Sprint legend Linford Christie insists anyone can take part in athletics
Linford Christie features in episode 11 of Sky Sports' My Icon series
By Dev Trehan
Last Updated: 10/10/17 6:33am
Former Olympic 100m champion Linford Christie is urging youngsters to get more active, insisting it need not be expensive to take part in sport regularly.
Christie is now an athletics coach and has worked with a number of British hopefuls including Richard Kilty, James Ellington and Nigel Levine.
Born in Jamaica, he was brought up by his grandmother before moving to England, aged seven, joining his parents in west London. His aptitude for sport was evident from an early age but Christie only started taking athletics seriously in his late teenage years.
He remains the only male British 100m sprinter to have won gold medals at the Olympics, World Championships, European Championships and the Commonwealth Games.
But he did not have access to the facilities and sports-scientific support today's elite youngsters enjoy. Christie was just a kid who could run fast.
"Alongside football, athletics is the only real true world-class sport where anybody can come into it," he says.
"You don't need any special equipment, you just need a pair of trainers and you can go down the track and run. That's what I did when I first started.
"I didn't have shorts and all that fancy kit I just went down in a pair of cut-jeans and I started to run. It's a very inclusive sport."
Christie talks about his journey in the latest instalment of My Icon, which premieres on Tuesday at 7am on Sky Sports Mix and is available On Demand. The episode is repeated on Tuesday at 7pm and on Wednesday at 12.45am.
Coinciding with Black History Month, Sky Sports' #MyIcon campaign brings you 31 exclusive interviews with top BAME sports personalities across the month of October. For more information click here.
