Colin Ray Jackson was born on 18 February 1967 in Cardiff, Wales, to Jamaican parents, and burst onto the international athletics scene as a teenager, setting a European junior record of 13.44 seconds in the 110 metres hurdles in 1986.
Jackson won his first Olympic medal, a silver, at the 1988 Seoul Games, launching a career that would see him compete across four Olympic Games despite never claiming the gold medal that eluded him throughout his career.
In 1993 Jackson won his first World Championship title in Stuttgart, setting a world record of 12.91 seconds that would stand for 13 years until broken by China's Liu Xiang, and he added a second World Championship title six years later in 1999.
Across his 20-year career Jackson won virtually every major title available in his event except Olympic gold, going undefeated throughout his entire European Championships career and becoming one of only four athletes to win four successive European titles in the same event.
Jackson retired from competition in 2003 as the holder of the world indoor 60m title and an outdoor world record that stood for over a decade, and transitioned into a respected broadcasting career as a leading BBC athletics commentator and pundit, a role he has held consistently since the 2004 Athens Olympics.
- World record holder in the 110m hurdles for 13 years
- Two-time World Champion, 1993 and 1999
- Olympic silver medallist, Seoul 1988
- Won four consecutive European Championship titles
- World Indoor 60m record holder
- Dominance can be measured across years, not just medals. Despite never winning Olympic gold, Jackson's sustained excellence across two decades of competition defined him as one of the greatest hurdlers in history.
- A competitive career can transition into a second career built on expertise. Jackson's two decades as an elite athlete gave his subsequent BBC broadcasting career a depth of insight few commentators could match.