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Medal record
Men's athletics
Olympic Games
Gold	1980 Moscow	100 metres
Silver	1980 Moscow	200 metres
Commonwealth Games
Gold	1978 Edmonton	200 m
Gold	1978 Edmonton	4x100 m
Silver	1978 Edmonton	100 m
Gold	1982 Brisbane	100 m
Gold	1982 Brisbane	200 m

Allan Wipper Wells (born May 3, 1952) is a former Scottish athlete who became Olympic Champion in the 100 m at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.

Born in Edinburgh, Wells was initially a triple jumper and long jumper and started to concentrate on the sprint events in the early 1970s.

Wells big breakthrough came at the start of the 1978 season when his times and victories began to indicate he may be a force to be reckoned with . It had been many years since a British sprinter had made any impresssion on the International scene and the sight of the powerful Scot taking on and beating top class competition was a major surprise for British Athletics fans . In August 1978, he won two gold medals (200 m, 4 x 100 m) and a silver one (100 m) for Scotland at the Commonwealth Games, and became the fastest sprinter in the UK.

Wells never used the starting blocks until a rule change forced him to do so for the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games. Wells reached the final where he faced pre-race favourite Silvio Leonard of Cuba. In a close finish, both Wells and Leonard set a final time of 10.25 s, but Wells crossed the line slightly earlier to become the oldest Olympic 100 m champion at that time. The 200 m final was another close affair, but this time Wells lost to Pietro Mennea, who beat him by 0.02 s. With the British relay team, Wells finished 4th.

Following the Moscow Olympics there was a general feeling that Well's gold medal had been devalued by the boycott of the games by several major athletic nations the USA in particular . However he silenced many of the doubters by subsequently beating the Americans that came over for the remainder of the European Athletics season .

In 1982, Wells won two more Commonwealth titles in the 100 m and 200 m, sharing the 200m title with Mike Macfarlane of England in a rare Dead heat. In 1984, his second Olympic appearance ended with the 100 m semi-finals.

Wells missed most of 1985 with injury. He was not selected for the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh as he had failed to compete at the Scottish Trials. However, in a stunning comeback he soundly beat both Johnson and Mahorn the respective Commonwealth 100m and 200m champions at Gateshead. Wells was consequently selected for Stuttgart and placed a solid fifth in both the 100m and 200m.

Wells' later career was punctuated by injury, but by competing into his mid thirties he helped to set the trend for sprinters to have longer careers, something which Merlene Ottey at 47, has currently taken to excess!

Wells featured in the video for Belle & Sebastian's song "I'm A Cuckoo".

In the Mid 1980's Allan was one of the first to be seen sporting cycling shorts a precursor to the now omnipresent lycra running shorts. The sight of these led to him being dubbed Wilson of the Wizard ( An athletic comic book character from a bygone age).

Olympic champions in men's 100 m

1896: Tom Burke | 1900: Frank Jarvis | 1904: Archie Hahn | 1908: Reggie Walker | 1912: Ralph Craig | 1920: Charlie Paddock | 1924: Harold Abrahams | 1928: Percy Williams | 1932: Eddie Tolan | 1936: Jesse Owens | 1948: Harrison Dillard | 1952: Lindy Remigino | 1956: Bobby Joe Morrow | 1960: Armin Hary | 1964: Bob Hayes | 1968: Jim Hines | 1972: Valeri Borzov | 1976: Hasely Crawford | 1980: Allan Wells | 1984: Carl Lewis | 1988: Carl Lewis | 1992: Linford Christie | 1996: Donovan Bailey | 2000: Maurice Greene | 2004: Justin Gatlin

Post-war British Olympic champions in men's athletics

1956: Chris Brasher (3000 m steeplechase) | 1960: Don Thompson (50 km walk) | 1964: Ken Matthews (20 km walk) | 1964: Lynn Davies (long jump) | 1968: David Hemery (400 m hurdles) 1980: Allan Wells (100 m) | 1980: Steve Ovett (800 m) | 1980 & 1984: Sebastian Coe (1500 m) | 1980 & 1984: Daley Thompson (decathlon) | 1992: Linford Christie (100 m) | 2000: Jonathan Edwards (triple jump) | 2004: Jason Gardener, Darren Campbell, Marlon Devonish & Mark Lewis-Francis (4 x 100 m relay)