Laura Muir

Laura Muir (born 9 May 1993) is a Scottish middle- and long-distance runner.

Born on 9 May 1993 in Inverness, Scotland, Laura Muir was raised in Milnathort, Perth and Kinross since age three.

She attended Kinross High School, the same school as 400 m hurdler Eilidh Doyle along with her brother Rory who is two years younger than her.

The same month, she competed in this event at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, but was clipped from behind with 100 m to go and placed 11th with a time of 4:14.21.

Muir failed to qualify from the 1500 m heats at the European Championships in Zürich in August with a time of 4:14.69.

She called her run "a messy race".

She finished fifth over the 1500 m at the 2015 World Championships held in Beijing in a time of 4:11.48.

On 22 July, Muir broke Kelly Holmes' British record for the 1500 metres with a time of 3:57.49 to win the Diamond League event in London's Olympic Park.

Muir made her international debut at the 2011 European Cross Country Championships, when she was part of the Great Britain junior women's team that won gold.

At the end of the year, she was a nominee in the Daily Record Young Athlete of the Year awards.

At the 2013 World Championships in Athletics in Moscow Muir represented Great Britain in the 800 metres; she reached the semi-finals with a personal best time of 2:00.83.

One of her lecturers was veterinary pathologist, distance runner and teammate at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, Hayley Haining.

In July 2014, at the Diamond League event in Paris, she ran 4:00.07 in the 1500 metres to break Yvonne Murray's 27-year-old Scottish record.

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.

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.

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.

Her mark from Paris made her the fastest woman in the world over 1500m for the year.

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.

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.

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.

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, and followed it up by taking a second title in the 3000 m event with another championship record the next day.

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.

In 2017, she broke the European indoor records at both the 1000 metres and 3000 metres, and also set a British record for the indoor 5000 metres.

Muir added a British record at the 1000 m in 2020, and the next year, she also broke the Scottish record in the 800 metres.

Her British record time for the Mile run in 2023, ranks her in the world all-time top 10.

Muir is also a two-time 1500 m Diamond League winner.

She is a multiple British champion.

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.

Muir first broke the British record in the 1500 metres in July 2016.

She set the current record in 2021 at the Tokyo Olympics, which ranks her in the world all-time top 15.

She studied veterinary medicine at the University of Glasgow, graduating in 2018.

She is the 2020 Tokyo Olympic silver medallist in the 1500 metres, having previously finished seventh in the event at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Muir won the bronze medal at the 2022 World Championships, and has three other top five placings in 1500 m finals at the World Athletics Championships, finishing fifth in 2015, fourth in 2017 (where she was also sixth in the 5000 metres) and fifth in 2019.

She is a two-time European 1500 m champion from 2018 and 2022 as well as the 2022 Commonwealth Games 1500 m champion and 800 metres bronze medallist.