Denise Lewis

The first day of the 2000 Summer Olympics heptathlon was 23 September. In the first event, Lewis recorded 13.23 seconds[3] for the 100 metres hurdles to be in second place behind the world champion, Eunice Barber, who had finished in 12.97 seconds. Ghada Shouaa, the 1996 Olympic champion, pulled-out after only 20 metres of her heat.

After a poor performance in the high jump of only 1.75 m,[3] some way off her personal best, Lewis was in eighth place, 152 points behind Barber who had increased her lead. In the third event, the shot put, Lewis recorded a distance of 15.55 m,[3] placing her second. 30 points behind Natallia Sazanovich and 45 points ahead of former world champion Sabine Braun. Barber's distance of 11.27 m put her in eighth place.

In the final event of the day, the 200 metres, Lewis recorded a time of 24.34 sec.[3] Sabine Braun's time placed her in sixth position. A strong run by Natalya Roshchupkina moved her from sixth position to second, pushing Lewis into third place.

At the end of the first day, the points scored were:

1. Natallia Sazanovich, BLR: 3903
2. Natalya Roshchupkina, RUS: 3872
3. Denise Lewis, GBR: 3852
4. Urszula Włodarczyk, POL: 3805
5. Yelena Prokhorova, RUS: 3771
6. Sabine Braun, GER: 3770
7. Eunice Barber, FRA: 3707
8. Karin Specht-Ertl, GER: 3697

The first event on the second day was the long jump. Lewis's best jump was 6.48 m,[3] marginally behind Yelena Prokhorova and Sazanovich. Eunice Barber, struggling with injury, withdrew after this event. In event six, the javelin, Lewis achieved a throw of 50.19 m.[3] With her closest rivals some way further back she moved into first place, with Sazanovich 63 points behind in second place and Prokhorova in third a further 83 points behind.

In the final event, the 800 metres, Lewis ran with the lower part of her left leg bandaged due to a calf and Achilles tendon injury, aiming to stay close enough to the race leaders to maintain her points advantage.[3] Prokhorova won the race convincingly and when Lewis crossed the line behind Sazanovich it was not, at first, clear if Lewis's time of 2:16.83 was enough to retain first place.[3] After the individual points had been calculated, it was announced, that Lewis had won with a total of 6584 points.[3] Prokhorova was second with 6531 (53 points behind Lewis) and Sazanovich was third with 6527 (4 points behind Prokhorova).[3]

At the 2004 Olympics, Lewis was suffering from a number of injuries and withdrew from the competition after the long jump.[3] Teammate and training partner Kelly Sotherton took bronze.

• AAA Championships[5]
  • Long jump: 1996, 1998

• AAA Indoor Championships[6]
  • 60 m hurdles: 1997
  • Long jump: 1994, 1995, 1998
  • Shot put: 2004†

† Lewis was the top placed Briton at the 2004 AAA Indoor shot put behind Sweden's Helena Engman

• AAA Junior Championships[7]
  • Heptathlon (under-17): 1988
  • Long jump: 1989

• British Schools International Match[8]
  • Long jump: 1988

• English Schools Championships[9]
  • Long jump: 1986 (junior), 1987 (intermediate)

• Décastar: 2000

Since 2009, Lewis has acted as a pundit for BBC Sport's athletics coverage and she has covered major live events including the 2009 World Athletics Championships, 2010 Commonwealth Games, 2012 Summer Olympics, 2014 Commonwealth Games and 2016 Summer Olympics.

On 2 February 2015, Lewis guest hosted an episode of The One Show with Matt Baker.

Lewis has also been a presenter on various non-sports television programmes. In July 2015, Lewis co-hosted Right on the Money, a daytime series, alongside Dominic Littlewood on BBC One. The programme returned for a second series in July 2016. From 22 July 2011, Lewis hosted children's reality television show Camp Orange. She is a presenter of the BBC's Secret Britain (series 3 onwards) which introduces lesser-known aspects of the British countryside.[28]

In 2004, Lewis took part in the BBC dancing competition, Strictly Come Dancing. She was partnered with professional dancer Ian Waite and in the first few weeks scored the highest number of points with the judges. She eventually reached the final and was runner-up to actress Jill Halfpenny. After this, Lewis and the two other partners from the final danced at the Royal Variety Performance.

Ten days after competing in the Strictly Come Dancing final, Lewis and Waite competed again in the Strictly Come Dancing Champion of Champions Special, where finalists from the first two series competed against each other. Lewis received the most points from the judges, but again was runner-up to Halfpenny. She then appeared on the 2016 Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special, partnered with Anton du Beke.

• Let's Dance for Comic Relief (2009)
• All Star Family Fortunes (2009)
• Pointless with her father-in-law, Tom O'Connor (2011)
• The Cube on ITV (2012)
• Your Face Sounds Familiar (2013)
• Big Star's Little Star with her son Ryan (2014)
• Give a Pet a Home a series which worked alongside the RSPCA in Birmingham (2015)
• Sport Relief in a sketch with Idris Elba playing Luther (2016)
• The Chase: Celebrity Special (2017)
• Hairy Bikers Home for Christmas (2017)
• All Star Musicals (2017)