Duncan Mackay

Duncan Mackay is the founder of insidethegames and insideworldfootball.

During a career that has so far lasted more than 35 years he has established himself as one of the world’s leading sports journalists. Major stories he broke exclusively while editing insidethegames included that Brisbane were set to be awarded the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games and that Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva had tested positive for banned performance-enhancing drugs and was set to be disqualified at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.

Mackay has won numerous awards, including British Sports Writer of the Year and British News Story of the Year in 2004 and British Sports Internet Reporter of the Year in 2009.

During the 16 years he worked at The Guardian and The Observer he regularly broke a number of major exclusive stories, including the news that British sprinter Dwain Chambers had tested positive for banned performance enhancing drugs.

He was the first journalist to alert the world to the fact that Greek sprinters Kostas Kederis and Ekaterina Thanou were under suspicion of using drugs and deliberately avoiding doping tests. Mackay's ground-breaking stories were recognised when he was voted the British Sports Journalist of the Year in 2004 and, in the same year, won the British Sports News Story of the Year.

In 2005 he was the only British journalist to predict correctly that London would beat Paris and be awarded the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Mackay was also the only journalist to carry the Olympic Torch when it passed through London on its way to Beijing in April 2008. This was followed by him carrying the London 2012 Olympic Torch through Wimbledon where he handed the Torch to tennis star Andy Murray outside Centre Court.

He has written several books, including the highly critically acclaimed Running Scared: How Athletics Lost its Innocence, Linford Christie, The History of the Olympics and China Gold: China's Quest for Global Power and Olympic Glory. His most recent book They Came From A Land Down Under about Australia qualifying for the FIFA World Cup in 1974 for the first time was published last month to critical acclaim.

Mackay has attended eight Summer and eight Winter Olympic Games, six Commonwealth Games and two FIFA World Cup Finals.