Meet mystery runner who won two Olympic medals without being selected

The day after watching Paris’s quirky if bedraggled opening ceremony from his home in London, Sam Reardon was on his local track, training for a race in the unglamorous environs of the National Athletics League (NAL). That was when the career-altering call came. So the 11th-hour stand-in swapped his Blackheath & Bromley vest for a Team GB one, caught a plane and became the most unexpected multiple Olympic medallist of all.
By any standards, this was an astounding turnaround and it was emotional too. When the 20-year-old Kent runner walked on to the podium as part of the mixed 4x400m relay team, he saw the big picture because of the small photo in his pocket. Five years earlier, his mother, Marilyn, died after having an incurable brain tumour diagnosed. As athletics fans, mother and son had watched London 2012 together and Sam had said he wanted to get on that podium. His mum said she would be cheering every step of the way.
“I have her picture and it is always in my wallet,” he says. “I thought I’d lost it in Paris and had a bit of a panic, but it was in one of the pockets in the bag I was packing. It’s safe and sound now. Wherever I go, I speak to it before, and say ‘always with you’. So when I got the opportunity to go to the medal ceremony I thought I’d take it in my pocket and then she’s up there with me.”
Reardon’s remarkable fortnight started when Charlie Carvell had to pull out of the team with injury. That left a berth in the men’s and mixed 400m relay squads, but having missed the Olympic trials through injury, Reardon had not been one of the replacements when the team was named in July. However, he went to the London Diamond League two weeks later and clocked 44.70 seconds, which made him the fourth fastest man in Europe in 2024. He and his coach asked if there was any chance of making it to Paris, but were told that his lifetime best had come too late. The team had been picked. Hence, on the first day of Olympics, he was preparing to run for club and not country.
Then he was told Carvell was out and to have his phone handy because he would be receiving more details. “I was told there was still a chance that the BOA or IOC could reject me,” he says. “It was a crazy situation. I thought, ‘I’m going, I’m going’, but there was a chance it could still be taken away from me.”
As he had not been an original replacement, it was a delicate matter and he was told not to tell anyone initially. Even the coaches at Blackheath & Bromley wondered why he said he was no longer available to run in the NAL. The passage to Paris was difficult all round, with the cancellation of his Eurostar train forcing him to take a plane from Gatwick. When he got there, he was unsure what reception he would get, but was relieved to find it warm and welcoming: “The others told me I deserved to be there, which helped a lot.”
That was Monday. On the Friday he ran in the mixed relay heats in front of 70,000 people in the Stade de France. On Saturday he was the lead-off man in a race that will long be remembered for Femke Bol coming from nowhere to overhaul the USA. Reardon was not watching the Dutch star, though, only team-mate Amber Anning. “I had the best job. I got to run and then watch the other guys do their thing — and they did it brilliantly. I looked up to the scoreboard and saw ‘Netherlands’ and thought, ‘what happened there?’
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“It was an amazing feeling. Before the heats I’d not been too well with nerves beforehand. I gave the guys a warning and told them not to be alarmed if I threw up. It’s happened before and I’m used to it. Then I got to the start and saw my family on the first bend. And then that roar.”
Adidas, the Team GB sponsor, had helped to get tickets for his dad and brothers, while his sister was at home with her young children. Reardon was not done yet, though. He also ran in the heats for the 4x400m relay, lining up against 200m Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo and USA teen sensation Quincy Wilson. GB shuffled the team for the final, but Reardon picked up a second bronze medal.
There were other golden moments too, such as coming down from his room in the Olympic Village and finding Andy Murray watching the TV. “I’m a big tennis fan and he was the only one I got a photo with. I felt proud to be there for his last ever tournament. He gave a great, emotional farewell speech and I said this was inspiring for all of us, not just tennis players. Then I was in the stretching room and Max Whitlock was there showing me up with his flexibility. We chatted about athletics which was cool. I thought I’m here with these huge Olympic icons I’ve grown up watching.”
Reardon wants a degree at some point but turned down the chance to go to Loughborough University because he is a rare 400m-800m multi-tasker and did not want to have to give up the longer distance. His progress, though, means he will focus on trying to gain a 400m place at next year’s World Championships. Inspired by team-mates Matt Hudson-Smith, the Olympic silver medallist, and Charlie Dobson, he is far more than a quiz question about the runner who won two medals despite not getting picked for the team. Instead, he is part of a 400m revival that has come after GB failed to send a single man to compete in the event at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
“If I can get my 200m speed up, then with my endurance background, I think something special could happen,” he says, but he pauses because he knows something very special already has. “I still can’t believe it to be honest,” he adds. “It’s surreal.”