Ros Coats

Scotland´s Ros Coats was an orienteer, cross country skier, and a pioneer in the world of fell running in the United Kingdom.

Born in Renfrewshire, Coats started running when she was at teacher-training college and in 1978 won the inaugural Women´s Mountain Trial, an event she also won in 1979-80 and 1982. Coats won the British Fell Running Championship in 1979 and 1981 and won all the classic fell races in the UK including the Ben Nevis race a women´s record seven times (1978-79, 1981-83, 1991, 1995), and the Snowdon, Pendle Hill, and Sedbergh Hills races, amongst others.

In addition to being a champion fell runner, Coats was Scottish orienteering champion in 1982 and 1983, and was selected for the 1985 World Orienteering Championships in Australia. As a cross country skier, she competed in the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympics and took part in the 5, 10, and 20 kilometre races as well as the 4 x 5 km relay. Coats only took up skiing seriously in 1978 and went on to win all individual titles at the UK Nordic Skiing Championships several times. A former physics teacher, she changed occupation to work in a hotel in Norway that enabled her to practice her skiing at the same time.

Coats married Malcolm Evans after the Sarajevo Olympics, and their daughter Neah became a track cyclist who won Olympic silver medals in both 2020 and 2024.