Steve Jones (athlete)

Stephen ("Steve") Henry Jones (born August 4, 1955) is a Welsh athlete and former world marathon record holder.

Jones began his career as an aircraft technician in the Royal Air Force. He began training for the marathon in 1983 and, up until then, his career had been focused on the 10,000m.

In 1984, he ran his first competitive marathon in Chicago, coming in at 2h08m05s and thus breaking the world record of Australian Robert de Castella.

He won the London Marathon in 1985 and achieved his career best marathon time of 2h07m13s in winning the Chicago Marathon in 1985.

In 1986 he won a bronze medal in the 10,000m at the Commonwealth Games. In the European Championships shortly after, he once again competed in the marathon. Leading from the start and breaking away from the pack, Jones ran a brilliant race up to the 20 mile mark. At that point he was leading by over two minutes and on schedule for another world record. However, he then "hit the wall" and suffered terribly in the final six miles. He slowed to a virtual shuffle, but refused to quit as he watched other competitors catch and pass him. Two years later, in the 1988 New York City Marathon Jones won with a time of 2:08:20.

He was the first Welsh athlete to appear on the cover of the prestigious running magazine Running Times.

Jones currently lives in Boulder, Colorado.