Episode 2 The Olympic Journey

It's hard not to feel waves of nostalgia

when you walk around this place.

It really was a special summer.

-CHEERING

-And here goes Jess!

Everybody's on their feet.

Look at Bolt go!

And Sir Chris Hoy has already ignited the burners.

Brazil is ready to take London's mantle

and host the greatest show on Earth.

New memories, new moments.

Four years in the making,

Rio on the horizon.

Their Olympic dreams are within touching distance.

In this final episode,

Darren Campbell is with Olympic debutant Dina Asher-Smith

as the British 100 and 200-metre record-holder

shows the steel behind the smile...

For me, I'm honestly still just enjoying the ride,

simply because as soon as you take a step back

and you take everything in,

you think, "Oh, wow, this is actually really important!"

..Kat Downs is with gymnastics world champion Max Whitlock,

the unassuming boy from Basildon,

who's one of our biggest medal hopes...

The Olympics is the pinnacle of everyone's career.

It'd be hard for it not to be overwhelming.

I can't wait to be there and compete.

..and Jason Mohammad meets another first-time Olympian,

Sonny Bill Williams.

The rugby union and league legend will lead the New Zealand All Blacks

as they attempt to claim the first-ever Rugby Sevens gold.

Obviously, from my rugby-head point of view,

there's nothing bigger than the Rugby World Cup,

but on a bigger scale of sportsmen,

there's no higher other than the Olympics, I believe.

But we start here in London,

where I'm heading now to meet a man

who we've all seen grow up in front of our eyes.

I'm going to the Olympic Games.

Good luck, Tom Daley.

Your country is behind you.

Tom Daley celebrates as only Tom Daley can.

It's a bronze medal.

I can't believe... Can you believe it's four years?

It's insane, really, to think how quickly it actually has gone,

because, in 2012, thinking about Rio 2016,

it was like, "Oh, no, don't be stupid,

"I don't have to think about that yet." And then...

it's here, it's here.

-And you're 22 years old and your third Olympics...

-Yes.

..is on the horizon.

I know, like, when I was a kid,

I always thought that I was going to do lots of Olympics.

-So, this is...

-My bedroom.

-..the bedroom of a budding Olympian...

-Yep.

-..who shares with his little brother.

-Yeah.

Well, when I win a medal,

I want to win another medal but a higher standard one,

I want to win another medal with, like, a gold medal,

it's got to be gold and then it could be a senior international

and then get to the Olympics

and then, hopefully, in the end win an Olympic Gold medal.

And if I wasn't to win a medal, it would drive me on

to be in the next Olympics and win that medal then.

But I could be still going to an Olympic Games in 2024, so...

SHE LAUGHS

To actually be at my third Olympics is kind of like,

it's a bit mind-blowing, actually,

and to think about the amount of experience that I've got,

compared to what it was like going into 2008,

I had no idea of how overwhelmed I would feel

standing on the end of the board, looking down on the pool,

with the Olympic rings on the bottom of the pool.

I didn't know what it was going to feel like,

and now having the experience of two Olympic Games,

going into my third,

you know, I'm excited about this one.

Big smile. Happy to be here.

Happy to be competing and delighted to be in the Olympic final.

CHEERING

From when I first started diving to where I am now,

so much has changed and so much has happened,

and I feel like going into this Olympics,

I'm in the best physical shape possible,

I'm in the best mental shape possible.

Life in and out of the pool is going really well

and, you know, it's just an exciting time for me at the moment.

I feel like everything is finally coming together,

because after 2012, I had, like, a bit of a rough spot with my diving.

You know, it was really tough to get that motivation back,

to think four years - it's a long time to train

and I was in a bit of, like, a down spell

and I thought, you know, "Do I really want to do this?

"Is this something that I really want to do?"

And then, moving to London,

I changed coach and that kind of fresh look on diving,

trying something new and doing something a little bit different,

has literally changed my outlook on it completely

and now I feel like I'm back in my rhythm again

and I'm getting to the point where I'm at my most consistent

and at my highest level.

And what's it like being in such a great place in your relationship?

How has that affected the way you train,

the way you approach everything?

Obviously, meeting Lance has changed my life massively

and he's probably one of the reasons why I carried on diving,

because to meet someone that is so passionate about what they do

and at such a high level in their chosen field,

cos he's doing really well with all his film-making,

it just makes me want to do just as well in my field, which is diving,

and going into the Olympics feeling secure and happy

and having someone there to support you makes a massive difference.

Because in each of those cycles, you've had different people

-guiding you along the way...

-Exactly.

-..haven't you?

Yeah, and, like, leading into my first Olympics,

my dad would do everything for me, take me to training.

My mum obviously at that age would cook all my dinners

and do all my laundry and all that kind of stuff

and then gradually, as I've gotten older,

I've become more and more independent,

going away on my own and doing all these kind of things on my own.

And obviously losing my dad was one of the most horrific experiences

for me and my family,

and dealing with that going into 2012 was just, you know,

as a human being, to lose a parent

is just one of the most awful experiences.

And, like, all he would ever talk about was,

"Have we got our Olympic tickets yet for London?

"Have we... Like, are we going to be there? Bla-de-bla."

And that was all he would ever talk about

and it was one of those things that,

if there was one person that I wish could have been there to see me

win an Olympic medal, it would've been my dad,

because we're a team.

Behind every athlete is such a big support system

and such a big team behind you.

And they're all working within this four-year cycle as well...

-Exactly.

-..and building up to this incredible moment.

-Yeah.

It's not even a week - it's that moment, isn't it?

It's 1.8 seconds is how long it takes to do one dive,

so in theory all six of my dives are going to be over

-faster than Usain Bolt's race, so...

-SHE LAUGHS

It's...

For four years of training coming down to, I don't know,

that amount of time is just one of those...

It's a bit mind-boggling, really, but all those hours in the gym,

all those hours in the pool, comes down to that.

-Speaking of which...

-Training?

-Yeah, exactly.

-Yeah, you can't put it off any longer.

-No, I know.

These last four years have seen Tom shed his boyish image

and become a man, an icon.

But it's great to see he's still the lovely, friendly, approachable guy

he's always been and it's incredible to think he started his Olympic life

at 14 years old.

Well, at 20, Dina Asher-Smith is a little bit older beginning hers,

so Darren Campbell has been along to offer some pearls of wisdom.

I'm here at the British Championships

to catch up with one of the busiest ladies in British athletics.

So, why the British Championships?

Because I know she'll be here, because this is the Olympic Trials.

-Do your thing.

-Good.

-Yeah, do your thing.

What was that moment

when you decided that you wanted to be an Olympian?

I remember I was, like, eight years old

and I was watching the Athens Olympics in 2004.

-SHE LAUGHS

-OK.

-It was actually the relay.

I know, I was like, "You're going to get so embarrassed!"

Darren Campbell, semifinalist in the 200 here.

Maurice Greene is coming!

Mark Lewis-Francis gets it, I think!

It's confirmed, another gold medal.

What a night!

But the relay, watching four people come together

and really, really just do what they needed to do in that moment,

it made me realise that this moment,

that very moment that you did your thing...

-SHE LAUGHS

-..yeah, really, really inspired me

and made me want to become an Olympian and made me want to pursue elite sport.

I remember, many years ago,

this was probably the most pressurised I ever felt.

This British Championships was so important.

The realities are, if you don't finish in the top two,

if you haven't got the qualifying,

you're not going to the major championships.

What happens here is the most vital part of whole season, yeah?

Cos if you don't qualify here, you don't get on the plane to Rio.

London 2012 came around too soon for Dina to compete.

But she still found herself out on the track,

carrying kit for some of the star names.

I remember we did Jess Ennis's hurdles heat.

We did Mo's final.

We did heptathlon high jump.

So, I was around those special people quite a bit.

So, when you come to a big event like a World Champs

or Olympic final, you're going to feel the crowd, you're going to feel them pushing you on,

so that is really what I've learnt, how to hopefully feel the atmosphere

and really, really use it to your advantage.

So, 2012 was almost a very important learning curve for you

because, you know, it's easy to forget that you are so young.

And then, before we know it, you're at a World Championships.

-Yeah, that's how I felt, too.

-THEY LAUGH

-Like, what am I doing here?

-So, how did you deal with all of that?

Yeah, last year was really, really special.

I didn't expect to make a World Champ final.

It's a new British record for Dina Asher-Smith.

We've had two British records in the long jump and now the 200 metres.

No medal this time but she is very, very happy and so she should be.

To improve my outright PB in progressive races,

that was really, really cool for me.

I was really, really happy with how I ran that Championships

and also running sub-11 in the Olympic Stadium,

that was really, really cool.

Asher-Smith, pretty good out of the blocks. Ahoure gets a good start.

Kambundji almost stumbling over on the far side and Dina Asher-Smith

is right up here with Ahoure and is going all the way.

Let's watch the clock. Dina Asher-Smith is quick.

It's a new British record! 10.99.

That day in the Olympic Stadium, everything just seemed to click

and I was so happy!

So happy that everything just worked out.

So, 2015's been fantastic,

but you're also studying.

You're at King's College, you're doing a History degree.

How do you manage the studying alongside the training

you need to do to be in the top ten in the world?

It's difficult, it's difficult, I'm not going to lie about that.

It does take a lot of juggling, a lot of organisation,

a lot of making sure that you've got enough time

for each of my passions, so uni and athletics,

because I get one shot at a degree.

These three years - when I'm done, I'm not going to be able

to do it again, I can't have a do-over,

so I've got to make sure that I do the best that I can with my degree,

but at the same time,

I can't just not focus on my athletics either because there's Olympic Games,

there's the Home World Champs coming up, then there's Commonwealth Games,

all of these events that just keep going on, you're never going to get these moments back either,

so I've really got to make sure that I balance my time.

It is a hard task but, yeah, I work hard doing that.

What can Dina Asher-Smith do here?

She goes in lane six for this final of the women's 200 metres.

GUNSHOT

Dina Asher-Smith has blasted through the first hundred metres.

And Dina Asher Smith and these two side-by-side

and Dina Asher-Smith just gets it ahead of Desiree Henry.

Jodie Williams in third.

Well, since I was, like, really, really small,

I've always wanted to be an Olympian

and today, it didn't really matter about the time,

the crucial thing was getting those top two places

and I feel so emotional.

I'm just so happy that I'm going to be an Olympian, so...

Have you been able to exhale yet, actually...

SHE LAUGHS

..realise what's happened to you in the last two years?

-Is it real?

-No, no, it's not real.

But I think that's kind of like the beauty of it,

because the moment I take a step back and start realising it

and taking it more seriously and kind of throwing...

mentally throwing myself into it, it becomes a bit more overwhelming,

because suddenly you realise the stakes,

suddenly you realise what could be achieved

and then you start to put pressure on yourself.

So, for me, I'm honestly still just enjoying the ride

simply because as soon as you take...well, take a step back

and you take everything in,

you think, "Oh, wow, this is actually really important."

Dina will make her Olympic debut in Rio and,

after winning the European 200-metre gold medal

just weeks ago, she goes into the Games in fantastic form.

Max Whitlock had a sensational 2015,

dazzling on the pommel as he became the first British man

to win a gold at the Gymnastics World Championships.

He has Olympic experience, of course, from London 2012

but in Rio, he's aiming to move from bronze to solid gold.

Gymnastics is pretty much my life.

I've done it since I was seven years old.

It's been an amazing journey.

It has made me who I am today.

In 2015, Max Whitlock won an historic world gold,

a stunning feat.

But before that, a mystery illness had almost ended his year

before it began.

It was a stressful time. It was the beginning of last year

and I remember saying to my parents at the beginning of the year,

"I feel the fittest that I've ever been."

Literally two weeks down the line, the English Championships come up,

first week of the competition and it was deteriorating rapidly.

Within a week, I went from making routines clean

to I can't even do a few skills in a combination.

As soon as I got the blood test done,

it come back as glandular fever, it was actually a bit of a relief.

It lasted three months.

The thing that it done was motivate me even more to get back in.

I think that's what helped me push so hard...

..to produce the results that I did at the end of the year.

Max Whitlock is the pommel-horse world champion!

The first time that a British men's gymnast

has won gold at the World Championships.

So, how many times a day are you here?

Six days a week.

I can range between five to seven hours' training a day.

It's a great atmosphere to be in this training centre here

with all the guys that I train with.

These two and three-year-olds who we've seen training in here,

do they know who they're training alongside?

Do they look at you and say, "That's Max, that's Max, it's him!"

Some of them do, but some of them don't take any notice, which is nice as well

cos it brings you back and it keeps you grounded

and that's what I like about this sport.

I mean, he's never been a superstar.

I was told once that he'd struggled to make a team

because, you know, his feet don't point and stuff like that.

-His feet don't point?

-Yeah, he's got, like, flex feet.

But, because he's got feet that bend the other way,

it helps him stick all of his dismounts.

So, when he sticks everything, it's because of his feet,

so it is very strange how it all turns out.

It was only when he was coming into his late teens, 17, 18,

that he really started to develop into himself,

because throughout his early career,

he's only ever come in second or third.

His forte is that he's able to compete under pressure calmly

without getting affected by it.

And this is your specialism.

This is... You've mastered this, haven't you? It's fair to say.

Well, this is my strongest piece, yeah, definitely,

and it's the piece that, you know, a lot of my focus is on all the time.

I do double sessions on the pommel horse every day,

so I do more than any other piece of training on this piece of apparatus.

So, at what point do you get your first look at the Olympic pommel

and, you know, how it feels and what it looks like?

The actual exact pommel we'll be competing on,

we'll have one opportunity,

which will be a thing called podium training,

which is a few days before qualification

and that'll be our only opportunity to see what the pommel's like

and have a feel of it.

Other than that, I'll be in the back gym, which is hopefully, you

know, as similar to the equipment as we possibly can get there.

But you get that one opportunity and hopefully it's a good one.

It's a beautiful routine.

Max Whitlock is challenging for a medal.

That was super stuff.

That was first-class!

Has he'd done enough for bronze?

In 2012, you were a bit under the radar, really, weren't you?

And everyone was talking about Louis and the fact that he got the silver,

JUST missed out on the gold.

Off he went onto Strictly Come Dancing,

but, a lot of the time, people forget that you got the bronze

-in that competition.

-Yeah, yeah.

Did you feel you were under the radar?

Like you say, I was an underdog going in there,

I was only 19 years old, unexpected to produce any results.

I mean, I helped with the team result

and that was the first time we'd done in 100 years.

A bronze medal.

No-one can ever take that away from these boys.

And then for me to get an individual bronze medal was unreal for me.

So, I didn't feel any kind of under the radar.

I was so pleased with my achievement and what I produced on that day.

And how does it feel to have overtaken Louis a bit?

He's kind of pushed down and you're kind of top dog now.

It's still a very close competition.

We've both got very high start scores.

You know, we just need to produce clean routines,

but at the end of the day that's pushing both of us even more,

which is the best thing for our team.

And what's it like going into an Olympic Games

as reigning world champion?

Some people can see it as a lot more pressure,

but I see that as a result that I've got in my bag now.

It calms me, knowing that I've got that title behind me.

The Olympics is the pinnacle of everyone's career.

It'd be hard for it not to be overwhelming.

I can't wait to be there and compete.

Max and his team-mates have a real chance of making history

this summer, and with it, pushing the popularity of gymnastics

to a whole new level.

If you've been inspired to get involved in sport,

then click on...

Tom's popularity has soared.

He's an icon followed by millions on social media...

..but it's here at the gym and the pool that he's at his happiest.

-When you got hold of him, he was an Olympic medallist...

-Yeah.

-..and so this is like the fine-tuning, isn't it?

-Yeah.

What he obviously has, which is incredible I think,

-is still this mind-set...

-Yes.

-..this focus,

that he is so determined still.

How impressed have you been with Tom the person?

The reason I came to London, because of Tom the person.

The athlete was, you know, that's sort of a bonus

and the reason being is because when you set out on an Olympic journey,

you have to be in a relationship, like, it's a special bond, right?

-So, no matter what happens, we're going to give it...

-Everything.

Yeah, we're going to throw the kitchen sink at it.

We're going to dedicate ourselves

because, you know, you already have a bronze,

-so why are we going there to get another bronze?

-Mmm.

So, we're not even going there to get a silver.

We want to go to try to win

and so we're going to do absolutely... And that's why I came.

We're going to do absolutely everything we can to make...

to put us in the best situation to do that.

It's obvious when you're here

in the venue that Tom won his bronze medal in the 2012 Olympics

that this man is dedicated in his pursuit of perfection.

And this...

this is home.

So, how many dives did you do on that board today?

-I did 48 in total, so I did ten line-ups and 38 from the springboard.

-And that wasn't just

-to impress us, that's how many you would...

-That's how many I actually do! Sometimes more, sometimes

a little bit less, depending on what I'm doing because I have to do stuff with all the different boards

from one, three, five, seven and all the way up to ten.

If you have two sessions a day, you might be doing close to 100 dives.

Yes, I'll be doing close to 100 dives.

As well as that session we saw you do earlier on?

As well as that and then this afternoon I'll be doing a whole other hour and a half

of more diving-specific conditioning and somersaults

and all that kind of stuff and then after that I'll get in the pool

and then have a massage and then I do a spin class

three times a week as well.

So, anybody who's wondering how you get your physique...

-SHE LAUGHS

-It's a lot of exercise!

-It doesn't just happen overnight, unfortunately.

-It takes a lot of time.

-A lot of time and effort.

You've definitely changed physically, haven't you? And it's clear, obviously, that Jane and you

have worked very specifically in your conditioning to adapt your...

So that your spins are quicker and everything's looking so crisp

-and sharp and...

-Yeah, everything's had to change quite dramatically,

actually, because in 2012, although I could do the dives,

I was doing the dives and not doing them...

finishing them as high and finding them as easy,

so my legs were slightly crimped and a little bit bent

and I was having to struggle to make things, whereas now,

I'm jumping higher than any of the divers in the world, so I'm able to jump and spin faster

and make my dives easier, so that it looks easier. The judges ideally want to see you do a dive

and make it look as easy as possible, because that's how you get the big points.

And you've been out to the pool in Rio, you know what it's like,

the conditions there, and it's been a good pool for you.

Yeah, the pool in Rio is great.

It was the Pan American Games pool from 2007, so it's a solid pool.

All the platforms are three metres wide, so you're able to do synchro training on them.

The surface is good. It is an outdoor pool, though,

so that makes things a little bit interesting

when it comes to the diving because you never know what could happen.

It's the Southern Hemisphere, so it's not going to be the summer,

so you've got things like rain, wind.

Obviously, you don't put this much work in for four years

just to take part in the Olympic Games, do you?

There's no going in there trying to...

"Oh, yeah, I'll be happy if I get silver, happy if I get bronze."

This time, it's all about going in there for the win.

Like, I've been visualising this past year, me...

the process of what I have to do with each of my dives

to actually be able to stand on top of that podium

and, you know, yeah, great if I get an Olympic medal

but what I want to go in there aiming for is the Olympic gold

because, you know, I feel like I'm reaching my peak now

and I really want to get in there and I'm ready to fight.

I'm ready to go in there and give it everything I've got

to try and, you know, take away the gold medal from the Chinese

and the rest of the world and bring it home for Great Britain.

Tom will undoubtedly be one of the biggest names in Rio.

His worldwide popularity is truly incredible.

The list of superstar names at the Olympics is long and distinguished.

Bolt, Phelps, Ennis-Hill and Wiggins, to name just a few.

But with new sports come new superstars.

Rugby Sevens is one of the new sports added to the programme in Rio

and Jason Mohammad has been along

to meet one of its biggest global superstars,

ready to take his Olympic bow.

It's over!

And the World Cup is over

and New Zealand, the defending champions,

have defended the World Cup.

Sonny Bill, you've won a Rugby World Cup with New Zealand.

How can the Olympic Games top being a Rugby World Cup winner?

Obviously, from my rugby-head point of view,

there's nothing bigger than the Rugby World Cup

but you have to take your rugby hat off and think,

on a bigger scale of sportsmen,

the Olympics,

there's no higher honour than the Olympics, I believe, so...

My favourite sportsman ever, Muhammad Ali,

won a gold medal at the Olympics.

You know, I'd love to just say that I've been an Olympian as well.

So, when you were a kid growing up,

then, did you want to be a rugby union player,

did you want to play league or did you want to be a boxer

because of Cassius Clay, Muhammad Ali?

Always wanted to be a league player.

I loved my league growing up

and both my mother and my father come from league backgrounds.

They were league hard...you know, hard-core rugby league fans.

He does boxing, he does rugby league and he does rugby union.

Look at his technique.

He could go in for the rowing as well,

if New Zealand's rowing team are short.

How have you been able to adapt from boxing

to rugby league and to rugby union?

What is it that marks you out as this elite athlete

who it appears can turn your hand to almost any sport

at the very top level?

For me, my faith is the number one driving thing in my life.

I put a lot of it down to that, but also it's just hard work.

Train as hard as I can and leave the rest up to the most high

and, you know, whatever happens, happens, I guess.

There have been a couple of references to your faith in God.

-Yep.

-You converted to Islam.

-Yep.

-What difference has that made to you as a person, spiritually

and just the way you go about your normal everyday life

as a family man and also as a professional sportsman?

It's everything to me.

It gives me happiness, gives me that contentness in my life.

For me, sport is just one part of my life,

but the big thing for me is trying to be a good person

and a good human being first and foremost,

good husband, good father.

That's my driving... That's the thing that drives me.

Let's go back to the rugby and the Sevens.

-Obviously, it's going to be a massive event.

-Yeah.

Usain Bolt is going to be there.

He is going to be the biggest star but...

whether you like it or not,

Sonny Bill Williams going into Rio to play for New Zealand

in the Sevens is a massive story.

Are you prepared to be out there as one of the superstars of Rio?

No, I mean, I will not be on those guys' level at all.

-But...

-You're Sonny Bill Williams, you're a Rugby World Cup winner.

-People will want to talk to you!

-From a rugby point of view,

I guess you say that I'll make a few headlines,

but just to be there... You know, I just want to be there

and then we'll take things from there.

There's going to be all of those amazing athletes -

I think we'll just be sitting there eating our food 24/7 in that food court

where all of those athletes roll through, trying to get some photos or something.

-They'll be looking for photos with you, trust me.

-No, I'd be surprised.

-And how different is it,

from a rugby perspective, playing Sevens?

The energy levels are incredible, aren't they, compared to the 15?

Yeah, it's another level.

It makes for an exciting spectacle, I believe.

For myself on a personal level,

it really gets the blood going, you know, the blood flowing

and it's exciting, you know, just learning, learning, learning

and it really has lit a fire in myself.

It's a special thing to spend time with an athlete

on the eve on an Olympic Games.

They're consumed by a desire to succeed

and focused only on what lies in front of them.

That four-year Olympic cycle is almost over.

There'll be highs

and, undoubtedly, there'll be lows

and we'll be watching, captivated by every twist and turn.

It's very nearly time for the 2016 Olympic Games to begin.

Jessica Ennis-Hill is back on top of the world.

Peaty wins the gold.

Nicola Adams has just made history.

David Rudisha, gold for Kenya.

His 18th Olympic Gold medal.

And Bolt gets there!

They are world champions again!

Charlotte Dujardin has iced the cake in style.

Bradley Wiggins is the Olympic champion!

Oh, that's a huge jump!

Laura Trott crosses the line as the world champion.

It's a golden triumph!

Mo Farah streaking away!