Weirwolf (18 page)

And yet when he runs in the Paralympics, gets beaten and then moans about it, well, then I see a different side. At first I was fully backing him. Why not? He didn’t have a massive advantage – all right, he can’t get calf strains and maybe doesn’t get lactic acid build-up, but he’s never going to win a gold medal in the Olympics. He’s not even going to make an individual final because he’s not quick enough. Forty-five seconds was his best but you have to be in the high 44s to make a final. But if that was what he wanted to do I backed him.

Then when you see him lose to Alan Oliveira in the Paralympics and start moaning, you stop and think, hang on. Oscar had been moaning for years about a lack of competition in the Paralympics. It was one of the reasons he was so determined to run in the Olympic Games. Now someone like Oliveira or our own Jonnie Peacock comes along and you have got the competition you wanted and you suddenly complain about that. What does he want? To wipe the floor with everyone in the Paralympics and then do OK in the Olympics? You just can’t have the best of both worlds. You start wondering whether it is all just a publicity stunt.

As the row rumbled on I was pretty confident – for once – that the IPC had called this one right. All the runners with blades get measured beforehand and I am confident they strictly enforced the rules. I know from being in the call
room before races in London that it was extremely strict. Alan Oliveira wouldn’t have been allowed on the track if there were any question marks about the length of his blades, if they thought he was cheating or his legs were too long. My British teammate Richard Whitehead
experienced
the same thing during the World Championships in Christchurch. There was a big hoo-ha then because he came out of the woodwork and beat everyone. Loads of people started pointing the finger at him, saying, how has he done that? Are his blades too long?

This debate will only get really difficult if a blade runner emerges who can run fast enough to win gold in the Olympics. But I don’t think for one minute that the International Olympic Committee or all the other
able-bodied
athletes would allow it. Do you think if Oscar was a real threat to the able-bodied guys that they would let him in? At the moment it’s all very matey, but let’s see how friendly everyone is if a Paralympian starts running sub-45 seconds.

It’s very difficult to know where to draw the line. Obviously Oscar is a fantastic athlete and to run in the Olympics is an amazing achievement, but look at
wheelchair
racers like me. We would never get the chance Oscar got. The best I could have hoped for would have been an exhibition race during the Olympic Games. I really pushed on that but the IPC didn’t want to do it. It was always a tradition going back years and I thought the 1,500m, as one of the blue riband events of the Paralympics, should be
the one to get in. But it never got off the ground. The IPC – rightly, I guess – wanted our Games to be the main event. By staging an exhibition in the Olympics it was effectively admitting that we were second best, not parallel.

But what if you looked at things the other way around? What if an able-bodied athlete jumped into a wheelchair and started competing against us? Technically, our class, T54, is open so is there anything to stop that? It’s a real grey area.

Actually, I wouldn’t be too worried if someone able bodied did take us on because it is ultimately about technique and power in my class. It might sound strange but walking is a disadvantage because you build up leg muscle weight and that bulk means you are much heavier. And if you are heavier you are slower in your chair. Besides, the real power all comes from the arms and the shoulders. It’s an interesting debate but I suspect it will remain that – a talking point.

As for Oscar and his latest drama, I had to just put all that to one side and qualify for the final of the 1,500m. I had a really tough heat with Prawat and Marcel up against me. There was also the lightning-fast Chinese athlete who had beaten me in the 400m in Beijing, Zhang Lixin. Only the first three were guaranteed a place in Wednesday’s final, plus perhaps a fastest qualifier. The pressure was on.

I sat behind Marcel for much of the race but then Prawat was on my back wheel waiting to take me on. The only way I could qualify was if I pushed Marcel all the way. I
knew Lixin was closing on me too, so it was really tight. In the end I scraped through in third in a time of 3:11.35. Afterwards there was a real heart-in-mouth moment when we had to wait for the scoreboard to flash up the official results. I knew I had come third but I started to think there was a problem. Maybe one of the judges had spotted something. The whole crowd were silent waiting for my name to pop up in third with that big ‘Q’ indicating I had qualified next to it. I had to move on to the mixed zone and I was actually on TV being interviewed when the big roar went up confirming I was in. I tried to pretend that it was all part of some grand plan, but it wasn’t. Physically I was actually fine but mentally I was a bit tired.

With my place in the 1,500m final secure, I could finally look forward to getting my hands on my first gold medal. The presentation ceremony for the 5,000m was scheduled for the end of that morning session. And I was so touched that 80,000 people waited behind to see it and to sing ‘God Save the Queen’ with me. In between my heat and the
presentation
I managed to nip off and have a quick shower and change into my tracksuit. I was hoping it might make me feel a bit fresher. But as I was waiting to be taken into the stadium with Julien Casoli, I was feeling really nervous, hot and exhausted.

Once I got onto the podium and had that medal around my neck the roar was unbelievable. I had never really held a London medal before now. I had seen them but I was a bit suspicious about getting too close as I didn’t want to
jinx myself. So to hold one of those bad boys was brilliant. It felt weighty. Some of the medals you get at
championships
feel like they’ve been bought from Poundland. This didn’t: it was massive and felt like a just reward for all the months, all the years, of hard work.

I know this will sound daft, but I made sure I learned all the words to the national anthem off by heart before the Games. I know it’s very short and there aren’t a lot of words to learn but I just didn’t want to slip up. And I wanted to show people how patriotic I was and how much it mattered to me. The whole stadium seemed to be singing with me as the Union flag rose. Of course you dream of this moment but now I was there it didn’t feel strange or surreal. It just felt right. Like I belonged there.

For months now I had been telling people that I would be happy to get just one gold in London. But that wasn’t how I felt now. I wanted more.

That morning I surprised myself. Normally, the day of a final would be really nervy and anxious. I expected to feel the same way as I had on the Sunday. But I just woke up feeling a great sense of calm. It was as if a huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders. I must have been giving out really confident vibes, because when I got down to the warm-up track that evening I could see a couple of the other guys looked a bit scared of me. As we did a few laps some of them tried to match me for pace but they couldn’t. I left
them for dead. I looked at their faces and I could see how worried they were.

Down at the warm-up track word reached me via the former Canadian racer Jeff Adams, who was in London commentating, that Kurt Fearnley had been highlighting some flaws in my performance in the 5,000m. I was a bit puzzled to hear this. If I had some flaws then how did I win so convincingly? It was probably just Kurt playing mind games and I didn’t really mind. People try to beat you in all sorts of different ways.

I was still feeling relaxed as we lined up for the start. When the gun went it was the Chinese athlete Liu Yang who made the early running. He was a bit of an unknown quantity. But I wasn’t too concerned. If it had been his teammate Lixin then I might have been a bit worried. As expected, by the end of the lap he fell away.

I positioned myself in my usual place, in lane two in second or third place, poised to strike, staying out of trouble. Then, as we approached lap three, Josh Cassidy of Canada came up to me on the outside. At first I was a bit cautious because I didn’t know who it was. I worried about getting boxed in. But he shouted across to me that he wasn’t going to do that. Because Josh and I are friends I was pleased he was there next to me. He was the best person to be there at this point. Although we are rivals we were helping each other out.

As for my big rivals, Kurt and Marcel, I had no idea where they were. I only found out when I watched it back
that Kurt was stuck at the back, having the worst race I have ever seen him in.

As Thailand’s Saichon Konjen chased Yang down I stayed on his wheel. Then, on the last lap, I found myself in the perfect position with his teammate Prawat on the outside of me. I decided to go for it with a lap to go. I didn’t want to wait. I opened up as much as I could on the back straight and took the lead with about 300 metres to go. If you look back at the TV pictures my arm speed appeared the same as the others but I was just pulling away from them all the time. I was in another place – the noise from the crowd just lifting me, pushing me on and on to the finish. Usually you feel a little bit tired going into the home straight, but I didn’t. I kept hammering it until I crossed the line, winning gold in a time of 3:12.09. Prawat was second and the Korean Kim Gyu-Dae got bronze.

Just like Sunday night and the 5,000m, the Olympic Stadium erupted in joy. I went crazy, waving my arms around and punching the air. It was such a powerful feeling to be the conductor of this amazing noise. And now to have two gold medals! I looked around at all these faces, boys and girls screaming their heads off, going nuts. I saw my friends again, Leon, Tarick and Ricky. I remember them leaning over the front rail but I couldn’t get close to them. Ricky said later he could see I was in the zone and just welling up.

As I worked my way through the mixed zone it seemed the press pack asking me questions had grown a lot since
Sunday night. You had your regulars like Gareth A. Davies of the
Telegraph
. He has always been around for my big races and is such a great supporter of Paralympic sport. I can remember him putting up four fingers after that race, telling me I would go on and win all four gold medals. But there were also lots of new journalists there, showing interest for the first time. I felt really flattered that some of these big writers and journalists were now, in this
incredible
summer of British sport, focusing their attention on me.

With the medal ceremony happening the same night as the final I didn’t have much time to do anything. I hadn’t eaten for hours so I tried to get a quick bite, whatever I could grab, energy bars, Lucozade, anything. It didn’t matter, though. I couldn’t wait for this ceremony. I didn’t have any nerves this time. I just enjoyed every moment and belted out ‘God Save the Queen’ at the top of my voice. Again, I wanted to show people how much I cared about competing for my country.

I tried to unwind afterwards. As an athlete in the middle of a schedule like mine, you couldn’t afford to switch off too much. The heats of the 800m were the next day and I had to move on quickly. I couldn’t wallow in the emotion of it all. It was just eat, sleep, drink and get yourself ready for the next race. I knew Thursday was a big night for Paralympics GB and I wanted to make sure I got the heat right.

I went over to the warm-up track to see Jenny. She never
goes into the stadium to watch me in big races. She is
superstitious
in that way. She thinks she might put a jinx on me or something. She has taken some stick for it over the years. It was only when Lloyd Cowan, Christine Ohuruogu’s coach, came up to her and said, ‘Don’t worry, I do the same thing,’ that she felt a bit more at ease about it. She can see everything better on TV and she doesn’t get caught up in the emotions.

When we met up she gave me a massive hug. She kept saying we had proved everyone wrong. She felt she could walk around with her head held high and whatever anyone else said it didn’t matter. I just wished Emily was there too, but I didn’t want her to come up to the stadium. My finals were always late and with Mason it just meant a lot of hassle.

When I eventually got back to my room I remember taking a picture of my two gold medals and sticking it on Twitter. I just left it at that – I didn’t write anything to go with the picture. I didn’t need to. I then closed them away in the drawer by my bed, locked it and went to sleep. Even at that point, with two already banked, I wasn’t thinking, ‘I can get four.’ I was just thinking of the next race.

I was now halfway through. I had two golds and I had broken the back of my schedule. I just had three more days of racing. I didn’t feel too bad, pretty strong. That day I knew I had a tough heat. Kurt and Marcel were with me
in the second of three heats and only the top two could go through to the final, plus a couple of fast losers. This time I didn’t take any chances. I hit the front earlier than usual and looked back to see where Marcel and Kurt were and they were a long way back. Kurt didn’t make it. He came third and missed out. I never expected that. He was the 800m silver medallist in Beijing and I just always expect him to be alongside me in the big finals. As for me, I was just cruising and won easily in a time of 1:37.09 – a good second and a bit ahead of Marcel. At that point I did start to think I could get three gold medals and better my two from China in 2008.

Because the heat was all done and dusted by 10.30 a.m. I had the rest of the day to chill out and try and get some rest, take on some food and try to prepare for what would be the most memorable night of the London Paralympics.

If the Olympic Games had ‘Super Saturday’, then the Paralympics had ‘Thriller Thursday’. Even before the
athletics
started that night Paralympics GB had won three gold medals – Josef Craig in the pool, Sarah Storey in the
velodrome
and Helena Lucas in a keelboat. The athletes had the chance to double that tally with Hannah Cockcroft in the T34 200m, Jonnie Peacock in the T44 100m and yours truly in the T54 800m.