Laura Muir

There was a time when Laura Muir was the ‘nearly’ woman of British athletics – unquestioned pedigree but always missing out in her quest for global podiums.

That all changed at Tokyo 2020. The Milnathort athlete showed she can perform in the big moments as she claimed Olympic 1500m silver and she has not looked back since.

A first World Championship medal followed in 2022, as well as Commonwealth gold that same summer, Muir is now preparing for her third Olympics with one label dismissed and, in some ways, the pressure off.

At the age of 31, Muir is living up to her billing as one of the great talents GB have produced in recent times.

Born in Inverness, Muir grew up in the rural village of Milnathort in Kinross-shire, where she discovered both her passion for running and her love of animals.

She started running at Dundee Hawkhill Harriers, a club to have benefited from some of the £198m of National Lottery funding invested in community athletics and the former training ground of fellow Scot, Eilish McColgan, before honing her craft at the University of Glasgow.

Animals and running remain central to Muir’s journey. Alongside becoming one of Britain’s greatest middle-distance runners, she has also completed her studies to become a qualified vet, graduating back in 2018.

Muir was surrounded by pets growing up, looking after a rabbit, a guinea pig, six rats and a dog. More than that though, in the local farming community, her speed proved very handy in lambing season.

She explained: “I remember helping out with lambing and there were little lambs on the hills. They’re fast little things, even though they’re only a few hours old, and we had to spray them to mark them with their mothers, so they didn’t get lost.

“We had a great system, me, and the farmer: he would drive the quad bike, and, at the last minute, I would jump off.

“I’d catch the lambs, because I was quick, and then we’d spray them, and then I would hop back on, and we’d be off again. Running came in handy for that.”

And it was clear from an early age that Muir was a talented runner, having taken up the sport at the age of 11 – even though she insists otherwise.

"I was no prodigal youngster," she said. "I didn't want to be an athlete. I enjoyed running as a hobby and it just went from there.

“I realised I was pretty good at it when I was 20. I went to university at 18 and it was only a couple of years after that I made a really big jump, went to the world juniors and went, up, up."

She made her international debut at just 18 years old when she competed at the European Cross-Country Championships in 2011.

Two years later she reached the semi-finals at the 2013 World Athletics Championships in Moscow over 800m. But it was in 2014 that she truly emerged.

At the Diamond League in Paris, at the Stade de France where she will return this summer, Muir ran 4:00.07 to break a 27-year-old Scottish record that had belonged to Yvonne Murray.

It inevitably raised expectations ahead of a home Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, where Muir, who now had the backing of National Lottery funding, was tipped to be one of the best Scottish stars on the track.

She was achieving all this alongside her veterinary studies, with her preparations for Glasgow involving placements in a vet’s surgery where she was operating on cats, dogs, rabbits and the like.

"Sport is so unpredictable as well,” she said.

“You hope injuries never crop up and you get to call time when you do, but some things do happen, and if your career’s cut short, it’s good to have something to fall back on, and to continue in something you love to do."

Not everything went to plan that summer, however, with an unfortunate fall after she was clipped on the final straight of the 1500m denying her a shot at a Commonwealth medal.

After missing out on the podium at the 2015 Worlds, she arrived in Rio at her first Olympics as a genuine medal contender.

But not satisfied with simply battling for bronze, Muir threw caution to the wind as she tried to get the better of eventual gold medallist Faith Kipyegon and world record holder Genzebe Dibaba.

It did not pay off, with Muir finishing seventh. It was a more than creditable Olympic debut, but also left her wondering what might have been in a year where she was the fastest in the world all year over 1500m.

When she doubled up at the Worlds in 2017 in London, Muir finished fourth over 1500m and sixth over 5000m. Although she did break Kelly Holmes’ British record over 1500m, that first major outdoor medal continued to evade her.

It finally came in 2018, when she triumphed at the European Championships in Berlin, just after completing her final veterinary exams.

“If you’re a happy person, you’ll be a successful person,” she said.

“It sounds simple, but it’s so important. To be honest, I think even before I get there, I feel like I’ve already won. Because I’m happy.”

With her focus now solely on athletics, Muir has gone from strength to strength, setting a new British record in Tokyo as she took silver behind Kipyegon and ahead of world champion Sifan Hassan – one of 204 Olympic and Paralympic medals won by British track and field athletes since National Lottery funding began in 1997.

Then in 2022, she added a first podium at the Worlds in Eugene, Oregon, before winning gold and bronze over 1500m and 800m at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

From the ‘nearly’ woman, Muir has rewritten an epics tory that began chasing new-born lambs on a dairy farm.

Discover more grassrots to glory stories of athletes like Laura Muir by following #TNLAthletes.