Jodie Williams

Jodie Alicia Williams (born 28 September 1993) is a retired British sprinter who specialised in the 400 metres, having begun her career concentrating on 100 and 200 metres. A prodigious junior in the shorter sprints, she is the 2009 World Youth Champion at 100 and 200 m, the 2010 World Junior Champion at 100 m, the 2011 European Junior Champion at 100 and 200 m, and the 2013 European U23 Champion at 200 m. Williams had a five-year-long unbeaten streak of 151 races in the sprints, beginning with the start of her athletics career in 2005 and lasting until July 2010, when she was runner-up to Stormy Kendrick in the 200 m at the World Junior Championships. Williams is the British youth record holder over the 60 m, 100 m and 200 m.

At the age of sixteen, she was the top-ranked British woman over 200 m in 2010. After a difficult beginning to her senior career following recurring injuries, in 2014 Williams won her first senior medals, representing England at the 2014 Commonwealth Games; a bronze in the 4 × 100 metres relay, and a silver in the 200 metres. Weeks later she repeated the silver medal for 200 metres at the 2014 European Championships, before winning her first senior gold medal as part of the Great Britain relay team that broke the British Record in the 4 × 100 metres relay. Further injuries stalled her senior progress as Williams transitioned to the longer sprint, although she won several senior British championships in the years between 2014 and 2021.

In 2021, her transition bore fruit, winning individual bronze over 400 metres at the 2021 European Athletics Indoor Championships along with relay silver. At the 2022 European Championships, she was also part of British 4 × 400 quartet than ran the second fastest time ever (3:21.74) by a British women's team while Williams again won bronze at the 2022 Commonwealth Games for England, her final major international medal. In 2024, aged 30, Williams was selected for her third Olympic Games as a relay-only runner. Williams finally won her first senior global medal, an Olympic bronze medal, as a heat-running member of the Great Britain women's 4 x 400 metres relay squad that finished third at the 2024 Summer Olympics. Four months later, with nine international medals and four British national titles, Williams announced her retirement from elite track and field athletics.