Former British Olympian Adam Gemili has quit athletics to take up a surprise role with Premier League club Chelsea.
Gemili, 32, represented Great Britain at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics, and is also a 2017 world champion, when he was part of the GB team that beat the likes of Usain Bolt’s Jamaica to 4 x 100m relay gold.
His other achievements include being a three-time European relay champion, while he also claimed individual gold in the men’s 200m in the 2014 European Championship.
He came within three-thousandths of a second of Olympic bronze in Rio, too, and has spoken about that being one of the hardest parts of his career to digest.
Now, though, it’s time for a change of scenery. Not a completely fresh one, though, as he steps back into football.
Gemili played for the likes of Chelsea and Reading as a young footballer, before going on to sign for Dagenham & Redbridge – not quite owned by KSI back then.
He then opted for athletics, and, after devoting 15 years of his life to the track, he is now back in football, and back with Chelsea.
The 32-year-old has been competing without a sponsor over the last few years, while also, according to The Independent, playing the likes of padel and golf.
Now, he is working at the London club where he has been training the Blues’ younger players to help with their speed technique.
He is also expected to work as a pundit for the European Championship and Commonwealth Games, which take place in Great Britain.
Upon his retirement, he told British Athletics: ‘I feel so content. I am going to miss competing. I did that for 15 years, I did my best and now someone else can take that mantle and go forward.
‘I am really pleased I have done it on my own terms. I could have gone for another season but what am I trying to prove? I am really happy with the career I have had.
‘I have been at the top level of athletics for 15 years. People are lucky to get one Olympic cycle and I have been able to do this for three Olympic cycles.
‘I have given my all now and I am ready for the next chapter in my life. Life can now really move forward and I am so excited for that.’
