Indoors, she is a two-time 2018 World Indoor Championship medallist, earning silver at 1500 m and bronze at 3000 metres, and a British record five-time European Indoor champion, including the 1500 m/3000 m double in 2017 and 2019 as the first athlete in history to achieve the 'double-double' at a European Indoor Championships. With Muir's fifth title for the 1500 m in 2023, she became the first ever Brit to claim five golds at the event, increasing her overall tally to seven European titles.[5]
Muir made her international debut at the 2011 European Cross Country Championships,[11] when she was part of the Great Britain junior women's team that won gold.[12] At the end of the year, she was a nominee in the Daily Record Young Athlete of the Year awards.[13]
The 2016 Rio Olympic Games were unsuccessful for her, as a tactical 1500 m final saw her fade from third to seventh at the finish line in 4:12.88. The winner, Faith Kipyegon of Kenya in 4:08.92, ran the last 800 metres in 1:57.2.[19]
Less than two weeks later, on 27 August, Muir improved her own UK record by more than two seconds with a world-leading time of 3:55.22 to win the event at the Diamond League meet in Paris.[20] A few days later, she became only the third British woman to win a Diamond Trophy as she won the 1500 m title with a second-place finish in Zürich, with the third fastest ever mark by a Briton. She overtook Kipyegon in seventh and won with her in the overall standings.[21][22] Her mark from Paris made her the fastest woman in the world over 1500m for the year.
2017
On 4 January, racing the 5000 metres for the second time ever, Muir broke 25-year-old British indoor record held by her fellow Scot Liz McColgan, clocking 14:49.12 in Glasgow. She was the only competitor as it was a mixed 3K race.[23] Exactly a month later, she set a European indoor 3000 metres record in Karlsruhe in a time of 8:26.41, beating Russian Liliya Shobukhova's mark by 1.45 seconds and reigning Olympic 5000 m silver medallist Hellen Obiri.[24][25] On 18 February, Muir broke the European indoor 1000 metres record at the Birmingham Indoor Grand Prix. With her time of 2:31.93 (within a second of the world record), she beat Russian Yuliya Chizhenko's European record and Kelly Holmes's British best.[26]
Muir continued her record-breaking form in March, dominating at the European Indoor Championships in Belgrade. She took gold in the 1500 m event, breaking Kelly Holmes's British record and Doina Melinte's 32-year old championship best along the way,[27][28] and followed it up by taking a second title in the 3000 m event with another championship record the next day.[29] She became only the second woman to achieve this double at the European Indoor Championships after Poland's Lidia Chojecka, and only the second UK athlete after Colin Jackson to win two European Indoor titles at the same event.[30][31]
She doubled up outdoors at the World Championships held in London, finishing fourth in the 1500 m and sixth in the 5000 m.
Following the championships, she announced that she would miss the 2018 Commonwealth Games in April in order to focus on her veterinary medicine exams.[32]
In August, she won the 1500 metres title at the European Championships Berlin 2018, her first-ever major outdoor medal as the first British woman ever to win the European 1500 m gold.[35]
She followed this breakthrough by securing her second Diamond League title over 1500 metres in Brussels, her first since the move of the series to a championship format. Muir produced one of the most impressive wins of her career, beating three of the four fastest women in the world that year (Shelby Houlihan, Hassan and Gudaf Tsegay).[36]
2019
In February, Muir broke the 31-year-old British indoor mile record held by Kirsty Wade by more than five seconds, stopping the clock at the world third-fastest time of 4:18.75 at the Birmingham Indoor Grand Prix. She was 1.61 s short of a European record.[37]
In March, she became the first athlete in history to achieve the 'double-double' at a European Indoors as she defended both her 1500 m and 3000 m titles at Glasgow 2019, improving her own championship record at the longer distance.[38][16]
During pandemic season in 2020, Muir broke Kelly Holmes' British record for the 1000 metres by almost two seconds in a time of 2:30.82, when finishing second behind Kipyegon at the MonacoDiamond League.[39] She won all her three 1500 m races (Stockholm Diamond League, Chorzów, Berlin), with all times under 3:58.50. She also recorded victories in two of her six 800 m competitions (Marseille, Ostrava).[18]
On 9 February 2021, she started her season well in Liévin, France, becoming the first British woman to break the four-minute barrier in the indoor 1500 m, and taking the record back from her Scottish training partner Jemma Reekie. Muir finished second behind Gudaf Tsegay with a time of 3:59.58 to move to fifth on the world indoor all-time list.[40][41] Over 1500 m she then won the USATF Grand Prix in Eugene, GatesheadDiamond League, and came third in Rome Diamond League (behind only Hassan and Kipyegon). At the end of June, she lost to both Keely Hodgkinson and Reekie in the 800 m at the British Championships in 2:00.24 to set a personal best of 1:56.73 in July, when winning the Monaco Diamond League.[18]
At the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics in August 2021, Muir won the silver medal in the 1500 metres in a time of three minutes 54.50 seconds, improving her own British record. She beat reigning world champion in the event, Sifan Hassan (3:55.86), finishing behind only Kipyegon who ran 3:53.11.[42] It was Scotland's first individual Olympic medal in any track event since the 1988 Seoul Games, when Liz McColgan won 10,000 m silver.[43]
During the indoor season, Muir was unable to run for two months due to a stress fracture of her right femur, which occurred in February. Despite this, at the World Championships Eugene 22 in July, she emerged with bronze. She ran her third-fastest time ever for a 1500 m race with 3:55.28, finishing behind Tsegay in 3:54.52 and Kipyegon who claimed gold in 3:52.96.[44]
About two weeks later, Muir completed in just a 24-hour span the 800 m/1500 m double at the XXII Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, earning bronze in a photo-finish in the 800 m (0.01 s ahead of Natoya Goule and behind Mary Moraa and Hodgkinson) and, in the absence of Kipyegon, winning decisively gold for the 1500 m.[45][46]
The 29-year-old continued her fine season successfully defending her 1500 m European title just 12 days after her Commonwealth gold. Muir dominated the event at the European Championships Munich 2022.[47]
She capped her medal-winning season on the road in September, with another strong showing and a course record of 4:14.8 at the New York's Fifth Avenue Mile. Her time, the fastest in the event's 41-year history, would place her fourth on the world all-time list if it was achieved on the track. There was a Scottish sweep as Jake Wightman won the men's race for the third time.[48]
2023
Muir opened her indoor season in USA in February with victories at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Boston (3000 m) and at the Millrose Games in New York (prestigious Wanamaker Mile).[49] She then won the 1000 m at the World Indoor Tour Final in Birmingham.[50] She rounded off her indoor campaign by collecting her fifth European indoor title at Istanbul 2023 in March, competing in the 1500 m to become the first Brit in history to claim five golds at the European Indoors, as the accomplishment broke her tie with Colin Jackson and Jason Gardener.[51]
At the end of the month, Muir and Reekie split from trainer Andy Young, who coached her since she was 18 in 2011, after quitting a training camp in South Africa.[52][53]
2024
In January 2024, Muir was awarded a retrospective European Indoor bronze medal after Russian athlete Yelena Korobkina was found guilty of doping offences. Muir had finished 4th in the 3000m at the 2015 event in Prague.[54]
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