Sophie McKinna (born 31 August 1994) is a British Olympic athlete specialising in the shot put. She won silver medals at the 2011 World Youth Championships and 2013 European Junior Championships.
Her indoor personal best is 18.82 metres (Birmingham 2022). At the 2019 World Championships in Doha she threw a new outdoor personal best of 18.61m to qualify for the final. By throwing over the 18.50m required she qualified for the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. She competed in the event, throwing 17.81m in the qualifying round to finish in 17th place.
Domestically, as of 2023 McKinna is a six-time national champion, winning both indoors and outdoors in 2019, outdoors again in 2020 and 2021, and indoors in 2022 and 2023
She is the granddaughter of the former Norwich City footballer and manager Dave Stringer. McKinna works for Norfolk Constabulary as a detention custody officer.
International competitions Representing and 2010Youth Olympic GamesSingapore5thShot put15.14 m2011World Youth ChampionshipsLille, France2ndShot put14.90 mCommonwealth Youth GamesDouglas, Isle of Man1stShot put14.75 m2012World Junior ChampionshipsBarcelona, Spain6thShot put15.98 m2013European Cup Winter Throwing (U23)Castellón, Spain2ndShot put16.09 mEuropean Junior ChampionshipsRieti, Italy2ndShot put17.09 m2014Commonwealth GamesGlasgow, United Kingdom5thShot put16.59 m2015European U23 ChampionshipsTallinn, Estonia9thShot put15.68 m2018Commonwealth GamesGold Coast, Australia5thShot put17.76 mEuropean ChampionshipsBerlin, Germany7thShot put17.69 m2019European Indoor ChampionshipsGlasgow, United Kingdom10th (q)Shot put17.18 mEuropean Team ChampionshipsBydgoszcz, Poland3rdShot put17.94 mWorld ChampionshipsDoha, Qatar11thShot put17.99 m2021European Indoor ChampionshipsToruń, Poland9th (q)Shot put17.95 mOlympic GamesTokyo, Japan17th (q)Shot put17.81 m2022World Indoor ChampionshipsBelgrade, Serbia8thShot put18.62 mWorld ChampionshipsEugene, United States23rd (q)Shot put17.21 mEuropean ChampionshipsMunich, Germany12thShot put16.29 m
Personal life McKinna comes from Bradwell, Norfolk. She is openly lesbian.
After sustaining an injury in early 2024, McKinna began working at a Dogs Trust centre in Snetterton.
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