'Deeply shocked' Paula Radcliffe in raw public apology after recent comments ahead of Olympics

British running icon Paula Radcliffe has been sharing her insights with the BBC at this year's Olympic Games in Paris.

Born in 1973 in Cheshire, Radcliffe became a world record holder in marathon running. Her competitive career spanned the 1990s, but it was post-2000 when she truly established herself as one of the all-time greats.

She triumphed in the London and New York marathons three times each and shattered the women's marathon world record with an astonishing time of 2:15.25. Her sporting prowess garnered her an OBE, IAAF Athlete of the Year and the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award in 2002.

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She participated in four Olympic Games from 1996 to 2008 and clinched a gold medal at the 2005 World Championships in Helsinki. One incident Radcliffe might prefer to forget occurred when she experienced 'runner's diarrhoea' during the London Marathon, leading her to relieve herself in view of television cameras and spectators.

"It is funny because out of everything I have achieved I don’t think I will ever live it down," she explained. "It is one of those things you would obviously never do when you are not in that competition zone or environment but I did what I had to do and what was in the rules to win the race.

"I had bad stomach cramps and put up with it for as long as I could. I was looking and looking and looking for a toilet and I would have had to climb a barrier to go – and I couldn’t envisage being able to climb a barrier at that point. I don’t regret