Meet Laura Muir, Team GB distance star at Paris 2024 Olympics who has street named after her in tiny Scottish village

5 months ago 51

LAURA Muir is one of the fastest middle and long-distance runners in the world, and the current British 1500m record holder.

Here’s everything you need to know about the Scot, who’s competing at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

Laura Muir crosses the line to win the 1500m at the European Indoor Championships

Who is Laura Muir?

Laura Muir first ran herself into the history books by breaking Kelly Holmes’ British 1500m record to secure a spot at the Rio 2016 Olympics — where she ultimately finished in seventh place.

She enjoyed great success at the Belgrade 2017 European Indoor Championships, winning gold in both the 1500m and 3000m, before narrowly missing out on a world outdoor medal by the narrowest of margins in London later that year.

In 2018, as well as graduating as a vet from the University of Glasgow, she won gold in the 1500m at the European Championships, did the same in the prestigious Diamond League final, and also picked up silver and bronze medals at the World Indoor Champs.

On her home track in Glasgow, she defended both her 1500m and 3000m titles at the 2019 European Indoors.

She won her biggest medal to date at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, which was held in 2021 due to the pandemic, taking home silver in the 1500m.

Getting used to her winning ways, in December 2023 she told Athletics Weekly: “My success is me. That’s a big thing. I think a lot of the time I felt like I needed lots of other things.

“And then actually when you strip it down… I’d be going to races by myself and I’d win and I’m like: ‘Oh, okay, that was me!’

“Also, just knowing what I’m capable of. Some of the things that I’ve done in training this year, I’ve never had the opportunity to do before and I’ve really shocked myself like: ‘Wow, I can do that’.

“So I think it’s just having that confidence in myself that I am successful because of the athlete that I am. That’s been a big, big thing, just self-confidence really, and not having to rely on somebody else.

“I know that I can do it and, given the right support structure, then I can go and perform a lot better.”

In March 2024, after finishing fifth in the women’s 3000m at the World Indoor Athletics Championships, she secured her spot in Paris by finishing second at the UK Championships.

Muir began working with Steve Vernon, also the endurance performance manager at UK Athletics, midway through the summer of 2023, with the partnership continuing up to and throughout the Paris Olympics.

Laura said: “I think we’ve been very similar in terms of what our expectations are and our morals in the sport.

“We just seemed to click and I felt like he really understood me, not just as an athlete, but as a person as well which is really, really important.

My success is me. That’s a big thing. I think a lot of the time I felt like I needed lots of other things

Laura MuirAthletics Weekly

He’s been amazing and really considerate, given everything that I’ve been through.

“He’s identified a lot of areas where I can get a lot stronger which haven’t really been addressed before. We started to address a few of them throughout the summer but I think there’s a lot more we can do.”

And in July 2024, Laura once again broke the British 1500m record at the Paris Diamond League.

The Olympic silver medallist finished in a time of 3:53.79, breaking the record she set at Tokyo 2020 by 71 hundredths of a second.

“I absolutely had to run my own race and I’ve only ever run 3:54 once and that was in Tokyo,” Laura told Scottish Athletics afterwards.

“I knew it would take something special to beat that time. In fact, it would have been special to hit 3:54 again. I’m emotional to run that time — it means a lot to me.”