New Year honours for top British Olympians

Cram, the former Olympic silver medalist, world 1500m champion and multi-world record breaker, is made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in recognition of his work as chair of the English Institute of Sport (EIS).

Peters, Olympic pentathlon champion in 1972, received a damehood in 2000 and has now been given the rare accolade of being made a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour for her services to sport and the community in Northern Ireland.

Thirty years after winning a silver in the Los Angeles Olympics 3,000m, a much-overlooked feat in the infamous race which saw Mary Decker go tumbling after a collision with Zola Budd, Sly is recognised for her services to athletics by being made a Member of the British Empire (MBE).

Other British sports personalities to be honoured include two of England's World Cup-winning women's rugby team, vice-captain Sarah Hunter and prop Rochelle Clark, who become MBEs.

Brendon Batson, a pioneering black footballer for West Bromwich Albion in the 1970s, who went on to a distinguished administrative career in the Professional Footballers' Association, also becomes an MBE.