BORN TO WIN to pay off eventually , and Rutherford was rewarded by qualifying for a place at the 2008 Beijing Olympics having overcome a string of injuries . Injuries weren ’ t the only thing that took the gloss off what should have been a momentous occasion , “ I was actually a victim of my own success in an indirect way . 2005 and 2006 had been great for me as a Junior , then , what usually happens in the UK happened to me . As soon as an athlete does well we take them out of their familiar environment and put them into a new environment overnight . We make them train 2-3 times more and expect them to perform better . We see what the rest of the world is doing and we double it because we assume that will yield better results … but it is clear that that approach doesn ’ t work . It is like a poison and it drives me crazy ”.
Consequently , Rutherford suffered a string of injuries and was quickly losing faith in his coaching team , “ in the run up to the 2008 Olympics my Grandad was also very ill in hospital and I actually missed a lot of time on the track to be by his side ”. The only silver lining to this gloomy cloud was that to take his mind off his Grandad he resorted back to his tried and tested training methods … sprints up the steps and hills followed by some
of the Olympic lifts that he enjoyed so much , “ I always revert back to that style of training . I had no right to qualify for that Olympics , but if you have a certain level of happiness in your training it can make you content enough to be able to perform well , in this case it allowed me to qualify on the last possible day ”.
Despite qualifying for the Olympics so unexpectedly his experiences from Beijing are not great . “ My memories from Beijing are all quite difficult . The coaching team that I had in place weren ’ t really experienced enough to cope and they made a few key errors during the event including telling me the wrong distance I needed to qualify . If I had been with my current coach then I could have got a medal for sure . To have qualified for my first Olympics was incredible , but at no point did I enjoy nearly any of it ”.
After the Beijing Olympics he had completely lost faith in his coaching team and spent most of 2009 doing his own thing . Which meant , you guessed it , lots of steps , lots of hills and lots of Olympic lifts . That year he went to the World Championships , broke the British record and finished 5th overall . Then when legendary track and field coach Dan Pfaff became involved everything changed for the better . “ I took everything on board that Dan prescribed . Everything became more structured instantly , my gym , nutrition , injury prevention , everything . Without him I would never have won an Olympic gold medal ”.
Which leads us to that infamous Saturday night in London in 2012 . Having qualified for the final with the 4th longest jump Rutherford tells me that he knew he had plenty more in the tank . “ In qualification you can ’ t win anything , but you can lose everything . The aim is to jump as far as you need to with as little effort as possible in order to qualify , then to make sure you are well rested for the final and can perform at your best . I woke up on the morning of the final knowing that I had a great chance of winning a medal ”.
“ Nobody knew who I was and didn ’ t expect anything from me . I remember being in the tunnel before we were called on to the track that evening ” he recalls vividly , “ I could see into the stadium , and all I could see was the Olympic flame and part of a giant TV screen . Footage of Jess warming up came on the screen and the crowd just went insane . It was incredible . Then we were called out and any athlete wearing a GB vest got the
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