This episode of The Checkpoint podcast is sponsored by The North Face®️.

Donna Fraser OBE is a 4 times Olympic athlete specialising in the 400 metres.

Born in Croydon, U.K, she first knew she wanted to represent her country at the Olympics after watching the LA games with her sister on the TV in 1984.

And that dream came true when she attended her first Olympics 12 years later.

Donna calls her Olympic claim to fame as being in the 2000 games where she narrowly missed out on a medal ‘by a boob’ in a performance that saw her shave almost a second off her PB.

Her training partner that year, Cathy Freeman, won the gold and the picture of Donna congratulating Cathy was beamed across the world and. For many of us watching it showed the beautiful relationship that can develops between team mates, training partners and ultimately, women.

In 2009 Donna was diagnosed with breast cancer but continued to train and race until she made the decision later that year to retire from competitive athletics.

Donna was appointed as U.K. Athletics first Equality, Diversity and Engagement Lead and one of her more recent projects has involved working with prominent voices in both elite and amateur athletics to create the RACEEquality Network.

In the January 2021 New Years Honours list she was awarded Order of the British Empire for services to equality, inclusion and diversity in the workplace.

We welcome Donna to The Checkpoint