenburg, Sweden 6th 1500 m 4:18.39
European U23 Championships Tampere, Finland 3rd 1500 m 4:08.19
World Championships Moscow, Russia 9th (sf) 800 m 2:00.83
2014 World Indoor Championships Sopot, Poland 7th (h) 800 m 2:02.55
Commonwealth Games Glasgow, Scotland 11th 1500 m 4:14.21
European Championships Zurich, Switzerland 15th (h) 1500 m 4:14.69
2015 European Indoor Championships Prague, Czech Republic 3rd 3000 m 8:52.44
World Championships Beijing, China 5th 1500 m 4:11.48
European Cross Country Championships Hyères, France 4th U23 race 19:53
1st U23 team 41 pts
2016 Olympic Games Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 7th 1500 m 4:12.88
2017 European Indoor Championships Belgrade, Serbia 1st 1500 m 4:02.39
1st 3000 m 8:35.67
World Championships London, United Kingdom 4th 1500 m 4:02.97
6th 5000 m 14:52.07
2018 World Indoor Championships Birmingham, United Kingdom 2nd 1500 m 4:06:23
3rd 3000 m 8:45:78
European Championships Berlin, Germany 1st 1500 m 4:02:32
2019 European Indoor Championships Glasgow, United Kingdom 1st 1500 m 4:05.92
1st 3000 m 8:30.61
World Championships Doha, Qatar 5th 1500 m 3:55.76
2021 Olympic Games Tokyo, Japan 2nd 1500 m 3:54.50
2022 World Championships Eugene, OR, United States 3rd 1500 m 3:55.28 SB
Commonwealth Games Birmingham, England 3rd 800 m 1:57.87 SB
1st 1500 m 4:02.75
European Championships Munich, Germany 1st 1500 m 4:01.08
2023 European Indoor Championships Istanbul, Turkey 1st 1500 m 4:03.40
World Championships Budapest, Hungary 6th 1500 m 3:58.58

Circuit wins and titles

National titles

Scottish titles

Awards and honours

Miscellaneous

In 2022, one of the new streets in Muir's home town Milnathort was named in her honour.


This page was last updated at 2024-02-10 02:25 UTC. Update now. View original page.

All our content comes from Wikipedia and under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.


Top

If mathematical, chemical, physical and other formulas are not displayed correctly on this page, please useFirefox or Safari