Jonathan Edwards - Olympic Triple Jump Gold Medallist extratime

boy. That is Now on BBC News, it's By the end of this week, the London

Olympic Games will be under way. The whole will be watching. It is a

special interest for Jonathan Edwards he won triple jump gold at

the Sydney Games in 2000. His war record in the event still stands

after 17 years. No-one is likely to get anywhere near. He is

representing the athletes on the Games' organising committee. What

Jonathan Edwards, welcome to this special edition. In 2003, you in --

were involved in the bid team. We are in the final stage in the

build-up to the Games. What are you expecting? It feels very different

from what it did in 2003. I am a different person. I retired after

nine years -- I have retired or nine years. It is a privilege to be

inside the Games, as opposed to being an athlete. To take it from

that base and stage... More hope than expectation... Paris was a

clear favourite. But was a slow build-up towards Singapore. And to

have a better comprehension of what it takes to put on a Games. Why has

hope changed to expectation? every stage in this project, it has

been on time and budget. Olympic Park has been a brilliant success.

This was a regeneration project at heart. The Mayor of London decided

to back the bid. The way that project has been bought in has

given us reasons to believe that previous Games have failed. Or

What boxers does London have to take to make it affectionately

remembered as past Olympics like Sidney? I think it is the tone of

the game. When people turn up to Kings Cross, and it is free

transport and forget across the other big part. What is the

transport like? What are the volunteers like? I like the one an-

quality of the volunteers. I remember being jet lag and fed up

and meeting the volunteers. It changed my perspective. That is

important. And the smooth running of the sporting event. Athlete gets

where they are supposed to be. The simple nuts and bolts. What an

athlete needs for top level performance is the same for every

country. You want decent food, accommodation, curtains to keep the

light out to sleep whenever you want to. You need great transport

and volunteers. All these things are common to all athletes. Let me

read you a coat -- quote from the Independent newspaper. It is an

important one. He said it is the most important competition of your

life and he these advantageous. -- in the least advantageous

conditions. In Sydney, the technical manual says that the room

should be no smaller than 12 or 13 square metres. That is a big guide.

And before -- the night before I We have to make it as good as we

can. In Sydney, he called it off war. -- awful. I do not say that.

What did you say? I said all the things but not in the same order in

the same sentence. Maybe it is a case for telling competitors that

they should move out. The Swedish national -- Swedish Olympic

Committee does that. They say it is a place to stay and not a place to

party. The IOC had a different perspective. It is the magic of the

village which makes the Olympics what it is. What about the

superstars? The ones who have already travelled the world and

stayed in five-star hotels. No-one is compelled to stay in the village.

But should they be? I will always respect the athletes' right to

choose what is best for them. It is not just a case of being in the

village and putting up with a small bed or someone hitting the ball and

waking you up. Every single athlete wants to have his autograph. That

is the big issue for the superstars. They are celebrities within that

athlete community. That is what they need to get away from.

have been intimate Olympics, won gold and saw four. You are looking

out my first two where I do not qualify. OK. In at Lancer, you were

already a world champion. -- Atlanta. You were a bag of nerves.

Your wife suggested you return home. These are strange psychological

state to be in before competition. Maybe it is common. Looking back on

it, the funniest moment was when I was in my room and a blunter,

Malcolm Arnold came to check on me. -- Atlanta. I was somewhat

emotional in my room. I was not looking in a good state. I felt

under huge pressure. The year before was such a sea-change in my

career. Up until that point, I had been a good international athlete.

I won a bronze medal in Stuttgart. I had been to Commonwealth Games. I

was there and they're about. I had never dreamed that I would be --

made the award champion but not a People expected me to turn up and

simple. simple. The brilliant Kenny

Harrison beat me. I knew he would be in great shape. I found it hard

to come to terms with that level of pressure. Happier times in Sydney.

Happier because you won the gold. But my mother-in-law passed away

beforehand. Once again, the psychological environment in which

he competed was very disturbed. was. In Sydney, half a way around

he world, not sleeping well. Feeling the pressure of 34 years

old was not going to end up retired without an Olympic gold medal. I

jumped OK that year but not brilliantly. It was not the best of

Let me take you to the moment before that Olympic final. What is

it like, if your head, if you like, what is it like in the moments

before your first jump in an Olympic final? In a way the moment

before the first jump, they are the most - ser convenient would be the

wrong word but you have something to get hold of and to foi cuss on.

The worst bit is the waiting. It is the getting up in the morning of

the final and thinking I have another seven or eight hours to go

and trying to kill that time. do you kill thyme? Well, you know I

don't know what I did. I think I read Lord of the Rings while I was

in Sydney. My boys gave me one of these little game boys, Nintendo

things and I think I went through all the Sonic the Hedge hog levels.

Lord of the Rings and sonic the Hedge hog. Yes, it is an

interesting mix. I think I went for a cough tea, had a chat, nothing

really. So actually getting out, stripped off this is what you are

prepared to do. It is not easy, but it is like, OK, it is in my hand

now I have to get on and do it. for taking your mind off it for

seven to eight hours and then switching your mind to it it is an

extraordinary transition, isn't it? It is. And I didn't have any

mechanism to do it, I just did it. You loved to beat people didn't

you? I mean, what changes for me was becoming the world record

holder. I think I hardly felt prouder in my career than when I

got the bronze medal in Stuttgart and I stood on the podium, and Mike

Connelly had got a gold medal and I hardly felt prouder as a person

getting the bronze medal then because that for me was, I think at

that point in time, as good as I could do. It was the upper limit of

my achievement. It wasn't always about winning because I knew I

couldn't beat those two, but once I jumped 1, 29 it did come about

winning. The expectation was that I would win and jump a long way.

Going into competitions after that did become a different challenge

psychologically. I put in a good jump first round and second round

and then I would wait to see if somebody went past me. If someone

went past me the adrenaline would flow and I would get another 20 or

30cm and it was a wonderful feeling. You have already mentioned the

world record, 18m, 29cm established in governmenten berg in 1995. It is

a world record that still stands. We talked on this programme to Bob

Beaman about his long jump, 2 feet 2-and-a-half, talking in old money

then. He talked of a Cataplectic seizure. He said that propelled him.

That moment in Gothenberg was there something other worldly about it

because you literally flu? thing was I jumped further than

that in the European cup maybe eight weeks earlier, I did 18m 43

wind assists and that obviously didn't count for record purposes

because the wind was too strong. Were they better jumps in a way?

really interesting mix. I think I was faster in Gothenberg and

flatter off the ground. For the European Cup I hopped and stepped a

lot further. I think if you combined the two I would have

probably gone about 18m 90. They were different jumps but both very,

very well balanced. I went to Gothenberg knowing if I jumped well

I would break the world record. It was never racking - the fact that I

was in the group of achievers made it much easier to deal with it. I

remember Colin Jackson wasn't running but he said just try to

enjoy this moment because you mindn't have it again. And he was

right. I never had the opportunity again in the shape that I was in.

And in the second round there is a lovely moment - and I can't

remember it so much from being there but from now watching it on

TV as I have watched it so many times when I smile and I do this

and say, "Right, I think I can jump - I through is a bit more in my

legs today" and I knew it in my hop and my step there is just that

moment when you fly and when I had landed in the pit I just stood up,

got up and went, yeah, I knew it was a world record. They didn't

have to measure. You didn't have to look at the sign. How jealously do

you guard that world record? I think you described it as your

property, your own property? years is a long time and I get so -

I was at the UK trials for the Olympics this last weekend and you

get the start sheet for the men's triple jump and of course my man's

name is at the top, world record, British record, stadium record and

it is a nice thing. Who wouldn't want to be the world record holder?

I think for me probably because I still hold it it maybe mean as

little bit more than the Olympic title. Lots of people have won an

Olympic triple jump title. Nobody has jumped 18m 29. When somebody

does jump over that distance it will be a slightly different

viewpoint on it but at the moment that is like, I look at my skinny

legs and I think - I go to schools and the kids look at my skinny legs

and think that can't be right. There are a number of world-class

athletes who allow us a glimpse into their personal lives some

times in glossy magazines. Few have been as public about her faith as

you have. Why were you so keen to identify yourself as a Christian.

was a Christian first and foremost. It was what defined me. Before

being an athlete? Before being an athlete. I saw my life as an out

working of my commitment to God, whether it was doing my studies or

being part of a church or being an athlete. In part, certainly I was

an Evan gelcal Christian and I thought it gave me a great platform,

not to force my faith down people's necks but to say this is what I

believe and it is something that everybody should think about and

come to a decision on. Whether they choose to believe or not is up to

them but as a Evangelica l Christian it is a message I had to

give. There was a suggestion in 2007 that it was partly because you

decided that you would compete on a Sunday and that somehow said

something to you about your faith, would that be fair? No, I said the

Sunday issue had been resolved quite a listening time before hand

when I first started I had the never on a Sunday, the whole Eric

Little resonance but in 1993 I made the decision to jump on a Sunday.

The hard thing about that decision was not the thee logical issues

about was was it right or Wong but who would people think. Would they

look at me and think I had compromised my faith. In the end I

made that decision. 2007 a public renouncement, when I retired in

2003 I did start to question my faith and eventually lost it, but I

didn't want to suddenly stand up and say, "I don't believe any more"

and yet I wanted to be true to myself. The thing came out to the

open because I was a presenter of Songs of Praise, a very high-

profile Christian programme, a high-profile Christian. I didn't

feel like I could do that so I stepped down from that and that is

the point in time that it became public knowledge. It needed to

become public knowledge but I didn't think it was appropriate to

call a press conference and say, "Hey, I don't believe any more".

When faith drains away like that it must be a very difficult experience.

For me personally it hasn't been and that stocks me. It was

everything to me and now it is not there at all -- shocks me. It was

everything to me and now is it not there at all and I feel perfectly

fine. At this stage in my life I feel has happy has I have ever been.

That is where I am in terms of belief at the moment. So no for me

it was like, OK, I don't believe it. I am going to live my life this way

now and be true to that. Harder for people around me, for my wife, my

parents particularly, my dad being a retired Victoria car. That has

been a challenge for them without any question - Vicar. That has been

a challenge for them without any question but you have to live your

life. Finally let me say it is the age-old question, how will you feel

at the opening ceremony? I think because I am part of the organising

committee I am hoping it is not going to go wrong! (Laughs)

don't have any serious doubts about it, do you? No, but I have never

been in the position where you are kind of the guys who are putting

the show on. I sit on the board of the organising committee. If there

was something to be something that went wrong it is on our watch.

This this is your fear of failure again. Maybe that is it. When I

jump and I talked about that, you stnd on the runway and that the's

yegs bit, the bit you have trained for but you kol it - the easiest

bit, the business you have obtained for. But you control it. There are

very few variables. Somebody jumps a bit further than you or the wind

or the rain or whatever, but with a work force of 200,000 working to

the organising committee - it is like having a child who has left

home and you don't know what they are doing but you have to trust

they are doing the right thing. Just like when a child leaves home,

maybe in will be a tear or two? will be crying without any question.

I cried like a baby when I carried the torch I was in my home town,

right outside the house where I was brought up. But there as well there

was this kind of coming towards the end of a journey which has take ten

most part of my life since I have retired. It has been like a

surrogate athletics career and I believed it in passion fately. I

have loved every minute of it and it is coming to an end but I want

it is coming to an end but I want to it be right. Probably the most

significant moment in me getting involved in 2012 was what happened

in Sydney, having watched what happened to Cathy Freeman and the

sense of national pride. I want this to be right because I want the

nation to be proud. The athletes gold medal performances will give a

point in time for the public to celebrate but is it not just the

performance, it is the whole thing of what we have done as a nation.