Duncan Mackay

About

Duncan Mackay has been one of the most influential Olympic journalists in the world for 25 years. He worked for The Guardian and The Observer newspapers in London for 17 years where he earned a reputation for breaking big exclusive stories, particularly in the field of anti-doping.Major scoops included that British sprinter Dwain Chambers had tested positive for banned drugs and Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand had dropped by England because he was being investigated for missing out-of-competition tests.Mackay was the first journalist to report that Greek sprinters Kostas Kederis and Ekaterina Thanou were under suspicion of using drugs and deliberately avoiding doping tests on the eve of the 2004 Olympics in Athens. Mackay's reporting was recognised when in 2004 he was voted British Sports Journalist of the Year and won British Sports News Story of the Year.Mackay’s impeccable contacts within the Olympic Movement were also brilliantly demonstrated when in 2005 in the vote to decide which city would host the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games he was the only British print journalist to predict London would beat Paris.In 2008, Mackay was the first journalist to reveal that Qatar planned to bid for FIFA World Cup, a plan that came to fruition when they hosted the 2022 tournament.Mackay founded insidethegames.biz shortly after London were awarded the 2012 Olympics. it grew into the world’s leading independent website covering the Olympic Movement. insidethegames broke a number of major stories, including the positive drugs test involving Russian skater Kamila Valieva at Beijing 2022 and that Brisbane had been awarded the 2032 Olympics without a formal bid process.It was also the publication of a series of exclusive articles by insidethegames about how the Russian Olympic Committee had incorporated the occupied Ukrainian territories into its organisation that finally led to the International Olympic Committee suspending it.Mackay was awarded the UK Internet Sports Journalist of the Year in 2009.As well, as his journalism, Mackay has written five books, including co-authoring Running Scared: How Athletics Lost Its Innocence. It was voted one of the 20 best books about the sport by Athletics Weekly and chosen as “Book of the Week” by The Independent, who praised it for “an impressive depth of detailed research”.Other books have included Linford Christie, The History of the Olympics, The Daily Telegraph Gold Medal Legends - The Olympic Games 100 Years in Pictures and China Gold: China's Quest for Global Power and Olympic Glory.