Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 55, February 2014 | Page 19

HEART
LION
inford
L

Living Legend

In his day, Britain’s Linford Christie
was the undisputed king of the
100-metre sprint, holding every
major title on offer. Now coaching
the next generation of sprinters, he
was recently in South Africa for some
warm weather training in the European
winter break, and is still as driven as
he was in his competitive days.
– BY SEAN FALCONER

I

LET ME ENTERTAIN YOU

Today, aged 53, Linford remains a popular
figure in athletic circles all over the world
and is often seen signing autographs or
posing for photos with fans. Naturally,
he is often asked about his career,
and says he looks back fondly
on his competitive years. “I
enjoyed many highlights in
my career, made terrific
friends and visited
incredible

After winning the olympic Gold in the
100m at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

places, and I loved what I did for a living. And the more
you enjoy what you do, the harder you work and the better
you do.”
He adds that he was driven by competition and his
ambition to always be the best. “If you believe that
anybody else is better than you, then go do something
else. That’s why I never walked onto the track in the
correct following order for the lane draws. I was already
overtaking the other guys, to show them I was faster, and
ready to take them on. They must have thought Linford
is mad, but that was just part of who I am. Athletes are
entertainers, like actors on a stage, and I always wanted
to put on a good show for the audience, but what I really
loved was when they played the national anthem for me. I
lived for that.”

CONTROVERSIAL FIGURE

Unfortunately, Linford was competing in an age rife with
drug-use, and he had close shaves with positive testing for
banned substances at the 1988 Olympics and the 1994
European Champs, but escaped sanction. However,
in 1999, having all but retired and just running
occasional invitational meets, he tested positive for
the performance enhancing drug nandrolone at
an indoor meet in Germany and was given a twoyear ban by the IAAF, even though UK Athletics
controversially ruled that there was reasonable
doubt whether the drug had been taken deliberately.
Christie continues to deny any wrongdoing. “If I took
drugs there had to be a reason to take drugs… I
had pretty much retired from the sport by then!”
This did not mean the end of Linford’s
athletic career, however, as he turned
his hand to coaching, and he helped
Katharine Merry to win bronze in the
women’s 400m in the 2000 Olympics,
and Darren Campbell won gold in
the 4x100m in 2004 and silver in the
200m in 2000. Darren also added
golds at the Commonwealth Games
and European Champs, for a final
haul of 12 major champs medals.
Linford’s take on coaching is
very much like his personality,
laid back on the surface and

intense if you delve deeper. “You’ve got to love training,
or you won’t make it in athletics,” he says. “I trained
on Christmas and other holidays, no matter what the
weather was doing, and I remember once doing 800m
intervals in the snow. It was so cold, I curled up on
the track and went to sleep until the next rep! And I
believed that opponents must suffer to make up for
my suffering in training, which I think gave me an
advantage over them.”
“Today I use 90% of what I did with my coach, because
he had athletes winning medals in all the major
championships, and I believe if it aint broke, don’t fix it!
I’ve never done any coaching courses, but my athletes
are running personal bests and medalling, and I believe
that tried and tested methods work best. Some may not
agree with me, but it worked for me, and is working for
my athletes. I also use the same motivational talk my
coach used on me: The quicker you finish, the quicker
you can go home!”
Linford today,
still in good
shape at 53.

Images: Sean Falconer & Courtesy Linford Christie

n 1993, Linford became the first man to hold the
Olympic, World, Commonwealth and European 100m
titles at the same time, and in 1994, the Jamaicanborn sprinter successfully defended his European
and Commonwealth titles to extend his reign as the
world’s dominant sprinter to a second year. He had
also won gold in the 60m and 200m at the European
Indoor Champs in earlier years, and the only major
championship gold to elude him was the World Indoor
Champs, where he had to settle for two silvers. He
was the first European to break the 10-second barrier
and still holds the British record of 9.87s, he formerly
held the world indoor record over 200m, he was the
oldest Olympic 100m champ aged 32 when he won in
Barcelona, and he finished his career with 24 major
championship medals, including 10 golds, making him
one of the world’s most decorated athletes of all time.

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