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Jeanette Kwakye MBE was born in London and quickly realised her sporting talent in her teenage years. She progressed through the national junior ranks as a sprinter and developed into a world-class athlete.
She is a five-time British Champion in the 100m and 200m races; her highest ranking achievement being the 100m Olympic final in 2008. The first British woman to achieve this feat in 24 years.
She was awarded an MBE in 2021 for her services to sport and sports broadcasting.
An unfortunate series of injuries were to keep Jeanette Kwakye out of the London 2012 Olympics, despite maintaining her position as British No. 1 across 100m during 2011.
Having since retired from athletics, Jeanette, now a qualified journalist currently works for the BBC, Sky Sports and Channel 5. She reports and presents on Olympic sport for BBC Sport. She has has covered European, World, and Commonwealth Games, the Diamond League, the World Swimming Championships, the Taekwondo World Championships, and the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. In 2020, she became the first black female UK presenter to host a boxing production on a terrestrial channel, and still continues to present boxing on Channel 5.
In 2023, it was announced that she would be fronting an exciting show for Sky Sports about British basketball, bringing it to YouTube each week.
She has also worked for Channel 4, been featured on The One Show, has co-hosted the ITV1 Martin Lewis Show, regularly presents the BBC’s Women’s Football Show, Fighting Talk, and on BBC 5 Live. In 2024 she was part of the presenting team at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games for BBC.
She has also been published by the Guardian and other national publications.
Jeanette is an accomplished event host and speaker, having worked with brands like Adidas, Nike, Red Bull, BMW, Twitter, Google and many others.
In 2017 Jeanette published the children’s book, Femi The Fox which teaches young readers about West African culture.
She is an advocate for youth empowerment via sport and has worked with the Youth Sport Trust Charity since 2010. She also works closely with the IAAF and IOC as a moderator.