Gary Lineker quit BBC job after nightmare Olympics experience

Gary Lineker decided to ‘stick to football’ after nearly humiliating himself on live TV while presenting at the London Olympics. The former Match of the Day host spent over two decades as the face of the BBC’s football coverage, but very rarely ventured into other sports.

That all changed in 2012 when he signed up to host coverage of the Olympic Games. However, a nerve-wracking moment where he had to interview several medal winners without being fully briefed on who they were ultimately forced Lineker to tuck tail and run. “I did the evening show [at London 2012] and what would happen was that people would win a medal, whether silver, gold or bronze and then there’d be a good chance that they’d be in the studio,” the 65-year-old recalled on the Rest Is Football podcast in 2024.

“So, I’d come in very early in the morning, I’d watch every event and any time there was a medal winner, I’d do massive amounts of research on them. I’d find out what I could about their background, where they’re from, what their interests are, on the off chance that they might come into the studio.

“Now, normally, there would probably be three or four interviews during the show in the evening, But I remember one day, we were starting to win so many medals, gold, silver, bronze, loads of them. We were doing so well. It was amazing.”

Ensure our latest sport headlines always appear at the top of your Google Search by making us a Preferred Source. Click here to activate or add us as Preferred Source in your Google search settings

Team GB ended up clinching 65 medals at the London Olympics, including 29 golds, finishing third in the medal table behind powerhouses USA and China. “It took a while to get going,” Lineker said. “For the first three or four days, we struggled, but suddenly, it was madness, and everyone was winning.”

He continued: “I remember sitting in the studio, and I was on my own. They’d keep coming back to me, and I’d have a guest with me. This one night, I had nine separate lots of guests. That might’ve been one individual, a pair, a four, and I think there was even a group of eight.

“At about the seventh guest, I was sitting there, and these four lads came in. They sit next to me, and I hear, ‘We’re coming to you in 30 seconds, Gary, we’re coming to you.’ Now, I’ve looked across at the floor manager, and I’ve gone, I’ve hid behind my hands and went, ‘Who the f*** are they?’.

“I was about ten seconds away from interviewing them! I can’t remember who they were, but they wore helmets, and it was impossible. I was going, ‘Who are they?’ and people were shouting in my ear: ‘It’s the so-and-so team,’ and I managed to scramble my way. It was an amazing experience, but after that, I made the conscious decision to stick to football.”

Lineker spent nearly three decades at the BBC. His association with the broadcaster began in the mid 90s, shortly after his playing career ended. In 1999, he replaced Des Lynam as host of Match of the Day, a role he’d hold for 26 years.

In 2024, Lineker announced he’d be stepping down as Match of the Day host at the end of the 2024/25 Premier League season. Initially, he was set to stay on at the BBC to front their coverage of the 2026 World Cup, but the corporation severed ties with the former England footballer in May 2025 after he shared a controversial social media post about the Israel-Gaza conflict which contained antisemitic imagery.