In civilian clothes, he looks as skinny as a middle-distance runner.

FORBES: Super Week--Then The Worst

"You call yourself a middle-distance runner when you've run a mile in under four minutes, " Moorcroft, now chief executive of UK Athletics, told BBC Sport.

BBC: SPORT | Athletics | What was the Bannister legacy?

One of the most unlikely nations to compete at the Winter Games has been Kenya, but there are few stories as compelling as that of former middle-distance runner Philip Boit.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

The son of a vice cop and a telephone operator, Lang Lang is no athlete he is as sedentary as a veal calf in a dark shed but he has prepared for the Games with the intensity of a middle-distance runner and the ecstatic anticipation of a groom.

NEWYORKER: The Olympian

And - as in the case of middle distance runner Diane Modahl - incorrect storing of a urine sample may alter its chemical components.

BBC: Doping: Banned substances

The 29-year-old middle distance runner has been hampered in her preparations for the European championships.

BBC: Jenny Meadows 'pain free' after Achilles injury