Derek Redmond interview by Stephanie Sanders of NTL, 08/04

What’s been the highest point of your career to date?

The obvious one is winning the World Championships in Tokyo in 1991. We were expected to get a silver medal for the 4x400m relay but myself, Kriss Akabusi, Roger Black and John Regis came up with a plan about changing our order around. The line up was supposed to be myself, Kriss, John and Roger. But we changed it around to be Roger, myself, John and Kriss and it worked. We won by 1 tenth of a second. It wasn’t that much, but it was enough for us to get a gold medal ahead of the Americans. Stepping onto the rostrum to receive the medal was one of the highlights.

On the flip side, what was the lowest point in your running career?

I suppose the lowest point would be the other obvious one in Barcelona where my hamstring snapped during the semi-finals. Unfortunately I ‘ve had a lot of injury problems in my career. I’ve had 13 operations and missed quite a few championships.

What kept you going throughout the injuries?

Stubbornness. Also, it’s having the belief in what you are doing. I had an idea of how fast I could run 400m. Unfortunately I never ran that quickly – it wasn’t that I wasn’t capable of doing it, but injuries prevented me from doing it. For me one of the driving forces was knowing I could run a lot faster than I had previously run. That was one of the things that kept me going.

What goes through your mind the second before the starting gun goes off?

What the hell am I doing here?! No again, a warm up for a race takes about 1 1/2 hours and it can be longer in some cases. It’s a procedure that you know once you have done it a million times, so you know how to control your nerves. When the starter says ‘On your marks’ you are very focussed. The next thing you know you are just going over the line. I don’t particularly remember a lot in between, which is quite strange as the best part of 44 seconds has gone past.

Do you know much about the other competitors in a race?

You know what their personal bests are, you know roughly how they run a 400m race. There are loads of ways of running a 400m race. Some people run 100m,100m,100m, 100m; or 200m, 200m. I used to run 100m, 200m and then 100m so I do different things at different times. When you are running well those things pretty much become automatic.

Do the other members of the relay team run the same way as you?

No that’s why we all run different legs. Roger and I were possibly the closest in the way that we ran. John, with all due respect, was a novice at 400m – John just scrambled his way round. Kriss is a strength-based 400m runner but Roger and I would be put down as speed runners. When you run a 400m race, you always run the first 200m quicker than the second 200m. You do get exceptions to the rule with someone like Michael Johnson who is so quick that even when he runs the first 200m slowly it’s quicker than most people can run 200m anyway.

How do you feel when you see footage of the 1992 Olympics?

It doesn’t particularly bother me. Now it’s like talking about an ingrown toenail because it’s 12 years later. I use the footage all the time in my presentation as a motivational speaker. It is something now that I have become accustomed to, but I don’t particularly like watching it because I get a bit embarrassed.

Do you think something positive came out of the experience?

Well I got my presentation out of it! The only negative thing is that I didn’t finish the race. I would have rather finished the semi-final to see how fast I was going to run, then pull my hamstring in the final. The most frustrating thing for me is not knowing how fast I could have run. I ran my personal best of 44.5secs in the 1987 semi-final of a world championship where I did just enough to qualify. I know I could have run a lot quicker but because of injuries I never had the opportunity to. In that particular race I had got myself in good form and it was supposed to be the race where I was going to let rip, so to speak. So I can say hand on heart, I would have rather won the semi-final, at least I would have come away with a personal best if nothing else.

How does it feel when you get a hamstring injury?

It comes on suddenly like a cyclist getting a puncture. It was like someone getting up and slapping me around the face.

You can’t predict it’s going to happen?

Sometimes you can if you are getting sore hamstrings. You can have niggles and get a slight strain but going down the back straight then, no – if it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen.

Would you say your family is an important influence in your life?

Well I’m very, very close to my father. He has a massive influence on my life. To the extent where even now at the age of 38, I wouldn’t buy a car or a house without his seal of approval - not his permission but definitely his seal of approval.

Was he involved with your training?

No, he was never my coach but he came to every race. He was everything else. My motivator, my hero, my pal, my bodyguard, my physio and my masseur some days. You name it, he was it. I had a coach Tony Hadley, and even when we went to the 1992 Olympics three weeks early, my father accompanied myself and the coach.

Would you ever coach?

I tried it for a little while but you need to be a special person to coach - it’s very time-consuming and you don’t really get paid. I used to pay my coach myself but that was a choice we made. My coach did it in his spare time so it’s quite tough. However, I don’t mind advising and giving people some words of wisdom.

Are you still playing any sport at the moment?

I hack around the golf course, one of these days I will improve! I play a lot of basketball - me and a friend have started up a local team in Northampton.

You do some work for charity? Tell me about that.

I am a patron of a charity called Round Table Children’s Wish. They raise about £300-£400k a year and the aim is to get 30 wishes made for kids with life-limiting illnesses. I am not involved on a day-to-day basis but every now and then we will do deals where a percentage of my fee will go to the charity.

Most of my work is done in the corporate sector. I love it, I absolutely love it. The nice thing is that most people remember me – the problem when talking to kids is that they don’t remember me, as I was running when they were 3 or 4 years old!

What inspires you about your work?

I have a presentation that seems to go down pretty well and we get quite a lot of positive feedback and I’m doing something that I know works. The presentation is a lot about team work and it’s based on what I have done. It is about stuff that I have lived and it’s nice actually sharing my knowledge and helping them to apply the same theory to their work. It’s good fun, I enjoy it.

Which sports people do you admire at the moment?

Michael Jordan is one of my favourites who is one of the best sportsmen in the world. He is the main one, he is my hero.


Which events are you going to be particularly looking forward to seeing at the Olympics?

Basketball and athletics, together with boxing and basketball.

Have you got any tips for who might win?

I guess the safest bet is Paula Radcliffe in the marathon. Plus I would love to see Steve Backley getting a medal in the javelin. He’s in good shape at the moment.

What about your future?

Speaking is where my heart is. Hopefully that will get a lot busier and we are potentially looking at launching other products such as my own training programme.