I am not driven by any bitterness by what happened in Athens. I learnt a lot of lessons from it and probably came through it a stronger person in the end. There have been a lot of near misses, and that's taught me to keep persevering and that there is a chance it can come right.

As of November 2009 Paula Radcliffe holds the official world record for 10 km on roads. Early life
Radcliffe was born on 17 December 1973 in Davenham near Northwich Cheshire. She has twice won the World Half-Marathon championships twice the World Cross-Country championships (in 2001 and 2002) and in December 2003 became European Cross-Country champion for the second time the only woman to have achieved this feat in the event's ten-year history.

She has also been nominated for World Sportswoman of the year on several occasions. She has represented Great Britain at the Olympics four times consecutively (1996 to 2008) but has not won a medal on the Olympic stage. Radcliffe is a former world champion in the marathon half marathon and cross country.