Tag Archives: paralympics

London 2012: The Volunteer Games. The Legacy Lives on

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While most of us were happy to just sit back and watch the games photographer Felix Kunze had something else in mind. A hugely ambitious project to photograph the London 2012 Volunteers. Kunze’s managed this with aplomb and even caught the attention of The Guardian who paised it saying:

“A stunning portfolio of portraits in which he sought to illustrate the spirit of the men and women he calls “heroes of London 2012.”

Roy Greenslade – The Guardian The London 2012 Volunteers Portrait Project

We have got the lowdown on this impressive project by Felix in his own words.

“My London 2012 Volunteers project has become a microcosm of the Olympic experience. It has been garnering all sorts of attention online and has turned into a place for volunteers to connect. Messages like ‘Hey, we met on the train, I want to stay in touch’ are the kind of interaction I had hoped for.

The project has captured the imagination. It is remind people of the pride, hard work and enthusiastic collaboration that led to the games being dubbed ‘The Volunteer Games’. You need only look at the comments on the album and the photos on facebook: www.bit.ly/London2012Volunteers

Photographically, the project resulted from me solving something fairly negative:

I had turned down various assignments to block out my schedule to be in London during these games. I’ve followed the Olympics with growing enthusiasm since the Barcelona games in ’92. When London won the bid, I couldn’t believe it. 7 years of build up, 5 weeks of intense action and I still can’t believe the games were in my home city. The idea of it still makes me emotional.

When I cleared my schedule at the behest of my assignment editors at Getty Images, I was excited to be involved in some official way. I envisioned shoots for the sponsors, events with the athletes, even things only vaguely related to the Olympics. As I’m not a sports shooter, I wasn’t going to be covering any of the main events at the venues; I knew accreditations were tight. What I wasn’t prepared for was the absolute dearth of assignments. Getty had the same experience as the shops and restaurants of central London. Lots of buzz, but no visitors. Lots of buzz, but no assignments. It was heart-breaking, devastating, depressing even. Add to that the fact that I didn’t get any of the tickets I had applied for, I was in a storm of regret and disappointment. The fear of missing out.

Then a bout of inspiration changed it all. I managed to get tickets for the Women’s Volleyball at Earls Court at the last minute. It was great to watch the game, but what was even greater was the Games Makers who welcomed us with smiles, helped in every way, shared our dismay at not being able to get more tickets. To me they are the stars of the games. I know lots of people felt the same.

On my morning run the day after Earls Court, the idea came to me to do memento portraits of the volunteers. I wanted them to have something they could take away from the games, something they would be able to savour in 10, 20 or 30 years.I knew from the outset that I wanted to take them out of the venues they were working in. I wanted to give equal billing to those stationed directing people over a bridge to those driving the top dignitaries. Lots of people were taking pictures of volunteers, I wanted to do something different.

A couple of challenges came to mind right away:

– I couldn’t spend much time with each volunteer. Their job is to make the Olympics run smoothly, not to be photographed.
– We needed a portable setup that had no permanence, lest we fall foul of local laws regarding business on sidewalks. We also didn’t have accreditation. We had to find a place away from the venues that was swarming with volunteers.
– We solved all of this by using a setup comprised of some black foamboard, 1 simple light. We used a fairly standard ‘strobe-over-daylight’ method to balance the natural and artificial light and I needed a minimum of three assistants every day to make it work. One for the backdrop, one for the light and one to get each person’s details and have them sign a release form on my iPad.”

Games Maker facts:

– More than 240,000 applicants, of which only 70,000 became Game Makers after an interview process and training
– Over 2000 16-18 year olds were game makers during these games.
– Uniforms for the team of Game Makers, staff, officials and contracts required 765.92 miles of fabric, 359.37 miles of thread, 730,610 buttons and 1,069,034 zips. That’s a lot of stitching!
– Most applied over 2 years before the start of the Olympics
– McDonalds is the official partner for the Game Maker program and used their infrastructure to help attract, select and train the volunteers
– They delivered around 8 million volunteer hours to make the games run smoothly

“For the Olympics I photographed over 300 portraits.

 

We heard some amazing stories. The kind of stories that made me foam at the mouth with jealousy – A lot of the Game Makers I photographed were drivers, some drove the North Koreans, some drove family members. Not all of them had ‘All’ passes, but the ones that did were telling me stories of watching the athletics within reach of the Cauldron while their clients attend the stadium, many of them met athletes, many of them met dignitaries, many of them struck up amazing friendships. Many had come from afar, put a lot on the line to make the games work. It’s been inspiring.

 

The Paralympics:

 

After the Olympics I went and spent a couple of days in the sun. On the Eurostar to Paris, I received a phone call from Mr Matt Hatt who was working for the London Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (LOCOG) who asked if I could photograph the volunteer wrap party. I couldn’t but Matthew Richards, one of my volunteer assistants, jumped in.

Mr Hatt then asked if I wanted to come into the Olympic Park during the Paralympics. We agreed that Matthew Richards should be my assistant, having slaved away at the wrap party. We arranged accreditation and we spent close to a week in the Olympic Park during the Paralympics. We shot 350 more portraits. This time with support in the form of a Lastolite mobile backdrop which was a godsend, it made my setup mobile and easy to use. I was able to put all the equipment down at the Fleet Depot inside the park, no need for 3 assistants.

 

We snuck into the Arcelor Mittal Orbit and watched the women’s 100m final from the viewing platform. We cruised around the park on BMWs über-cool electric bicycles, got so close to the action that we were bombarded by fireworks shrapnel but had the most incredible vista views of the final night’s celebration. We even got driven home by a Games Maker in an official vehicle – Games Lanes and a behind the scenes car tour of the park.

 

On a personal level, the project couldn’t have worked out better for me. I have trouble finding the words to sum up my experience. The Olympic Games are the greatest show on earth. I was a part of it. I did portraiture, I did what I loved. It means so much, it made my year. I did it for free, I didn’t make a dime, I turned down paid work. It was worth it.”

Stuart Cosgrove reflects on the Paralympic Games

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In his role as Director of Creative Diversity at Channel 4, Stuart Cosgrove managed the team in charge of the coverage of the London 2012 Paralympic Games. Here, he reflects on the last few years, and in particular the last 12 days, contemplates the legacy of the games, and looks ahead to the future of Paralympic broadcasting.

 

When we signed the rights to the Paralympic Games, what do you think it was that secured them for Channel 4?

There’s no question that we were in quite a keen, competitive battle for the rights. There’s always two or three dynamics going on with negotiations, one of which is money, and the amount we were willing to spend on securing the rights, but it’s actually always about more than simply money. There’s also the amount of air time that you’re going to commit to giving the event, and for the Paralympics that was mission-critical, because this was the first time ever that the Paralympics had effectively been sold to the international market as a rights asset. It had always been seen in the past as something that was added-on to the Olympics, with all the down-sides of being associated as the junior partner. This was the first time it had been separated out as a package in its own right. So clearly money was important, but so was the amount if air time, which ended up being close to 500 per cent bigger than the BBC had done in Beijing. That was a seismic step-change, a paradigm-shift in the way in which people had perceived the Paralympics before. Then the third thing to add to that would be the level of creative vision that we committed to bringing to the games. That included the support in poster campaigns and on-screen trails, and working with commercial partners to do a range of films in advance. For two years we’ve been working on programming content, magazine shows, documentaries, short films, all of those things, to build up a public awareness of the athletes and of the competition. And I think there was another thing that helped us, which is that if you offer something to a broadcaster like Channel 4, which can never compete with the BBC in terms of scale, or size of staff or that sort of thing, it mattered to us because it was something big that we’d won. So in terms of our corporate ambitions, the whole organisation got behind the Paralympics in ways that it wasn’t just another thing for us, it was the biggest thing that we would do, and for many people on the team possibly the biggest thing they’ll ever do in their career. So with that, you get the emotional engagement with it, of caring about it and giving it that attention, whereas with other broadcasters, it might just be another sporting occasion.

 

What were the main challenges you faced between winning the bid and the start of the Games?

First and foremost, engaging people with the specialness of it, the fact that we had something here that was clearly different. Another area of it was to try to decode the sometimes complex classification systems brought about by the different levels of impairment of the athletes involved. The other thing was striking the best balance between high-quality, elite sport, and emotional narratives about the lives of the people competing – how their impairments had come about, how their disability had affected their lives. Those human interest and emotional stories had to run alongside great sport and coverage of it, because if it wasn’t good sport, you don’t earn the right to tell the other story.

 

Why was it so important to get disabled talent on-screen presenting?

I think that Channel 4 is always looking to put forward a degree of authenticity that maybe other channels wouldn’t aspire to. Other channels might have seen it purely as another sporting occasion, where they put their sports team and their sports anchors on it. Channel 4 has a remit to develop new talent across the UK, and so embarked on a nationwide search for first-time presenter talent who themselves had a disability. We then trained them for almost two-years off-air, and then brought them on-air gradually, in late-night shows and as-live situations. We brought them through in partnerships, where they were always on air with experienced professionals sitting with them in the studios. I think, by and large (and there’s always a subjectivity about whether you do or don’t love a presenter, but putting that subjectivity to one side and looking at this as an objective piece of work) I think that most people would conclude that we’ve had a really good success rate at bringing fresh new talent to the screen, some of whom the audience have clearly fallen in love with. And as presenters, they were able to bring their own experiences to the screen, so you had Daraine being filmed getting fitted for prosthetic blades, or Arthur’s experience as a member of the British development team for the Paralympics in Rio. Having a guy like him, who can give you that sense of what it feels like to become a wheelchair athlete after you’ve become paralysed in an accident, that’s quite an important emotional engagement for the viewer. That sort of takes us back to the Superhumans campaign, and that controversial moment in the trailer where the bomb goes off, and it flashes to a car crash, and then to a prenatal ward where a woman is clearly struggling with bad news about birth defects – it just gives you that sense that this is not just athletics as we know it.

 

Now that the Paralympics have finished, how do you feel that the coverage went?

Really well. The Olympic Broadcast Services provided a very extensive and high-quality coverage for us, as they had done previously for the BBC with the Olympics. And I think we benefited from the fact that the BBC kicked off one of the most remarkable summers of sport that Britain’s ever witnessed. We harvested some of the national mood of that, and I think people were just up for this summer never to end. I think they enjoyed embracing new stars who they’d never heard of before. One of the editorial tones we set for ourselves was for our coverage to be ‘More of the same, but different’. We wanted to harvest the gold medals, we wanted Team GB to be successful, all of the things we’d seen in the Olympics, but we wanted to do it differently, the difference of course being disability and all of the things that come with that.

 

Is there anything you’d change about how Channel 4’s covered the games?

I think inevitably with hindsight, you’re always looking to see “Should we have done more on that particular sport?” “Could we have enriched the coverage with even more cameras?” There’s always those technical things that you look at, of that there’s no question. One thing I was struck by, as a viewer, was the very deep and high quality expertise. Pure sports fans will have come away, particularly with the swimming from Giles Long, and the middle and long-distance wheelchair sports with Jeff Adams, knowing they’ve been in the company of real experts who can analyse sport to a point where it becomes revelatory for you. You can never have too much expertise.

 

Are there any other aspects of the coverage that you’re particularly proud of?

Yeah, I’m really proud of the fact that we managed to tell great stories about previously unknown talent. I’m really proud of another thing: I had a conversation with a colleague of mine, who’s the Scottish Football Association’s Disability Development Officer, a guy called David McArdle. He had been telling me that Channel 4 didn’t understand that, by virtue of placing these games so into the public domain, we were converting a lot of people to disabled sport, who didn’t even know some of these sports existed. This will have a major impact, in a transformative sense, for families with disabled kids, or for people who acquire disabilities and want to rebuild their life and find purpose in their life, whether that’s through cerebral palsy football or wheelchair racing or whatever. By virtue of putting this coverage on air, with the level and depth that we’ve done, we’ve played a role in alerting people that they can participate in sport to a significant standard, and start to rebuild their lives after either accidents or inherited disabilities. I feel proud of that because it’s a lasting legacy. It goes beyond the ideas of “Oh, did you win an award for the title sequence?” or “Did you win an award for best promotions?” Those are nice to have, but they’re industry values. What’s really important is that people are now looking at disabled sport through an entirely different lens.

 

What was your own personal high point, in sporting terms, of the games?

I’m from an Irish family, although I’m a Scot, and I thought that the Irish team did extraordinarily well, particularly on the track. That was something I felt very proud of. If I had a little bit of a setback, I was personally putting a lot on Jerome Singleton in the 100m. My reasons for that are to do with another passion – I’m obsessed with black American music, and Jerome is a graduate of the famous Morehouse College, where Spike Lee went – it’s one of black America’s most famous colleges, and he’s one of their elite athletes. I’d been following him through the American trials, and secretly wanted him to win the 100m. But he didn’t. You watch people for all sorts of different reasons. Libby Clegg won silver in the 100m. She’s a young girl from the borders of Scotland. I’ve been following her. I’ve had a photograph of her on my desk from last season, of her with peroxide blonde hair and her running dark glasses, and running with her guide athlete, who’s a young black man from South London. And that image, of this blonde white girl in sunglasses running tied to a young black British athlete in an elite disability sport, if you freeze-frame it as a moment, you couldn’t get a better moment of diversity in contemporary Britain. It just comes alive. So all of those things really sparkle for me.

 

Were you surprised by the viewing figures?

Personally I have, yes. I thought that we would do well across daytime, because we’re offering something that’s different and live. But I’ve been taken back by the numbers, and how that converted into prime time viewing. We comfortably beat the 3 million mark night after night, and for a Channel the size of Channel 4, that’s a huge reward. I’ve been at Channel 4 for the best part of 15 years, and I can’t remember a time where we’ve delivered on this scale both commercially and in terms of our public purposes. It’s almost the event that’s defined why Channel 4 exists. It’s changing public attitudes, it goes to the heart of our remit, but people want to engage with it, it’s hugely popular television.

 

You’ve already touched on legacy a little. But what will the legacy of all this be on Channel 4? How are you going to keep up this momentum?

First and foremost, the legacy around all of this is that we’ve not only increased the visibility of the Paralympics, we’ve nurtured in the audience a passionate interest in it. And I think we’ve helped educate our audience about disabled sport, so that as you move forward, the audience has every expectation of wanting to see more of the thing that you’ve awakened in them. Obviously we’ve got our new presenters, and we’ll be looking to find ways of returning them to other parts of our schedule in the years ahead. And obviously we have to look to the other Paralympic events that we can bid for. But we’re not going to be gifted anything. The BBC have seen the success that we’ve had with the Paralympics, and they’ll want a bit more of that. They’ll consider, as the national broadcaster, that by rights the Paralympics should be theirs. ITV might turn around and say “This was commercially a good thing for Channel 4,” and want to look at it. We know that ESPN and Sky are keen to dominate the sporting market, and may be interested. So we can’t take anything for granted. We don’t own the rights, yet, to Rio, but clearly we’d be interested in looking at them and being part of the bidding process. But nothing is guaranteed.

 

And what about the legacy away from Channel 4? What do you think the long-term effect will be of these games, and the coverage of them, on the nation as a whole?

The effect is three-fold for me. Number one, we’ve brought disability absolutely into the mainstream. There’s been plenty of disability-themed broadcasting on all channels over the years, but this is the first time that it’s come so profoundly and so energetically into prime time, and made such an impact commercially. The days of saying that disabled content is a ratings disaster are over. What you do with disability content, how you frame it, and how you bring it to audiences, that is the big issue now. Secondly, I think we’ve really educated audiences about disabled sport, about the ranges of sports out there. And they’ve taken a lot of the athletes and turned them into household names. There’s an enormous appetite out there for the blade runners, the amputee cyclists, the wheelchair racers, as there is for wheelchair rugby, which is a high-impact sport in every sense of the word. Disabled sport has come of age. And the final thing is the legacy of sporting participation. If you’re a young couple and you live in Lincolnshire and you’ve got a four-year-old kid who’s disabled, maybe with cerebral palsy or a genetic condition, or they’re an amputee, and you’re sitting down saying “What’s the future for our kid?” suddenly a world has opened up where they’ll be saying “How do we get our kid to be more of a participant in sport?” “Shouldn’t we be taking them to swimming lessons?” “How do we get them to understand that a wheelchair is something they can use as a sporting device, rather than just a piece of mobility?” So for all of those reasons I think levels of participation in disabled sports will increase across the whole of the UK, and I think Channel 4 should be very proud to have been part of that.

Thanks For The Warm Up: The Paralympics on C4

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Wednesday August 29th – Sunday 9th September

After years of working and waiting, countless months of heady anticipation, weeks of building excitement, and a not-too-shabby test event, the Paralympics have finally arrived. For 12 days, viewers of Channel 4 will witness unfettered sporting brilliance, courage, talent, triumph and tragedy, as dreams are made and broken in the cauldron of top class competitive sport.

The London 2012 Paralympic Games will be the biggest event in Channel 4’s history. Close to 500 hours of live coverage will be broadcast during the twelve days of the London 2012 Paralympic Games, marking the most extensive Paralympic Games coverage ever broadcast in the UK.

Multiple channels and platforms will broadcast live sport on Channel 4, More4 and online at Channel4.com. Three further live streams will feature uninterrupted live coverage of events from across the Paralympic Games, on-air from early morning through to late evening.

The Channel 4 presenting team for the Paralympic Games will be a ground-breaking line-up featuring top sports broadcasters, former Paralympians and new disabled talent. Half of the presenters and reporters covering the Games for Channel 4 will be disabled. Eight of the on-air team have come through our nationwide talent search carried out in 2010 to find the best new disabled presenters.

Viewers will also find their enjoyment of the sports on offer enhanced by Lexi, a graphic system that will explain the classification system involved in Paralympic sport. Lexi is made up of graphics which broadly illustrate disability types within sporting classes.

The London 2012 Paralympic Games will be the biggest, and hopefully the best, in history. Thousands of remarkable athletes will perform in some amazing venues in front of passionate and knowledgeable crowds. Watch it all on Channel 4, and enjoy an extraordinary swansong to this once-in-a-lifetime summer of sport.

Paralympic Games Breakfast Show

A surprising, inspiring and eclectic mix of the best of Paralympic sport served up daily from 7 until 9.15am.

Hosted by Kelly Cates and Rick Edwards the show covers the very best of all the great moments of the Games. There are live injects from the main venues, analysis of the triumphs and heartbreak and close-up features of the lives of the superhumans we’re all watching. The Breakfast Roadshow is trekking across the country every morning shining a light on the home-town unsung heroes who’ve helped the athletes achieve their dreams.

In the studio we’re investigating cybernetics, prosthetics and all manner of Paralympic paraphernalia. The audience is invited to join in via tweets, texts and all forms of social media and there’s a wide range of studio guests.

Morning
Jonathan Edwards and Daraine Mulvihill introduce an action-packed morning of sport from the Olympic Park. Among the sports regularly featured are Athletics, Swimming, Equestrian and Table Tennis. From the pressure of the heats, to the drama and excitement of the finals, we’ll be on hand to bring you closer to the competitors as they bid for Paralympic glory.

Afternoon
Comprehensive coverage of the afternoon action from the London Paralympics where Cycling and Equestrian take centre stage, alongside team sports like Wheelchair Basketball, Wheelchair Rugby and 5-a-side and 7-a-side Football.

Arthur Williams and Georgie Bingham are your hosts for this inspiring sporting extravaganza, bringing you the personalities behind the athletes and getting under the skin of the Games.

Teatime
At 5.30pm every evening of the Paralympics make a date with the big finals at the Aquatics Centre. The world’s finest swimmers hold centre stage in this hour with as many as seven gold medals up for grabs before 6.30. Athletics kicks in soon afterwards as do the team sports such as Wheelchair Basketball and Sitting Volleyball. Clare Balding and Ade Adepitan present the best of the action.

7.30 Peak
The day’s action at the Paralympics reaches its climax through the evening with more gold medals on offer between now and 10.30 than at any other time of the day. The swimming finals continue in the Aquatics Centre; the track finals come thick and fast in the Olympic Stadium; and the team sports – Wheelchair Basketball and Rugby among them – are guaranteed to provide bone-crunching moments. The presenters are Clare Balding and Ade Adepitan.

THE LAST LEG with Adam Hills
Adam Hills presents an alternative review of each day at the London 2012 Paralympic Games, showing all the best gems of action and taking a sideways look at the intricacies of disability sport. Adam will be joined each night by his eagle-eyed sidekick Josh Widdicombe, as well as guests from the worlds of sport and entertainment, to pore over the golden moments, confront some of the widely held views associated with Paralympic sport, and answer the questions you were always afraid to ask.

Reporters, Commentators and Analysts
The presenting team will be joined by reporters discovered during Channel 4’s search for disabled talent in 2010; including former Paralympic swimmer Rachael Latham, sports reporter and wheelchair basketball player Jordan Jarret-Bryan, former carpenter Martin Dougan, researcher Liam Holt, sports journalist Alex Brooker, and para-equestrian rider Diana Man. The reporting team will also include renowned broadcasters such as Sonja McLaughlan, Ned Boulting and Adam Darke.

A hugely experienced commentary and analysis line-up will include John Rawling and Rob Walker as well as former Paralympic sprinter Danny Crates, former Paralympic wheelchair racer Jeff Adams and former British sprinter Katherine Merry on athletics; Bob Ballard and Paul Noble alongside former swimmers Giles Long and Karen Pickering at the aquatics centre; Phil Liggett and Jon Norfolk in cycling; Ronald McIntosh and Dan Johnson on basketball; Andrew Cotter and Justin Frishberg for wheelchair rugby; Don Parker on table tennis; Tony Jones for football; Simon Golding on volleyball, powerlifting and fencing; Neil Adams and Simon Jackson on judo; and Chris Dennis covering Tennis.

Live Streams:
Three further live streams, C4 Paralympics Extra 1, 2 and 3, will feature uninterrupted live coverage of events from across the Paralympic Games, on-air from early morning through to late evening. The three streams will be broadcast on Sky, Freesat and Virgin Media (numbers to follow)

Jon Snow’s Paralympic Show
In the run up to the London 2012 Paralympic Games, Jon Snow will present a nightly show, starting on Monday 20th August at 7:30pm.

Well-known celebrities and faces from the world of sport and entertainment join Jon Snow’s live nightly weekday countdown to the eagerly anticipated London 2012 Paralympic Games; the biggest event in Channel 4’s history. Jon invites viewers to join in the wave of enthusiasm and excitement, as over 4000 elite disabled athletes descend on London. During the week presenter Clare Balding, leaves the comfort of the TV studio to try her hand at equestrian dressage with the man who dominates the medals in this sport – Paralympic gold medallist Lee Pearson. Comedian Jimmy Carr visits Headley Court, the MOD’s rehabilitation centre, where rower Captain Nick Beighton and some of his Paralympics GB teammates spent time after returning with horrific injuries from Afghanistan. Martine Wiltshire, 7/7 London bombing victim, explains why the number seven has become a good omen as she gets ready to compete in the women’s sitting volleyball competition. Sue Kent, the only massage therapist in the UK qualified to ply her trade using only her feet, practises on Olympic champion and Channel 4 Paralympic sports presenter Jonathan Edwards, before heading into the Paralympic village to look after the athletes. And Ade Adepitan, checks out The Village, where over 4000 athletes are staying for the Paralympic Games. As a Paralympian himself, will he find the accommodation and surrounding areas accessible and up to scratch? Exec Prods: Michelle Fobler and Gareth Rees; Prod Co: Boomerang

Jon Snow’s Paralympic Show, week nights from Monday 20th – Tuesday 28th August at 7:30pm.

Interview: Iwan Thomas MBE

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As an athlete, Iwan Thomas MBE has been there, done it, and got the medals to prove it, including a gold from the 1997 World Championships. When it comes to track and field, he knows his onions, which is why he’s landed a plum job as commentator for Channel 4’s coverage of the World Athletics Championships from Daegu in South Korea. Here, we take the opportunity to pick his brain regarding Britain’s best medal hopefuls, as well as Usain Bolt, Oscar Pistorius and much more.

The World Championships are almost upon us. Are you excited?
I am, actually. It’ll be a bit strange going to a World Championships and not being a competitor, being on the other side of the fence, but I’m really looking forward to the experience. I’m a bit worried about the food – you see people on Twitter [Iwan tweets as @Iwanrunner], showing pictures of people eating live octopus and things like that. It’ll be interesting. Maybe I’ll lose some weight over the two weeks. But I’m really looking forward to it.

Who do you see as Great Britain’s outstanding medal prospects this time around?
You’ve obviously got Jessica Ennis and Phillips Idowu – they’re both reigning World Champions and will be trying to defend their titles. Then you’ve got other athletes who have had a massive breakthrough in the last couple of years, like Dai Greene, and also Jenny Meadows in the 800m, she’s running really well this year. I’d never say anyone was a banker, because athletics is a pretty strange sport, but you’d be looking at those guys to get medals. You’ve also got people like Chris Tomlinson and Greg Rutherford, both in the long jump. At the recent Diamond League meeting at Crystal Palace, they came second and third, and Chris has got a British record this year, so he’s in tremendous form. I think in major championships it’s all about the underdogs coming through and doing well, so you never know. As a whole, the British team is in a pretty good place.

You’ve got athletes like Christine Ohuruogu, who’s always been a big event runner, but she’s not had a good year this year, has she?
No. She’s had a few injuries. I’d be very surprised if she became World Champion again. Don’t forget she’s a world champion and Olympic champion, though, so you can never count her out. She’s a performer. But if you look at current form, she’s had these injuries, and she’s struggling this year. It’d be fantastic to see her run well, and it would also be really good for the women’s 4×400 relay squad as well- they’re all doing well at the moment. You’ve got Christine, the likes of Jenny Meadows who can come down to 4×400, and you’ve got Perri Shakes-Drayton, who’s another emerging talent this year in the 400m hurdles. She’s someone to look out for, she’s an outside chance for a medal as well.

Talking of athletes who have really broken through in the last couple of years, Mo Farah must be up there as well.
Oh yeah, 100%. I don’t want to put the kiss of death on him, but Mo is in the best form of his life. He’s beautiful to watch, he’s not scared of the big athletes, he’s beaten everybody. It’ll be interesting to see whether he tries to do the double [run both 5000m and 10,000m] but without a doubt, Mo is someone I can’t wait to watch. Without putting the medal round his neck and putting pressure on him, I’d be very surprised if he didn’t become world champion.

What sort of shape do you think British athletics is in as a whole at the moment?
I think it’s pretty good. Three or four years ago it was going through a bit of a transitional phase – a lot of good athletes had retired, a lot of guaranteed medallists – the likes of Jonathan Edwards, Steve Backley, Colin Jackson, Denise Lewis and so on. Everybody retired, and it left a bit of a hole. But over the last two or three years, we’ve got the new stars coming through. It’s exciting times, it really is.

Away from team GB, who are you looking forward to watching?
Obviously any athlete in the 100m final. That’s the blue riband event, I can’t wait to watch that. It’s going to be interesting to see Usain Bolt, because although he’s not been beaten this year, he’s not running as convincingly as he has in the past. He’s going to be under a little bit of pressure. I think he’s going to win the 200m, but the 100m is by no means a foregone conclusion. If his countryman, Asafa Powell, can get himself together -he’s had a few injuries – who knows? I don’t think Usain Bolt will be in a position to celebrate ten metres before the line this time, he’ll be pushed all the way.

What else are you looking forward to?
I always enjoy my old event, the 400m. It’s close to my heart. To be honest, I’m just a massive athletics fan, so all the events. I’m looking forward to watching Goldie Sayers in the javelin as well – she’s had a good year this year. I’m so excited about the whole thing. I think a lot of events will be really close. As a neutral, that has to make for a really exciting spectacle.

You mentioned the 400m. One of the stories of the championships is going to be Oscar Pistorius, isn’t it? What do you think about his presence there? [Pistorius is a double amputee who runs on special carbon fibre artificial limbs]
I think it’s great for the sport, and great for Paralympic sport. I know there’s a lot of controversy behind it. I’m probably a little bit biased, because I’m friends with Oscar and I’ve trained with him, but he’s worked very hard to get where he has done, and I think you’ve got to take your hat off to him. Long may it continue. The bottom line is he’s been cleared to run by the governing body, so let him run. It’ll put a few people’s noses out of joint, because he’s going to beat a lot of able-bodied athletes, but I think it’s fantastic for him and the sport.

How far do you think he can go in the competition?
A good lane draw is vital. If he’s drawn in lane 1 and it’s raining, it’s not good for him – he doesn’t like running in rain. But if he gets a good lane, then I think he could definitely make the semi-finals, and when you make the semis of a world championships, anything can happen on the day. He’ll have to run near his best to get through the heats, but I think he’ll do that.

Channel 4 is covering the event for the first time this year. What can we expect from their coverage?
I hope we do the sport justice. You’ll have a lot of people who are used to having watched it on the BBC for years, but I think we’ll do it slightly different. I think we could make it very modern, and appeal to the masses. There will be different audiences watching it – you’ve got your die-hard athletics fans who know everything, and also hopefully newcomers to the sport who won’t understand all the technicalities behind the events,. So it’s our job to try and portray that without being patronising. I think, hopefully, we’ll do a good job, and people will come away and enjoy the coverage.

Are you looking forward to working with Michael Johnson?
Definitely. I can’t wait to work with Michael. I had a long career against him, and I’ve got a lot of respect for him as an athlete. I also respect him as a pundit as well. I think he’s very good at his job, he tells it how it is, and I’m looking forward to sitting next to him on a sofa and hopefully forming a nice little double act together.

How have you taken to life in front of the camera? Are you enjoying it?
Yeah, I am actually. I think my career was cut short with bad injuries, and I never got back to running fast after the injuries, and don’t get me wrong, I’d rather be ten years younger and still competing, but if I can’t do that, the next best thing is trying to help others enjoy the sport that I love so much. I really enjoy TV work.

You’re still the British 400m record holder. Do you want to keep that, or would you like to see it broken, because that would mean the next great 400m runner was coming through?
If I’m honest, a bit of both. As a lover of the sport, I’m really surprised it’s still standing. You’d think with technology, and better understanding of nutrition and training, it would go. As a lover of the sport, I‘d definitely like to see my British record go. But it also indicates to me how good our generation was. In 1998 Roger Black came forth in our British trials, running 44.6. Someone running 44.6 would be number one in the world this year.

Was that one of the secrets of your success, that you, Roger, Jamie Baulch and so on were all pushing each other on?
Absolutely, 100 per cent. Domestic rivalry is crucial. If I hadn’t had to run 44.3 to be Britain’s best, perhaps I would have only run 44.8. I still would have trained as hard, but subconsciously I think you need to be pushed on. We’ve always had great 400m runners. Half of me is very proud to have the British record, but if I’m honest, I’d like to see it go.

Lastly, you alluded to this at the beginning, but how will you feel being out there trackside when the 400m final is going on?
I miss it every day. Whenever I’m out there and there’s a 400m race about to start, I get the jitters and want to start doing my stretches. I think to myself, “You know what? I could still do that.” But I can’t, I don’t train and I’m old. I miss the sport every day. You can guarantee, when the 400m is on, I’ll be on the edge of my seat, jumping around like a loon, because I’ll wish that I was still out there.

Athletics: IAAF World Championships 2011 starts Saturday 27 August. Iwan Thomas is part of Channel 4’s team of experts who will be bringing you extensive coverage from Deagu, with expert opinions, in depth interviews and live commentary of the entire Championships.

For the latest Athletics: IAAF World Championships 2011 News – http://athletics.channel4.com/index.html

By Benjie Goodhart

Thanks to Channel 4’s coverage of the IAAF World Championships 2011.