Denise Lewis OBE is an accomplished presenter, broadcaster, former athlete and President of Commonwealth Games England.
The former Gold Medal winning heptathlete, who holds the second highest number of points scored by a British Heptathlete, has gone on to secure a successful broadcast career. Since her retirement from Athletics, Denise has undertaken an array of television work including commentating on high profile athletics events and fronting shows such as BBC’s Secret Britain and Right on the Money.
Denise won gold at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and subsequently was inducted into the UK Athletics Hall of Fame in 2011.She has twice been runner-up in the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year awards (in 1998 and 2000) and was also honoured with an OBE in the 2000 New Year Honours.
Denise is considered one of the BBCs most credible commentators, which has seen her cover many key athletics events both at home and abroad. In 2012, Denise covered the Commonwealth Games and the London Olympics, reporting daily from the Olympic Park. And in 2014, she reported on the European Diamond League and the London Marathon. Since then, Denise has covered the European Team Championships, the 2015 World Athletics Championships, the Rio Olympics in 2016 and the IAAF Championships in 2017. In 2018, Denise flew to the Gold Coast where she commentated on the Commonwealth Games and represented England as the President of Commonwealth Games England.
In addition to delivering BBC Athletics coverage, Denise has been involved in presenting a range of successful shows and documentaries ranging from presenting two series of Camp Orange for Nickelodeon to joining Dame Mary Peters for the BBC NI documentary, The Run of Her Life. Denise has also presented for BBC One’s Seven Wonders of the Commonwealth, in which she travelled to Zambia to report on the spectacular sight of the Victoria Falls.
In 2018, Denise fronted her fourth series of Right on the Money for the BBC and also authored the documentary Matron, Medicine and Me, to celebrate the NHS 70th birthday.
Denise has previously competed in and achieved runner up in the second series of Strictly Come Dancing and achieved the judges highest score in the Strictly Come Dancing Champion of Champions Special.
Throughout her career, Denise has used her platform to highlight projects that discuss and promote diversity making her a perfect speaker on the corporate circuit.
In addition to her broadcast commitments, Denise has taken on the role of ambassador and patron for several initiatives, events and charities. In 2014, Denise was announced as ambassador for the Investec Epsom Derby and QIPCO Champions Day at Ascot and in the same year, Denise took on a similar ambassadorial role for 2014’s Telegraph Be: Fit event, a female health and fitness convention, which carried through to 2015.
Charitable work is very close to Denise’s heart and she works closely with Breast Cancer Care and Sparks and she is the President of Commonwealth Games England.