Page 96 - 2018 Powerlist

Sport

Denise Lewis
Olympian and TV presenter

Formerly a queen of track and field, Olympic gold medallist
Denise Lewis has gone on to enjoy a hugely successful
career since retiring from the world of elite sport.
She is currently President of Commonwealth Games
England, where her role is to provide “leadership and
guidance” before the 2018 Commonwealth Games, to be held
on Australia’s Gold Coast.
Commonwealth Games England manages the
participation and preparation of the England team. Next
year a team of around 400 will compete across 18 sports
– and Denise has predicted it will be England’s most
successful medal haul yet.
Heptathlete Lewis is a veteran of the Commonwealth
Games, winning titles in 1994 and 1998. She also won gold
for the heptathlon in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. In 2001 she
was awarded an OBE.
At the inaugural British Ethnic Diversity Sports Awards
(BEDSA) in 2015, Lewis became the first recipient of the
Lifetime Achievement Award. She has also won Sunday
Times Sportswoman of the Year a record three times.
Denise is one of the foremost sports commentators on
television, working predominantly with the BBC.
Lewis Hamilton In 2004 she was also a finalist in BBC One’s Strictly Come
Three-time Formula 1 world champion Dancing and starred in last year’s Strictly Come Dancing
Christmas Special.
She has been a presenter on various non-sports television
The most successful British driver of all time, Hamilton programmes. In 2015 and 2016 she co-hosted Right on
scored his third Formula 1 world title in 2015. the Money: Live, a daytime series for BBC One, alongside
His first was won at the tender age of 23, in 2008, making Dominic Littlewood.
him the then youngest racing driver ever to take the gong in She hosted children’s reality television show Camp
its history – as well as the first black driver to win. Orange and the BBC’s Secret Britain which introduces lesser-
McLaren had taken a leap of faith 11 years ago with the known aspects of the British countryside.
unknown Lewis, announcing he would drive for them
alongside Fernando Alonso. The following year he took to
the Formula 1 track for his debut season and gained six pole
positions, won four races and was an agonising one point
away from winning the world title.
Incredibly, he finished on the podium in his first nine
races as an F1 driver (a Championship record), including two
victories.
A year later he was world champion. In 2015 he became
one of the few drivers in F1 history to win three world
championships, drawing level with his idol Ayrton Senna.
Famously, Lewis’s father had to work four jobs to earn
enough money to keep his son in go-karting as a child. He
was a precocious talent who signed to the McLaren Young
Drivers’ Development programme when he was 12, going
on to win pretty much every race he entered, including the
British Formula Renault, Formula Three Euroseries, and GP2
championships.
Lewis has more race victories than any other British
Formula 1 driver, and holds the record for the all-time most
career points, the most wins at different circuits, the all-time
most pole positions and the joint-most podium finishes in
a season (an incredible 17). He is also the only F1 driver in
history to win at least one Grand Prix in every season he
has competed in, and has won the British Grand Prix a
record-equalling five times.
He stayed with McLaren until 2013 when he switched to
Mercedes. In 2009 he was awarded an MBE.

92 Powerlist 2018