Christine Ohuruogu Fern Britton Meets...

MUSIC: "Keep On Movin'" by Soul II Soul

These are the streets of Stratford in the London Borough of Newham

and just behind those houses there, about a mile away,

is the Olympic Stadium. Now, on this very ordinary set of streets

arguably our most successful female athlete ever was born and bred.

But you'd be forgiven if you got the name wrong.

Because it's not Kelly Holmes or Jessica Ennis or Paula Radcliffe

or Denise Lewis.

It's this woman - Christine Ohuruogu.

-COMMENTATOR:

-Christine Ohuruogu will start to run her down

and is coming fast.

Christine Ohuruogu is perhaps going to get there!

Christine Ohuruogu wins the gold!

She was shortlisted for BBC Sports Personality of the Year,

one of only two women,

and is Sunday Times and Sky Sportswoman of the Year.

And no wonder. She's won more world outdoor titles

than any other female British athlete.

Two World Championships, an Olympic gold and a Commonwealth gold.

-COMMENTATOR:

-Gold for England. What a run!

And it was here in the stadium behind me on 5th August last year

during the London Olympics

that Christine ran one of her most memorable races.

She won silver in the 400 metres.

Yes, she'd have liked gold, but, hey, it was in her back yard

so it was still special.

-COMMENTATOR:

-She's got it!

She'll eventually run faster, and already she is, arguably,

the most successful female athlete we've ever had in Great Britain.

Yet Christine's path to glory has been far from smooth.

In 2006, she was banned from competing for a year

for missing three drugs tests.

It doesn't matter whether it was an innocent missed drugs...

I think once you've got the word "drugs" it's completely over

and I thought this is going to follow me for the rest of my life,

rest of my career.

She was pilloried by the press, plagued by injury,

even disqualified for a false start in a World Championship.

But every time she suffers a setback,

she draws strength from her family and faith and returns to the track.

Thank God I just come over the other side.

To God be the glory and everything. It's just that that got me through.

-COMMENTATOR:

-Christine Ohuruogu takes the win!

What I love about Christine

and admire is that she will come back and bounce back

from all this negativity and she will just deliver on the track.

And this is the very track where an Olympic champion was born.

She put hours and hours into her work here.

She has a very strong work ethic, no matter what the weather,

no matter what time of day,

she was here perfecting her runs with her coach.

Christine lets her running do the talking,

shunning the celebrity circuit

in favour of visiting local schools to talk to budding athletes.

The one thing I really want to tell you is go out there and dream big.

Really go out and set your standards high.

And it's no wonder she wants to inspire the young.

She has six younger brothers and sisters in her tightknit family.

We don't know very much about Christine Ohuruogu

and there's certainly plenty I don't know about her

so she's agreed to meet me here so I can find out exactly

what makes one of our greatest female athletes tick.

Christine, I am so thrilled to meet you.

I have had training in how to say Ohuruogu. Is that correct?

That's spot on.

You must have heard so many different ways of pronouncing...

I have, I have. I remember when I was in primary school

and I never wanted to get up to get a certificate because I knew

that my teachers would always get my name wrong and then a similar

thing happened in secondary school and I think, um, the realisation

hit me in about year seven or eight

that no-one's ever going to get it right.

-But now, we are getting it right. At last!

-Yeah.

And in Nigerian it translates as "Fighter"?

Yeah, something like that.

I think it's, um, I don't know the exact meaning but, I think

that's the easiest way of packaging the name.

Mmm, it's a good name for you.

'Christine Ijeoma Ohuruogu was born in 1984 to Nigerian immigrants

'who came to the UK four years earlier.'

Raised in Newham, East London,

she's the second eldest of eight children.

And from an early age,

it was made clear to Christine where success comes from.

My dad always taught us to, you know, work hard.

That was always his mantra, you know, work hard, work hard.

He'd always check our results at school

and if we weren't in the top half,

preferably top two of the class is what he wanted...

If we came home with a mark it's always,

"Well, what did your friends get?"

And, "Where did your friends finish?"

And, "You should always aim to finish top of the class all the time."

-I think that's how he was raised.

-Yeah.

So it was always imprinted on us that we had to work hard

and have to be successful.

There might have been a strong culture of achievement

in Christine's family but the Ohuruogu household was,

and still is, very close.

Yeah, I think her family is probably one of the most important things.

We're very, very, very close which is a really good thing.

We can all talk. We can call each other up any time. We meet up a lot.

We always speak on the phone when either of us is away.

We're always in contact.

The kids love her to bits, the younger siblings, which is good.

Perri Shakes-Drayton, fellow athlete, 400 metre hurdler

and an East Londoner like Christine, is a close friend.

Christine's world is her family, you know, she has a load of brothers

and sisters and it's nice, you know that, they're the people

who's been around her through ups and downs and stuff and they're

the people that keep you grounded, keep you on your toes.

When you try and get above yourself, your family will tell it how it is.

And alongside her family and community is something which is

very much part of the weekly routine for the Ohuruogus.

Church. Even if it can be chaotic getting there!

It was quite difficult getting us all together

but we always went on Sundays.

Always late, even though it was only down the road.

-And what was church like at that time?

-It is very old, very grand.

I think we were all kind of baptised in that church

so we've all grown up through the church.

That's the first church we started going to as a family

and it's still the same church we all go to now.

Did you enjoy it when you were little or was a bit of a chore?

No, I think Sundays were always a lot different then than they are now.

I think Sundays were a lot more family oriented.

That was nice to just have the family around and we'd have friends round

or we'd go and visit my parents' friends so that was really nice.

And when did religion really, or your faith, really take root in you?

Um, well I went to a Church of England secondary school

and I think that was nice that they brought us up

in the way of Christianity but I think you'd always see that

everybody goes to church on Sundays

but they just carry on as normal during the week.

One of my really good friends was there, her dad was a vicar,

so that was quite nice to just to watch and observe how

she carried herself and what faith meant to her growing up

-and to decide whether I wanted to go down that route or not.

-Yeah.

It was something that I thought I really wanted to,

again that word, work at.

O Lord, open thou our lips. Our mouth shall shew forth thy praise.

Reverend Stennett Kirby is the Ohuruogu family's parish priest.

Their faith is very strong.

Christine herself has a very quiet faith.

She is very, very modest.

Christine sees her faith as confirming the strength she has

received through the Holy spirit.

From an early age, Christine was driven academically,

bagging herself a hat full of GCSEs and A levels

and a degree in Linguistics from University College, London.

But her sporting passion was not athletics. It was netball.

Your first sport that you were brilliant at was netball?

-Yeah, yeah.

-So that started at school, presumably?

-Primary school.

And you represented the UK in the Junior European Championships?

Well, for netball, I played for England Under 17 and Under 19.

And then I think the year after that, I switched to running.

How did that happen?

That was just a happenstance sports day, really, wasn't it?

Yeah, well, the thing is, me and my brother always ran at school.

We always knew from primary school that we were quite fast,

but every kid thinks they're fast.

I didn't think I was faster than the others.

I just knew that I was fast.

And in sports days, in primary school, I generally would win,

but there was another girl that would beat me sometimes

so every year it was this big thing like,

"Is Christine going to win or is this other girl going to win?"

-What's happened to her?

-She didn't go into athletics.

I think life got in the way, as it does.

So that's how I started running so I went to secondary school

loving netball and not really thinking much about track

because, for me, track didn't exist.

She was good, she was strong, she could run fast, she could jump high.

Her ball skills were not quite as good as her physical skills

but that's something that could have been developed.

She had all the attributes of athleticism that's needed

for a sport that has a high demand on physicality.

Everybody seems to think that netball is a soft girl's game.

I'm sorry, it's not.

It's a bit like rugby but toned down.

As a teenager in the '90s, Christine had church, her friends,

her studies and netball.

But realising that she could also run fast,

she kept returning to the track.

Lloyd Cowan, Christine's coach for all of her international career,

noticed something special when he started timing her.

Turned up at this track here one Tuesday.

I can remember it was a Tuesday, and said, "Look, I play netball

"and I just want to use track and field to get fit for netball."

Wasn't going to be a problem because I had a big group and she can fit in.

I had other athletes who were international so she came once a week

and just did a session, then disappeared

and after about seven weeks she turned up and we were doing a session

and she was hanging in with the boys and I'm thinking,

"Nah, that's not right, Kev."

I said, "Get the clock on her, what she's running,"

and I'm thinking, "Ooh!"

Even without trying, Christine's running ability was starting

to be noticed and she was selected in 2001

to run the 400m in the Under 20 Great Britain squad against France.

She came third.

Then she was picked for the European Junior Championships.

I came home with a bronze medal.

Yeah, and that was a medal that I probably wasn't supposed to win

because I managed to scrape through to the final by the skin of my teeth.

Going into the race I was actually the slowest on the board.

I had the slowest time. I remember my coach saying,

"Listen, you've got a bronze medal of doing two days a week of training."

He kind of pressured me to switch,

not because track was better than netball, but it was because,

look what you did off doing two days' worth of training

and then I think he said, "If you want to get better in track

"you have to make a decision because if you're going to keep taking

"weekends out, you're not going to get the best of either."

So I had to really sit down and decide where I was going to go

and it was one of the hardest decisions ever to make

because I would be quitting something, leaving something

that I was very good at.

I was very good at netball and I was going to get better.

You still sound as if, "Did I do the right thing?"

-But you did.

-It was, it was.

-And you chose 400 metres or it chose you?

-I didn't choose four.

-Nobody in their right mind chooses four.

-Why?

-What's so difficult about it?

-I suppose it's the training.

It is a painful event.

Christine's event, the 400 metres,

is a particularly difficult event tactically because in short sprints

the athletes run almost as fast as they can.

Up to 200 metres it's sprinting and flat out.

In longer distances, they have other athletes to gauge their performance

against and run on the shoulder of and come from behind etc.

400 metres is THE race where you're on your own,

you're in your own lane,

and whatever you do in that lane is down to you.

In 2004, after becoming the Amateur Athletics 400m champion,

Christine was selected for the Athens Olympics.

She was on a steep learning curve.

It's been an amazing experience having all the excitement,

also all the attention. I never expected anything like that.

Christine reached the semifinals

but she was outgunned and frustrated with her performance.

-COMMENTATOR:

-She'll be disappointed with that.

This, combined with not winning any titles in 2005,

forced her to make a promise to herself.

It was an awful year

and I remember coming out of the season of 2005 thinking

that's the last time that I go to a Championship

and not perform well.

That's the last time it happens.

She's very, very disciplined,

and she's always been one of those people that, you know,

once she sets her mind on something she always goes for it.

Also I think she's a very resilient person as well.

She does, you know, she's um, she, I think

she takes after my dad in that respect, you know.

Once she's off, once she has her mind set on something she'll just go

for it which is reflected with her success so far.

Determined to run faster and inspired by her faith,

Christine started to train harder.

A LOT harder.

Getting up early on cold, winter mornings to do sprinting repetitions

on the track and then sessions in the gym

followed by more track later in the day.

With Chrissie, she's one of the best trainers I've ever had.

When it comes to training it's training, it's just training,

trying to get better, trying to get fit.

Everything is just about track and field.

I always say, "Think about what your competitor is doing

"so you have to train twice as hard.

"I have no idea what they are doing but I sure know what you are doing."

So she doubles it. It's a two, two-and-a-half hour training plan

and in that two-and-a-half hours she'd be doing everything

and then she'll go home and she'll eat and she'll rest

and then we come back and we'll be running in the afternoon

and the session is specific.

She's a very task hard-driven female. Needs to know the numbers.

If we're doing ten runs and one is a bad run,

it ruins the whole session for her.

The training paid off and in 2006, Christine was selected to run

at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.

-ANNOUNCER:

-Welcome to the city of Melbourne!

The clear favourite was Tonique Williams-Darling, who was the

world champion in 2005 and Olympic champion the year before that.

Few gave Christine a hope.

At 100 metres from the finish they were head to head.

But then Christine turned on the heat.

-COMMENTATOR:

-Christine Ohuruogu is taking on the Olympic

and world champion and is coming away.

Gold for England! What a run!

She certainly wasn't the favourite and she came there,

and was utterly impressive in winning the Commonwealth Games

and I think arrived for the first time at an event

like the Commonwealth Games, a major championship,

and goes away taking home a gold medal.

I mean, you might as well take home a gold medal from Australia,

cos it's a long way to fly if you don't win a medal to think about.

But Christine impressed me enormously then

and she has done ever since.

The Games of the 30th Olympiad in 2012

are awarded to the city of London!

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

After Christine's win in Melbourne,

and with London starting to gear up for the Olympics in six years' time,

there was talk of her becoming the face of London 2012.

But during 2005 and 2006,

Christine had mistakenly missed two compulsory drugs tests.

Then she missed a third.

The position was that she had not complied with

one of the anti-doping rules which says you have to present yourself.

You must not miss three occasions when people come to test you.

Christine had made long-standing appointments to be visited

by anti-doping inspectors but, at the last minute, changed her plans.

When the inspectors turned up she wasn't there.

That is a missed drugs test.

And three of those mean an automatic year's ban from competition.

When the news came out that you got the ban, you get the letter.

Did it say in there, "We are going to ban you for a year"?

I think at Crystal Palace, which was the last race I'd run,

where I actually came last, my Achilles had both blown up

so it was bad anyway and then they told me that I had a missed test.

They told me I had the three missed tests.

And, at that point, I actually didn't really care

because I thought, I'm Commonwealth Champion right now.

I've just come last in my event.

I'm supposed to be going to the Europeans. That is of no concern.

They can sort that out themselves.

But I remember at that point people were coming to see me

to discuss this case which, by that point,

I thought this is not going to go away.

This really is quite a horrific position to be in.

Yeah, it just kept getting worse and worse.

I remember I had a call from the lawyer saying

that this is actually a case.

This is not something we can just...

We actually have to go through the proper channels to deal with this

and that's when I really started getting scared.

I really started getting quite upset.

I remember there was one time I was crying. I couldn't actually train.

I actually realised that this is not going to be nice at all.

Would you say she's frightened?

She's frightened. She's very, very stressed.

Three missed tests, that doesn't make sense at all.

I mean, if they're informed about this and they know, hey, one more

and she's not eligible to run.

Everyone's gotta do what they gotta do at that point

and no-one did anything.

-And through your own stupidity.

-Yeah, pretty much that. Stupidity.

You know, sometimes I kind of had this fantasy

where if I could just go back and literally just turn back time

and then have a different output,

sometimes I wake up and think it was a dream.

It didn't actually happen and then...

Yeah, in a split second it's changed.

And then when you get the ban,

you then have to deal with

the public's perception of you.

-Exactly and that was the worst thing.

-Suddenly you're, oh, drug cheat.

Exactly. That was the worst thing but I think at the time I realised that

once it had gotten out, it doesn't matter whether it was,

um, an innocent missed drugs.

I think once you've got the word "drugs", it's completely over

and I knew that and I thought this is going to follow me

for the rest of my life, rest of my career.

The day before it came out in the media, she telephoned me

and said, "They're saying I've missed three tests"

and I was like, "What do you mean?"

I said "Were you aware of this?"

She said, "No, I wasn't.

"It's going to come out in the press tomorrow."

Next thing you know it's in the papers everywhere, everywhere.

And, yeah, it was very, very hard to take. At times I felt...

I actually thought if I could change places with her I would.

Christine's a very book smart person.

She has an abundance of sense in her head,

and many accused her of not having the same in terms of common sense.

She maybe doesn't do things on a daily basis that other athletes

would find really easy to do because they organise themselves better.

That doesn't mean that she's therefore obviously,

in any shape or form, a cheat in our sport, and she's not.

I can honestly say that I'm not a drugs cheat.

I have been tested during the time of my ban.

I've been tested during the time of competition

and I will continue to be tested so, you know, I can't control what

other people are going to think of me, but what I can control is

how I approach my training and how I keep myself focused for next year.

It wasn't just me, it was my family, and that's what really upset me.

When I thought about my family and how they had to go through that,

it's not just you, you drag everyone else down with you.

It was my coaches, it was my agents, it was my whole team,

my brothers, my mum, my dad, my friends.

You feel you've disappointed them.

Yeah, I remember my brother, which was heartbreaking, saying,

"Oh, somebody said something at school"

and I thought, "Ugh, yes, not nice. Best to just ignore them."

That's all you can say.

It's my fault that they're having to deal with that.

And whilst worshipping at her local church one Sunday,

Christine found the congregation rallying around her.

At the time we had a service firming her here

and she actually burst into tears,

she cried as we spoke about her.

We affirmed our love for her and our support for her.

I think she found that very supportive.

Life has to continue, life is full of all sorts of tests

that we have to undergo, every one of us.

Life is not perfect and there are downs and the ups and we have

to do what we can in every situation and try and be positive about life.

So everything just collapsed on top of you and that's a point

when your faith, not only in yourself and the system,

was in a God that you have trusted and been with all these years is...

Where is He?

Yeah, but the thing is, I wasn't at all angry at all. I wasn't.

Obviously I would have liked, "Oh, why don't you help me remember?"

I think we always go round saying, you know, "Why me? Why me?"

You know, like, when I drive my car and there's an accident on the road

you kind of think, "Oh, thank God that wasn't me."

But it happened to somebody and that somebody could be anybody

so it's almost like, why not me, you know,

and I thought I'd been given a great opportunity to respond to this

and be the better person.

I'm not going to start mud-slinging and saying, "It wasn't my fault"

and, "These guys are being really rude about me."

My mum did say that some situations, it's a test,

all this is some kind of test,

and you feel like you've been stretched to your limit

but ultimately you will go higher

than anyone could ever think you're going to go.

It was a dark place for her, it really, really was,

and that's understandable because outside of not ticking the boxes and

doing something, which she should have done in terms of notifying

people, she technically hadn't done anything wrong in terms of cheating.

And that's hard to take as an athlete

if you're accused of something you haven't actually done.

Understanding that this was God's way of testing her,

Christine responded in the only way she knew, by retreating,

not to a sofa and the biscuit tin, but to the track and hard work.

My coach just got me a programme.

He was like, "Chris, you're going to turn this around."

I don't know what he saw, I have no idea what he saw,

but I just followed and I thought, I've got nothing else.

I remember like my mum was saying, "Why are you training so much?

"You don't even know if you're going to run again."

She just had the belief that she would come back

so, you know, she was still training as if she was an athlete

even though everything, she literally got banished,

pushed to the side. You know, she was almost forgotten.

What gave you the strength to turn things round at that time?

I just believed that, um, God doesn't want us to just be down and out.

We're of no use if we're just miserable and sad.

He's given us all kind of a gift to go out and do

and you can't do that if you're at home crying and moping.

So that's what kind of encouraged me to go out and train,

no matter what happens. This is what I'm good at.

A feature of the athletics calendar were the Golden Leagues,

where athletes compete for money and world ranking points.

Christine's ban meant that all she could do was pretend

to prepare for these events.

When there was a Golden League we'd actually simulate if we were there,

practise it like getting on a plane so we don't do nothing on that day.

Next day we turn to the track, warm up, do a few strides,

then go back home.

Then we come back on the third day and then we run a fast 250,

a fast 250, then shut it down, then get back in and work again,

and then we just mimic the season just behind closed doors.

By August 2007, Christine's ban was finally lifted and she was selected

to compete in the World Athletics Championships in Osaka, Japan.

I thank God to this day, even though I hadn't competed all year,

but he selected me to join the other two 400 metre runners,

showed great faith in me and that was really nice.

And then you get to Japan and you walk into the athletes' village?

Yes. That was weird cos, at that point I knew that all the athletes

had understood what had gone on and I think they understood that

it could've happened to any one of them but I think at the same time

people didn't quite know what to do with me.

I don't think they quite knew where to put me.

When you carry baggage, people can see you're carrying baggage,

but I thought, you know what, I'm here. Thank God I'm here.

I don't really know what's going to happen from here on now,

but I'm here and I really have to make the most of this opportunity.

-COMMENTATOR:

-What a story for the Commonwealth champion.

Christine had a point to prove but she was far from being a favourite.

She had not competed internationally all year,

and 50 metres from the line she was out of medal contention.

Then she found her inner strength.

-COMMENTATOR:

-Can it be a British athlete?

Christine Ohuruogu is perhaps going to get there.

Christine Ohuruogu wins the gold.

She is the world champion!

It's you.

After a year in the sporting wilderness,

glory on one of the world's biggest athletic stages.

I worked, I trained, got up every single day. I did my work.

I didn't know quite what I was working for.

But despite winning, the reception to Christine's medal

was far from golden.

In fact, from certain elements of the press, it was just plain mean.

They hinted that Christine's win was drug-fuelled.

How do you handle that level of negativity?

I just thought, at that point, I just thought,

you really are showing your ignorance right now

and it's not even just ignorance. It actually is stupidity. It really is.

But I thought, I'm not going to fight you guys.

I'm really not going to fight but it really did steal my shine, honestly.

It really dulled that medal way down.

It kind of dulled it into a bronze kind of look,

but I learned a whole heap of lessons from that,

even how to carry myself and how to present myself

and dealing with the media who I didn't really want to talk to.

I think at the time it was just, you know, guys, let it go, you know.

I've explained, I've explained, I've explained.

Listen, my case notes are available. We have internet now.

I honestly don't know what more to tell you.

But a shadow was cast, and with the London Olympics

in the forefront of the press's mind, newspapers were saying

that the last person who should be the poster girl of the Games

was Christine Ohuruogu.

Christine's mum, Pat, wasn't having any of it.

She rang a journalist who had been particularly spiteful.

Yeah, I think she gave him an earful and then we didn't see much articles

again from that particular journalist.

Yeah, it was good, I think, the way we all stuck together as well.

I know Pat very well as one of our church wardens,

and Pat is a formidable person, if I may say so.

She's a very, very strong lady. A very, very firm Christian faith

with her own very strong views within that faith.

And it doesn't surprise me at all to hear that Pat rang this person

and told that person off.

I was really proud of her cos if she'd suggested to me that

she was going to call him, I would have said, "Don't call him."

But I was really proud of her for doing that.

It took some guts and I think when you, as a parent,

when you see that happening to somebody,

you just think they keep writing rubbish all the time...

But I was really happy she had the guts to do that

cos you don't take on the press, you really don't.

Christine's World Federation ban might have been lifted,

but there was another problem.

British Olympic Association rules state that an athlete with ANY drugs

infringement receives a lifetime ban from competing in the Games.

So no Beijing in 2008

and no London in 2012.

The Olympics have said, "No, you're banned for life."

Yeah, so, I had to go home

but I thought, I'm not going to get my hands involved in this.

The people that be are dealing with this.

I just prayed about it. There's not really much I can do.

What do you ask for when you're praying?

-I want to go to the Games.

-Simple as that?

Yeah, but I knew that my heart's completely clean.

If I'd done something wrong, I'd understand.

If you do something wrong you take the punishment.

My faults are not as big as the other people's who have actually

taken drugs, so please let me go?

And when Christine says she prays, she really does

and believes in the power of it.

I think when she turns to Him, He always solves the problem.

You know, I'll be a mad man.

"Oh, please God help me with this mad man."

Obviously, all jokes aside, she believes in it 100%.

100%. That's her faith.

-COMMENTATOR:

-Christine Ohuruogu wins the gold!

Fortunately, watching her gold medal win in Osaka,

and possibly answering her prayers,

was an ally, who happened to be a top sports barrister.

I was at the World Championships in 2007.

I was a guest there of the International Federation

and had done legal work over a number of years and we watched

Christine win the gold medal in a very exciting fashion.

And I was aware, of course, because her case had been much publicised

and I said, "If necessary,

"I will represent that young woman for nothing."

Just over a year after getting a lifetime ban from competing

in the Olympic Games,

the British runner Christine Ohuruogu has had the ban lifted.

In November 2007,

following a hearing of the Court of Arbitration of Sport,

Christine's Olympic ban was finally overturned.

It seemed that it was simply a question of persuading

the tribunal that there was a reasonable explanation for the fact

that she'd missed this third test.

I would not have taken her case on

had I not believed that she was innocent.

Christine could now be selected to run in the 2008 Beijing Olympics

that summer.

But in Beijing there was still doubts about her ability,

that she'd got lucky in Osaka with a close finish

and that some of the bigger names in her event weren't even competing.

To prove herself, she needed to pull out all the stops.

-NEWS REPORTER:

-British interest focuses on Christine Ohuruogu

going for a medal in the 400 metres.

That really is one of the Blue Riband events

for women's track and field.

But the night before the final, as usual, she'd didn't get any sleep.

It's three days of madness, I call it.

She never sleeps at a championships.

She sleeps on the day, in the day of the championships.

Who does that? WHO does that? I want her to sleep the night before.

"I can't sleep, coach, can't sleep."

Then she gets up in the morning and has a lie down

and she actually sleeps in the day, the afternoon or evening,

and she sleeps all day long and then gets up and goes, "OK."

Before any race,

all the athletes competing have to sit in what's known as a call room,

designed to ensure the smooth running of a championship.

Usually the reason they put us there is to check our shoes.

They're continuously checking, checking our bags,

checking our shoes, our bibs. Check, check, check, check, check.

So we probably go through two call rooms

-before you get onto the track.

-Wow.

So you're in a small room, you and seven other girls,

and we just sit there.

'There was a strong field for the 400m final.

'World champion sprinter Anastasiya Kapachinskyer.

'Jamaica's Shericka Williams, a world silver relay medallist.

'And the favourite, America's Sanya Richards.'

-How was Sanya looking?

-She was very confident.

I remember thinking, "How can you look so chilled, man?

"The rest of us are like crying and you're just..."

Yeah, she was really confident.

It did surprise me at the time.

But I thought, "You know what, I really want to win this."

Christine's World and Commonwealth titles mattered to her,

but this was a big one.

To win it would be proof that she was a genuine world class athlete.

There was an added pressure too.

The British team hadn't yet won a gold on the track.

MUSIC: "The Funeral" by Band Of Horses

# Really too late to call

# So we wait for... #

-COMMENTATOR:

-There's a medal up for grabs

and Williams is coming through for Jamaica.

Christine Ohuruogu takes the gold medal!

The world champion becomes the Olympic champion!

You never think it's a reality, just something you dream about

so now that I've actually...

I dunno, I was crossing the line thinking, "Oh, my gosh, I've won."

Christine winning that Olympic title off the back of the world title,

it brought me to tears, it brought many people to tears,

because when you know somebody, and you don't just respect them as

a fellow athlete, cos she was doing the same event that I used to do.

She'd come back from all of that and won a world and Olympic medal.

I went down to see her on trackside after her victory in Beijing,

and it was a very, very special moment

and a very poignant moment for me

when she came over and we gave each other a hug.

There was a level of respect,

because I'd won an Olympic bronze medal.

She'd gone one better and won the Olympic title.

Christine's determination to win has its roots in many places,

but when competing abroad she has a secret weapon.

No matter where we go in the world she always finds a church.

I mean, South Africa, America.

Florida. We've been in LA.

We've been away to Lausanne

and if we are staying till Sunday she'll find a church to go

and practise her faith and see some of the girls.

If not, they will find a room and sit down and pray.

The faith is one of the things she believes in, a God.

It gives her the spirit to move forward.

And this spirit, strength and also her style of winning got her noticed

throughout the athletics world, storming to gold in the last 50m.

-COMMENTATOR:

-Christine Ohuruogu takes the gold medal!

Christine has always run like that.

She's always been a late finisher.

She doesn't follow the textbook kind of 400m running technique,

but it's become synonymous with the way Christine Ohuruogu runs.

-COMMENTATOR:

-Christine Ohuruogu takes the gold medal!

I love it. She has that extra boost, that kick, but, you know what,

when we're watching it it's not nice to watch.

You're just shouting at the TV, "Come on!" for any athlete you know.

We know what they're going through.

How much work and hard work and pain they've put into it.

When they do what they have to do to get a medal...

At the time, Christine, she creates that excitement. It's good to watch.

I know what she's feeling when she's running cos she's in pain, hurting.

-What's your style? You run and hold back...

-Yeah.

..and in the last 100 metres?

My final bit is always my strongest bit because I just have a very

high tolerance when it comes again to lactic and pain.

I can work very well in lactic.

And lactic is when every fibre of your body is going STOP!

It just hurts so much.

I think, because you're running at speed, the kind of times,

it's a flat out sprint all the way.

And Christine's way of pipping people at the post

is starting to influence other athletic coaches,

even in the famed home of Usain Bolt,

about how their sprinters should run the 400 metres.

I got paid a praise from Steven Francis in Jamaica

and he's done this over the years, how she runs,

because he told me, five, six years ago, he goes,

"If you get it right, she couldn't be beaten."

He was being honest.

He goes, "I have to change the plan how my athletes run"

and he went back and he changed his philosophy.

With Commonwealth, World and Olympic titles under her belt,

Christine should have been a household name by now.

But it wasn't the case.

Partly this was out of choice

to have a quiet, family-centred Christian life.

That says to me that Christine is content in her life.

She hasn't got to expose and let people into her private life.

That's her private life.

She's happy, you know. You see that big smile on her face,

and you know being in the limelight obviously she doesn't want that.

Each to their own.

She doesn't court the press. She doesn't court the media.

She won't do big television programmes.

She's not really that interested in kind of raking in

or getting the limelight outside of what she does.

Because of that, therefore,

you can probably ask a lot of people on the street and they'll...

One, they'll pronounce her name wrong,

or two, they've never heard of her.

She doesn't tweet. She does not Facebook.

So where people need attention, she's not that type of person.

The social side, I mean, she doesn't go out,

and if she does go out it's either to the cinema or something local.

I think when you finish, you can do all that when you finish,

but they know OF Christine

but they never see Christine.

Those who know her say Christine almost belongs to another era.

Pre-professionalism, where athletes were free from the pressures

of having to deliver a 24/7 public persona.

I think if you look at Christine, she probably would have been very

comfortable in the Ann Packer, Mary Rand, Mary Peters age,

cos in those days you went to work for a living,

you went off to the Olympics, you won a gold medal and came home

and went back to work.

But that was then.

In 2008, as Olympic and world champion,

Christine needed to defend her titles.

First, the Berlin World Championships in 2009.

But in the run up to that event, she picked up an injury.

2009, you should be on the crest of a wave.

I tore my quads just maybe three weeks out of the World Champs

so it meant I still got to the World Champs

but I was obviously in no position to defend my title.

But I always say, no matter what, you always go in,

you defend your title no matter what position you're in.

You go out and you fight.

Two years on, more bad luck.

Disqualification in the heats of the World Championships

in Daegu, South Korea, after a false start.

Again, Christine was being tested.

And London 2012 beckoned.

This must be a slightly surreal moment for you

-to be standing in the stadium.

-This is really, really weird.

I came, maybe a few months ago and, erm, I'm shaking now.

In the wet during pre-Olympic races, Christine was on form.

-COMMENTATOR:

-The world champion can't hang on.

Christine Ohuruogu is going to take the win.

But winning here didn't matter.

It was the Olympic title she wanted to defend.

Not just because it could be won in front of her family,

friends and country...

..but because the stadium was in her own parish.

-COMMENTATOR:

-Come on, Christine.

Sanya Richards-Ross coming through

and Christine Ohuruogu is coming again.

Can she get there this time? Will she make it?

Sanya Richards-Ross takes the gold!

Well, the race, again, you had us all up on our feet and Sanya got it.

-She did, she did.

-You got silver and you looked devastated at the end.

-I did.

-Dazed and devastated.

-I did, yeah.

I think it was almost like I didn't know what to do with myself.

You know, I really wanted that so much and I think when you know you're

so close but you just run out of track,

that's the worst position to be in.

To know that you're coming and you're going and going and going

and going and going and then it's over and I'm not finished.

I'm not finished and I didn't get what I wanted.

Another 50 yards and you could've done it?

Yeah, I just think if only, if only, if only, if only, if only, if only,

and that's the worst position to be in - if only.

But I was upset and I really, really was, but I must admit

once I'd done my lap of honour,

everybody stayed to watch me get my medal.

I thought these people don't care if you're silver, gold, bronze.

They're just happy to see you and then when I went back and looked,

I thought I've not been around for the last three years.

How many people can come and medal consecutive Olympic Games?

It's not done that often, it really isn't so I kind of was disappointed.

I thought I should have been a bit more graceful.

-COMMENTATOR:

-The brilliant silver medal.

Lloyd Cowan was less concerned with Christine's reaction to

coming second to how Team Ohuruogu lost out on gold in the first place.

Particularly, why Christine didn't stamp her authority from the start.

2012 was fantastic

but 2012, it's the only championships I went in a bit over-confident.

I didn't tell her that I think she could do what she wanted to do

but she was too blase for me.

I wanted her to win the heats, I wanted her to win the semis.

She was OK with finishing second. "I'm OK, I got through, coach."

I keep thinking, but that's not the way.

The way is, when you go to a championship and you're winning,

you make a statement to the girls that, "I'm here."

Christine might have followed a gold in one Olympics

with a silver in another, but she didn't become one of the household

names associated with London 2012.

Instead the media focused on other Olympic medallists.

-COMMENTATOR:

-It's gold!

So, yet again, Christine did what she always did -

went back to the track.

For her next big challenge,

this year's World Championships in Moscow.

What I love about Christine, and admire, is that she will come back

and bounce back from all this negativity

and she will just deliver on the track.

She's the perfect example of let the running do the talking.

She doesn't have to say nothing,

but she just produces what she has to do on the track

and that's got to give her credit and due for that, definitely.

I think it's a matter of continuing. It's not giving up.

I think we have seen that in the way that she runs.

There is a determination there coming from her faith

that gives the spark.

You continue whatever the situation. What else can we do, really?

Inside the athletics world, Christine is universally admired

for her work ethic and, as an acknowledgement of that,

she was not only selected to run, but appointed Team Captain.

It was a very proud moment.

I think her leadership skills shone through.

Yeah, she was very good at lifting the team.

They all said, you know, there were a lot of comments within the team

about how inspirational she was

and how much of a role model she is.

I think that's one of the best things I think happened

was to be made a Team Captain,

cos usually I just like to sit in the background and just focus on myself

but it was nice to have other athletes in my charge.

-Yeah, like Mo Farah!

-Yeah.

-That's not bad, is it?

I can't tell him what to do though. He'll probably tell me what to do.

But it was really nice and really good to be on a team with Mo,

to be with someone who's so successful

and, you know, my sister was on the team as well.

Meet Victoria Ohuruogu, Christine's younger sister.

Just 20, she is another potential world class athlete in the making

and was selected to be part of the Moscow 2013 squad.

She was so in awe of Mo and how he handled himself.

You know, I think, for her, he was one of the stand-up people.

I think after he'd won his 5K, the day after he'd won,

he was just sitting there having dinner, and my sister's like,

"Why is he even here eating?"

I mean, he needs to eat but I think it was just his whole demeanour

and I think for me, and you know for us to be on the team

and to have these youngsters underneath us,

who we were kind of trying to school, was a really nice feeling.

It really was.

-COMMENTATOR:

-Christine Ohuruogu has been our number one for a long time.

As Team Captain in Moscow, she was expected to lead by example,

something she did in dramatic fashion.

-COMMENTATOR:

-It's a clean start.

Christine Ohuruogu will start to run it down and is coming fast

and is coming quick, but will it be quick enough?

Will she get there? Christine's coming. She might just make it.

She just made it!

Did she get it?

I sat there. She came from miles behind.

Paula Radcliffe and I were sitting in the stands watching

and it was a fantastic race but we couldn't tell from where we were

whether she'd won it or not.

-COMMENTATOR:

-We're waiting.

She's looking. We're looking.

She's got it! Another gold medal.

Christine Ohuruogu is the world champion again!

It was just drama, it was entertaining

and it was wonderful to see, but you kind of knew it was going to happen.

Everybody knew it was going to happen

apart from Amantle Montsho of Botswana who decided not to

dip for the line and Christine came through and everybody's going,

"You silly lady, you know Christine Ohuruogu's going to be coming."

And she did and she timed it to perfection.

You know, thank you to everyone at home wishing me well,

praying for me and I'm just really grateful to be here.

Honestly, I can't believe it. I feel like I'm dreaming.

She ran a British Record in the World Championships this year,

so that's the perfect race for her.

She'll eventually run faster, and already she is, arguably,

the most successful female athlete we've ever had in Great Britain.

Not content with being one of our greatest athletes,

Christine wants to create a new generation of Olympians

who can dominate future Games.

Hi, guys.

Inspired by her faith to give something back to others,

she vowed to visit every school in her borough to tell local children

of what can be achieved from even the most humble of backgrounds.

My event is not actually very nice.

It hurts, but in a strange way,

I actually really enjoy it because every day I push myself really hard.

I think that gives her her greatest sense of satisfaction,

knowing that she can give back to the community,

making them see that, you know, that she's like them,

she came from the same surroundings, same education system.

Are you writing on the table?

Just to give them a belief that if she can do it they can do it too.

There's a big world out there, and if you just work hard you can achieve

what you want to go out and achieve.

It's quite amazing, cos, like, you don't see these people every day.

It's only once in a lifetime.

She was over here and she was proper tall.

There aren't many athletes that do that. I am being honest.

If there is not a buck or a pound on it, they won't be doing it

unless they are making something.

And she is not sort of driven by, I suppose, that way where,

if I go into school you pay me. I think when it's for kids, no.

If it's a corporate business I understand that,

but she is a giving person.

Go out and enjoy yourself.

Remember to dream big and keep looking after each other.

APPLAUSE

Do you think God has another bit of plan for you?

I think there's another big plan.

I don't know what it is but I just feel like this is not the end.

I think that all that I've been through is leading up to something.

Everything. I know everything has been quite sequential in helping me

get to the next bit but I think everything collectively

is kind of directing me somewhere else.

As I said, I don't have any idea what it is.

Christine Ohuruogu has always shunned the spotlight,

letting her running, Christian beliefs, community work,

even inspirational children's books, say what needs to be said about her.

But she's now finally getting the attention she deserves.

Two weeks ago, she won Sunday Times and Sky Sportswoman of the Year.

Then Sports Journalist Association Sportswoman of the Year.

And finally, last week, the big one.

In front of an audience of 12,000, including hundreds of sports stars,

Christine received a welcome

befitting of one the UK's most successful athletes.

Christine Ohuruogu!

APPLAUSE

Olympic gold and silver, two golds.

The only British woman to win two golds at a World Championships,

ladies and gentlemen.

APPLAUSE

How do you do it every time?

I don't know exactly how I do it, but me and my coach, we always know that

the championships are where it's at.

That's really where I have to go out

and do everything possible that I can to win.

We like winning medals, so...

Best of luck, Christine Ohuruogu.

She lost out to Andy Murray in the end

but the honour of being on the short list means a lot to her.

For Christine to be nominated I think is overwhelming for her,

to be finally recognised as one of the greatest female

400 metre runners Britain has ever produced.

For me, it leaves me emotional

because it's been a long road.

And to see it from the beginning and the way we've panned out to now,

it's been a wonderful journey with the good and the bad,

but that's what life is about.

What we have with kids and she is showing that,

even if things are not good, we can still go forward.

So, for me, for her to be nominated is one of the best...

I mean, the best thing that has happened to her in a long time.

And Christine's athletics career is far, far from over.

-Going to where you know you can go is Rio in 2016.

-Yeah.

That's the next big Olympics. Are you going to give it another shot?

-Yeah, I think so.

-Regain your gold?

Yeah, I mean, I've always said Rio hinges on being fit and healthy.

I think I'm allowed to kind of make those choices now.

I think before it'd be like, "Yes, a definite," but, yeah, I think

if everything goes well and I'm fit.

As I stand now I feel good

but who knows what's going to happen in two years?

-You'll be 32?

-Yes, I'll be 32 so...

-In your prime?

-Yeah, well that's what they say.

I thought 28 was my prime or 29,

but I think a lot of it is mental maturity as well, knowing what you

can do and being able to apply what you know you can do.

Christine takes her running seriously and even at Christmas

she is officially in training

which means that while we're tucking into the turkey,

this will just be another day at the office.

Where will you be? What's the routine of Christmas Day?

It depends on what day of the week Christmas falls.

I'll try and get a run in first thing in the morning.

-How far do you run?

-How far do I run?

It'll be a 20-minute run but it'll be a good run.

I'll be tired after it.

Then I probably will go to church with the kids.

I think her family is very important to her.

She took her younger brothers and sisters to America the other week.

They are very, very important to her and I think she'll enjoy the fact

that she's spending Christmas with her family.

I typically wake up late on Christmas.

I know, our family's weird.

I think cos they go to bed too late cos they're excited

and they wake up late so possibly go to church on my own without them.

I don't wait for them because the older they get,

the more lazy they get in the mornings

and then, yeah, I'll be at the house.

Probably put my presents under the tree

so they have to wait for me to bring my presents

before they open their presents.

-Well, I wish you a very happy Christmas, Christine.

-Thank you.

And also, can't wait for Rio.

Yeah, Rio will be good. Thank you.

-Good luck.

-Thank you very much.

-Thank you.

Christine Ohuruogu, a woman full of confidence yet very

self-effacing, and what she has gone through is remarkable.

I think it is her faith in God and her faith in herself

that's carried her through the ups and downs of an extraordinary career

and also I think, from my belief, she was very honest as well.

We haven't heard the last of Christine Ohuruogu,

so whatever it is that's next in her plan, watch this space!

MUSIC: "Keep On Movin'" by Soul II Soul

# Keep on movin'

# Keep on movin'

# Keep on movin' don't stop, no

# Keep on movin'

# Yes

# Keep on movin'

# Keep on movin' don't stop, no. #