Scottish Olympian retires due to 'life-changing health' issue

The sprinter said the last three years had been the toughest of her life as she tried to deal with the unspecified condition.

While the 31-year-old was disappointed to be retiring from the sport she loves earlier than expected, she expressed pride in all she had achieved on the track, which included reaching an Olympic semi-final.

Dobbin made the announcement via an emotional post on social media which she labelled “A love letter to athletics”.

“It’s with a heavy heart I announce my retirement from professional track and field,” she wrote.

“For the past three years I’ve been battling a serious and life-changing health issue. I hope to go into more detail in the future (health willing) but unfortunately, it’s not something I have the capacity for at the moment.”

Dobbin competed for Britain in the 200m at the 2020 Summer Olympic in Tokyo and was second in her heat, qualifying for the semi-finals where she finished fifth, missing out on a place in the final by .59 of a second.

A year later (the Tokyo Games were held in 2021 due to Covid), she was part of the Scotland quartet with Zoey Clark, Jill Cherry and Nicole Yeargin who won bronze medals in the 4x400m relay at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. The Scots had initially finished fourth behind England, Canada and Jamaica, but the English team lost the gold after being disqualified for stepping out of their lane.

Born in Doncaster to a Scottish dad and English mum, Dobbin represented both Yorkshire and Scotland with pride. In 2018 she broke Sandra Whittaker’s Scottish 200m record, which had stood since the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

The Doncaster connection came when her father, the former Celtic and Motherwell footballer Jim Dobbin, joined Doncaster Rovers in the early 1980s.

“My dad always brought us up Scottish,” she told The Scotsman in 2018. “We weren’t allowed to support England at football,” she added with a smile.