Fast Facts:
Pursuit: Olympic and World Champion 400m runner, British record holder.
Definition of success: “The culmination of good planning, good focus and good drive.”
What can you expect from an Olympic, World and Commonwealth 400 metre champion? Answer: a blur. Somewhat fittingly, then, I managed to catch said athlete for but a brief moment as she flew by in her manic schedule. Nonetheless, I’m happy to say she found time to answer all of my questions in between training and a wealth of other commitments, so it gives me great pleasure to introduce two-time World Champion, Olympic gold and silver medal winner, and British 400m record holder: Christine Ohuruogu.
Born in the auspicious location of Newham, East London (on the doorstep of today’s Olympic park) Christine made the transition from netball court to athletics track in her teens, joining a local club at the age of 16 where she quickly found her niche at 400m – a distance over which none of her colleagues were keen to run. Sport, in one form or another, was always been in her blood.
“I had a love for sport growing up,” she agrees.
I’ve spoken to a lot of achievers from a whole host of backgrounds, and almost all of them will give you some kind of hourly schedule of their working day. Athletes, I have noticed, are the exception: to a greater degree they seem unable to quantify the hours spent in the gym or on the track – perhaps because each phase of their training is so different. Or perhaps it’s just one long cycle of sweat and exhaustion until they can do no more. In any case, Christine’s response is typical of what I’ve come to know from elite athletes.
“It varies, but I rarely think of my training in terms of hours – sometimes I do more, sometimes I do less. I always make sure that I have a week that is complete of all my training elements. I see my job as a twenty-four-seven assignment; if I am not training, I am preparing.”
Not that she doesn’t have at least the skeleton of a daily routine:
“I get up at about six-thirty am and arrive at training for eight,” she explains. “This is followed by physio, then lunch at approximately one-thirty. I start again at four for the second session. Dinner at approximately seven-thirty…bed at eleven or eleven-thirty.”
Any time I speak to an Olympic champion my assumption is that standing atop the hallowed podium represents the very pinnacle of an already prestigious career. Maybe it’s because I’m an armchair Olympic enthusiast and I’m swept up in the glory of the event, or maybe it’s the inevitable tears (no, not mine) and the outpouring of emotion stoppered since the opening ceremony. In any case, time after time my assumptions turn out to be misguided. I suppose, after all, an Olympic medal represents but one fleeting moment – one competition among hundreds. Olympic skeleton champion Lizzy Yarnold told me winning Sochi gold was special because it was such an iconic moment but, for her, winning the world championship that same season stood out because it showed consistence of form. On the ice or on the track, I think I’ve found a common theme:
“I have had many proud moments…” Christine muses, before concluding: “I would like to say that winning the world championship title for the second time in 2013 and breaking a national record that had stood for thirty years is my proudest moment.”
Consistency, it seems, is key. That said, perhaps it’s too early to define the cynosure of Christine’s career.
“It’s great winning,” she says, “but I think I will only ever appreciate it all when I hang up my spikes.”
In any case, winning is something Christine knows all about: Diamond Leagues, World Championships, Olympic Games – she’s recorded wins at all of those events and then some. Such achievement must come at a cost though?
“I don’t really view it as a sacrifice,” she disputes. “It’s a choice I make to do my sport.”
Even so, the contrast between her life and that of her non-athlete friends is not lost on Christine.
“It can be difficult being around friends who are not athletes; life sometimes seems more fun for them!” But, she is quick to add: “Ultimately I have a great time doing what I am doing, so it all balances out.”
Great times bolstered, no doubt, by great successes. So what is Christine’s definition of that concept?
“Success is the culmination of good planning, good focus and good drive,” she asserts, adding, “Success is the achievement of your goals.”
If you ask an author or a musician what advice they have for anyone about to embark on their own endeavours towards success, they’ll give you some fairly comprehensive guidance. Athletes, I have noticed, tend to view the whole notion of chasing ones dreams in a somewhat starker light. It’s like: you just do it. When I ask her for tips, Christine’s response is perhaps, then, fittingly concise:
“It’s better to try than to not try at all and be haunted by what could have been.”
And that’s it.
My thanks to Christine Ohuruogu for sparing the time from her busy schedule to speak to me, and my best wishes to her for the 2015 season. Thanks also to Michael Skinner at Pace Sports Management for his assistance with arranging this interview.
If you’d like to keep up with Christine’s season, you can find all the latest news on her website at www.chrissyo.com. Christine is on Twitter @chrissyohuruogu and Facebook at facebook.com/pages/Christine-Ohuruogu
Images courtesy of Pace Sports Management