Advertisement

Former BBC athletics commentator Dickenson dies aged 74

Former BBC Sport athletics commentator Paul Dickenson.
Paul Dickenson commentated on six Summer Olympic Games [BBC]

Former BBC athletics commentator Paul Dickenson has died at the age of 74.

Dickenson, a two-time Olympic hammer thrower, specialised in athletics and sliding sports for over two decades with BBC Sport.

He commentated on every Summer and Winter Olympic Games between 1992 and 2014.

It was Dickenson's voice that accompanied Jessica Ennis-Hill's heptathlon gold at London 2012, while his last BBC commentary was when Lizzy Yarnold won her skeleton gold at Sochi 2014.

Dickenson is one of only five BBC commentators to call Team GB gold medals in both the Summer and Winter Olympics.

Head of BBC Sport Content, Philip Bernie, said: "Paul was a wonderful broadcaster and a really lovely man.

"His great voice captured and enhanced some of the very biggest moments in British sport, including his superb commentary at both summer and winter Olympics.

"All our condolences and thoughts are with his family and friends."

As an athlete, Dickenson achieved a 14th-place finish in the hammer throw at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, before competing four years later in Moscow.

He also represented England at the 1978 and 1982 Commonwealth Games.

Dickenson passed away at home on Tuesday.