Sir Brendan Foster CBE

Brendan's athletics career saw him amass an impressive array of championship medals: Commonwealth Games 1500m Bronze (1970), 5000m Silver (1974 and 1978), 10,000m Gold (1978); European Championships 1500m Bronze (1971), 5000m Gold (1974) and Olympic Games 10,000m Bronze (1976). He also set two world records for the 3000m in 1972 and 1974 and a world record for two miles in 1973. During his career he was the UK record holder at five different distances, before retiring in 1980.

Brendan joined Nike International Limited in 1981 as UK Managing Director and went on to become European Managing Director, Vice President Marketing (Worldwide) and Vice President of Nike Europe, based in the USA. In 1987 he set up his own company, Nova International, a sports marketing agency specialising in the organisation of mass participation sporting events for television. In March 2015 the company was re-named The Great Run Company to bring its position closer to its core consumer brand ‘Great Run’ and Brendan remains Chairman and Managing Director.  The company also includes a production arm, filmNOVA and a sportswear division, View From.

Since his retirement from athletics, Brendan has stayed very involved with the sport. In 1981 he founded The Great North Run, an event which now attracts some 50,000 runners each year. He is also a senior member of the BBC athletics commentary team and has covered every Olympic Games, World Championships and Commonwealth Games since the Eighties. In April 2017 Brendan announced he would be retiring from commentary after the World Championships in London in August.

Brendan's enthusiasm for sport takes up a large part of his spare time. Aside from athletics he is a keen football fan, supporting Newcastle United.

Brendan was awarded the MBE in 1976, the CBE in 2008 and was knighted in 2020. He was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 1974.

 

December 2024