| Yemi Mary John | |
| Nationality: | British |
| Birth Date: | 3 May 2003 |
| Birth Place: | London, England |
| Country: | Great Britain |
| Sport: | Track and field |
| Collegeteam: | USC Trojans |
| Event: | 400 metres |
| Pb: | 400 m: 51.04s (Espoo, 2023) |
Yemi Mary John (born 3 May 2003) is a British track and field athlete. She won the gold medal in the 400 metres at the 2022 World Athletics Under-20 Championships.
Yemi Mary John ran a new personal best to finish runner up in the 400 metres at the 2021 European Under-20 Championships in Tallinn.[1]
She was a member of the British 4 × 400 m relay team that finished fifth at the 2022 World Indoor Championships held in Belgrade.[2]
Yemi was crowned the winner at the 2022 World U20 Championship 400 m event in Cali, Colombia as she lowered her personal best throughout the rounds to win the final in 51.50 seconds, the second fastest time ever recorded by a British under-20 athlete, after Linsey MacDonald's 51.16 s from 1980. She later also won bronze in the 4x400 m relay race at the event.[3] [4]
Competing at the British Athletics Championships in July 2023, in Manchester, England, she reached the final of the women's 400m and finished in 3rd place.[5] She was selected as part of the Great Britain team for the 2023 European Athletics U23 Championships held from in July 2023 in Espoo, Finland.[6] Yemi Mary John won a gold medal in the 400m at the event, with compatriot Keely Hodgkinson in third.[7]
She was chosen to represent Great Britain at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest in August 2023.[8] Running the anchor leg in the mixed 4 x 400-metre relay, she took advantage of a late, dramatic fall by Femke Bol of the Netherlands to win world silver, her first senior representative medal.[9] A week later, she ran in the heats of the women's 4 x 400 metres relay, winning a bronze medal.
After winning the 400 metres bronze medal at the 2024 British Athletics Championships, John was subsequently named in the Great Britain team for the 2024 Summer Olympics. Again running the heats only, she won an Olympic bronze medal as part of the successful Great Britain women's 4 x 400 metres relay squad.[10]
Yemi has a Nigerian father (Christopher Olanrewaju John) and an Italian mother (Gabriella Faciotti) who lives in London.[11] She was set to join the University of Michigan as a freshman in 2023,[12] but signed for the University of Southern California.[13]