John Anderson (TV personality)

John Anderson (born 28 November 1931 in Glasgow, Scotland)^[1] is a Scottish television personality best known as referee and official trainer on the UK television show Gladiators.^[2] He has previously worked as a teacher and as a coach for Commonwealth Games and Olympic Games athletes, including Commonwealth Games champion and former World Record Holder Dave Moorcroft,^[3] three-time Olympic heptathlete Judy Simpson (nee Livermore, known as Nightshade on Gladiators), double Olympian Sheila Carey, 2:09 marathoner John Graham, Liz McColgan - who won silver at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, Glasgow’s Lynne MacDougall - who ran in the Olympic 1500m Final in Los Angeles 1984, 1972 Olympic silver medalist (4x400m) David Jenkins, and David Wilson - who took part in the 1972 Olympics as a sprint hurdler.^[4]

Anderson had a successful career long before his athletics and TV fame. Plaudits included representing Scotland as a schoolboy footballer, becoming the first home Scot to gain the prestigious Full FA Coaching Certificate (then only four were awarded per year), being one of only two confirmed recipients (along with Wilf Paish) of every British Senior Coaching award available, and founding Maryhill Ladies AC in Glasgow.^[5]

John's best-known coaching success was with Dave Moorcroft. The partnership started in 1966. It was a coach-athlete relationship which would lead to a world record for 5000m in 1982 and even a vets world record for the Mile of 4:02 a decade later, in 1993.^[6] John was National Coach for the Amateur Athletics Association of England and subsequently the first full time National Coach in Scotland (1965-1970). He was coach to an Olympian at every Olympics from 1964 to 2000 and has coached five world record holders and an estimated 170 GB Internationals in every Track and Field event.^[7]

In 2008, Anderson briefly reprised his role as referee on the newly revived Gladiators before leaving and being replaced by John Coyle after just one series.^[8] The series was subsequently not renewed any further. John occasionally appears in cameo roles as a referee, including guest appearances on two episodes of 2016's Top Gear (UK) with Chris Evans and Matt LeBlanc, and as an ident-voiceover for Sky's Challenge TV. After his television career in the 1990s John went on to become a mentor and coach for a number of recent international athletes, including Great British athlete William Sharman, whom he helped transform from a decathlete to a world class sprint hurdler,^[9] and continues to coach on a small scale.^[10]

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