Episode 11 Inspire: The Olympic Journey

long and hard. But it is the people around an athlete that can make the

journey easier. Coaches, team-mates, family and friends. Their support is

crucial when things get tough. It can be the difference between

success and failure. Giving up, or carrying on. With less than 50 days

to go before the start of the carrying on. With less than 50 days

to go before the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, in today's show we are

going to meet three sports people for whom their relationships have

been key to their sporting success. I have come to Bisham Abbey, to meet

England hockey captain Kate Richardson-Walsh, who is hoping to

lead her team mates to gold this summer. And to learn more about the

special bond within the squad. Katherine Grainger is in Denmark

with cyclist Jonny Bellis, to hear how his friends and family helped

him on the road to recovery after a serious motorbike accident. Ore

Oduba it with a group of young Welsh boxers aiming to take centre stage

in Glasgow, as they go back to where it all began. And if you have been

inspired to try a new sport like cycling, boxing or hockey, there are

details on our website of clubs near you. Kate Richardson-Walsh has been

England's hockey captain for over a decade. She has competed in three

Olympic Games and this summer in Glasgow will be her fourth

Commonwealth Games, with a career spanning that long she has picked up

many trophies and medals along the way. A career high, that bronze in

London in 2012, but the gold, well, that has eluded her up until now.

Hi, how are you? Lovely to see you. Come through. This is our training

centre. It is very posh here, isn't it? Can you believe that we are

coming up to almost two years since London? And the Commonwealth Games,

which seemed an age away. I can't, I have to pinch myself. I go into

schools and talk and put up a video clip from 2012 and think, Kate, get

over it, it is two years ago, move on. I can't believe it, it has gone

so quickly. That was an oration at -- that year was an emotional

roller-coaster, wasn't it? Talk us through the build-up to London. You

have the extra pressure of competing in a home games. We had built up

ourselves into a position where we were medal contenders and it is the

knowledge of having to do that consistently over a two week

period, seven games, it can be daunting.

COMMENTATOR: Ouch. That is not good. When you

took the stick, the pain must have been immediate. You must have known

straightaway this is serious, not just severe bruising? I can't

straightaway this is serious, not remember feeling pain, I got cramp,

it must have been shock. I remember handling my leg but straightaway my

teeth were in the middle of my mouth and I knew you have done it this

time. They rushed me to hospital. I had scans and tests. I had fractured

my jaw, all the way. My surgeon said, I can fix this, I have seen

plenty of these and we can patch it up. I thought it would be the end of

it. I thought I would not play any more in the Olympics. Then, after

the surgery they said we might be able to get you back and whatever he

said at that point, I was like, I will grab that. You grab the hope.

Anybody would have done the same thing in that position. You have

trained that hard and you have the dream of winning a medal in the

Olympic games. I was going to take any option. As the tournament within

the Olympics developed and you are back and now a medal is looking a

reality, describe what that is like, waking up and knowing an Olympic

medal could be yours? We had lost the semifinal against Argentina 24

hours previous to the bronze medal game, so we had 24 hours of

darkness. There was a lot of tears and soul-searching. But we had

discussed and been through this situation before the team and we

knew how to deal with each other. By the time it got to the last game,

the feeling in the team was one I will never forget. I remember

looking in everyone's. It was knowing we are going to do this.

COMMENTATOR: Walsh, touched in, absolutely

brilliant. What a comeback this has been. Great Britain have won the

bronze medals. So if 2012 was an emotional roller-coaster and also I

imagine professionally a very high year for you, ultimately, 2013

personally was a very big year for you. Yellow dobbing yes, it was a

big year. On the pitch and off. I got engaged and married, which was

amazing. There are so few openly gay sports people generally across any

sports and to get married as well, while you are still playing and your

wife is the same team. I can't think of another example of that in global

sport. You are a very unique couple. Yes, it is funny because when you're

in things you don't see them from the outside perspective. I think we

are a couple, we love each other and we happen to be playing in the same

team. Because our team-mates and friends and family have been so

supportive and understanding of that, we also don't see anything

strange or different. I think the extraordinary thing is when it is

your wife, does that affect the dynamic of the squad? You would have

to ask the squad and team-mates. We are very professional. We draw a

line. When we are at hockey, we are Kate and Helen, team-mates, and away

from hockey we are a couple. It is important the line is drawn to be

able to talk to each other and say things that you say to normal

team-mates, that is not good enough, and not start having a row about it

afterwards. Once you leave hockey, you will leave hockey. You have been

in squads together for over a decade, but you will be at a World

Championships without each other for the first time because of Helen's

injury. It has been really hard. She had got herself to a place where she

was playing, fitter than she was last season after she had had her

first back surgery. I had got myself to a point where I really believed

her name would be on the sheet. It wasn't there. It is just... It is

just really sad. Were you more upset than she was? No, I think we were

both very similar, shocked and all the emotions you go through, angry,

upset. It was good we had the weekend to kind of deal with it

together alone, in our own way. Do you think that was a moment where

you thought gosh, this will not go on forever? Absolutely, yes. There

are lots of emotions going through me at the moment and certainly I

know this is my last season playing in the international team and yes,

it would have been the last time we played together potentially. All of

those things make it that much harder. Everything is the last

thing, the last fitness test, the last tournament, everything is the

last one. That makes everything quite emotional. That is the

definite, is it? If you come away from Glasgow with a gold medal,

which has eluded you so far, would that be the point you think, it is

not that long to Rio? My body feels quite good, funnily enough. It is

everything else. I have spoken to a lot of people. They have retired.

They say, you just know, but it is time for me, it is time for the

squad and there are lots of other things I want to do. I feel like the

next chapter is ready. The band of sisters that she has grown up with

here, you can really sense that is the thing that will be the hardest

for her when she does finally put her stick down for the last time.

For Kate, her fourth Commonwealth Games in Glasgow will be yet another

opportunity to achieve sporting success on the global stage in a

career that has lasted well over a decade so far. For one young cyclist

from the Isle of Man, just being in Glasgow will be remarkable. Back in

2009, Jonny Bellis had his whole life ahead of him. Having emerged as

one of the most promising cyclists in Great Britain. At a motorbike

accident in Italy almost changed all that. But Katherine did -- Katherine

Grainger has travelled to Denmark to hear his inspiring story.

This Grand Prix is the most prestigious road race in Denmark.

Jonny is making his debut on Danish soil, representing a local team. It

is his first year back of the moat -- Road cycling professional after

being forced to take a lengthy break from the sport he loves. I shattered

this part of the school. The bones went into the sack of the brain. I

had four blood clots. I have fractured my face, nose, cheekbones.

I fractured my sternum. That is about it, really. I had a small

blood clot on my spine. Other than that, not a lot!

COMMENTATOR: The youngest man in the race, from

Great Britain, just 19, Jonny Bellis. The first Manxman to race in

the Olympic Games. What got you involved in cycling originally? I

was one of those kids when I was younger that just wanted to do every

sport and there was a Lucas Luhr -- there was a local cycling club on

the Isle of Man. I got involved and had a lot of success. I was in the

Commonwealth Games when I was 17, the Olympics when I was 19, European

champion, European champion and national champion and it was just

like that. Going up and up, it was great, continuing the hard work and

obviously I had more success along the way. I just continued that way,

really. I felt a really strong energy on the team. It is two or

three days since. You are racing in Denmark for the first time ever. I

you looking forward to it? Yes, I am. The Danish team, it is quite

important for me. It is quite an interesting race, not your usual

type of road race with the off-road sections and things like that. I

have never done a race like this in my life at all. It will be an

experience, for sure. I will deal with what the team asks of me. 2008,

you are at the Olympics, looking great. Then 2009, you are living and

working in Italy. Mark Cavendish, your mate, just around the corner. I

got on my scooter, literally a mile away from home and I remember

getting hit by something behind. It was a shunt. I remember falling and

that was it. That was the last thing I remember. I got hit by a car from

behind. They obviously drove off and the next person that came along and

found me laying on the road. It was very blurry for the next few

months, because there were so many convocations and operations. The

medical stuff I was on, the drugs etc, from then on it was just in and

out of crazy dreams and coming around and not really knowing my age

I couldn't walk, I couldn't talk properly, I couldn't do anything. I

wasn't allowed to eat or drink water. I remember constantly dying

of thirst the whole time. How was it you wouldn't hold you had been in a

coma for a month? I did not understand it, if you know what I

mean. It weird. My brain had a lot of damage. You don't think about

it, a coma. I didn't really know what it meant, just something you

would never think would happen to you. What was the initial prognosis?

I was in Italy, my parents in the Isle of Man. They flew to Italy,

arrived at the hospital in Florence and the doctor said, well, he's

going to live, but he's going to be paralysed from the neck down. So to

be sitting here now after being told all that by the doctors, it is a

miracle someone or something decided that there is more for me to do in

this world and I have come round and been able to do what I was doing

before. OK, it is not quite at the level I would like to the, but I am

pretty optimistic I can get that -- I can get back there soon enough.

the first time back on the bike? Probably ten months. I was like, OK,

dad, I am muddy to go out on the road with a group and train with

them. -- I am ready. He was like, you are having a laugh. There is no

chance you will be able to ride with the group. He went out with me on a

little circuit round the Isle of Man. That was when it hit home, how

weak I still was. I could barely get out of the saddle and I was so tired

after. It hits you confident. I was such a confident rider before. Now

my confidence is pretty low. The more I get involved and the more

races I do, the more confidence I get back to a good level to be

competitive again. And physically with the weight loss and that, I

have potentially changed a bit. I am not as stocky as I was before but at

the end of the day, muscles have a memory, so if I could do it then,

why not now? What made you decide to do track rather than road in the

Commonwealth Games? I did the track in Melbourne when I was 17 and I

know what it is about. I thought it was a realistic target, a good

target. Not every day you get to represent the Isle of Man either so

I thought it would be great. Do you have a result in mind that you would

be happy with? If I make the final of both races I will be happy and

satisfied. Who knows in track racing? You never know what can

happen. On the road, events can be equally as unpredictable. Jonny

retired and Christina Watches had only managed fifth place,

disappointed for both but Jonny remains undaunted. I guess that was

not the plan. It was not the plan for me to be here standing here now

and not at the finish line, but ten kilometres into the race, I just

felt a nickel in my knee which I have had problems with in the past.

I thought to myself, what is the best thing to do? Physically I could

have carried on but I did not want to potentially make it worse. I

thought I would stop. You're not going to let things like today stop

you going forward. Is it a forward-looking mentality? I think

so. In a couple of days I will be fine. The last 24 hours or so, I

have got to know Jonny better. It has made me certain that he will not

let this setback hold him down for a long and he is very much looking

forward to Glasgow, putting on the Isle of Man jersey, and returning to

the track. I saw your tattoo when you got off the bike. What does it

mean? The past has no power over the present moment. Onwards and upwards?

Onwards and upwards. And you can find out how Jonny Bosman were

incredible story unfolds at the Commonwealth Games this summer. --

Jonny's incredible story. There is coverage across the BBC on TV, radio

and online. Jason, this is a really intense year

for you. Three big tournaments with the Commonwealth Games bang in the

middle. Hockey is like that nowadays. Only the Olympics is

bigger than this year. I think the Commonwealth Games in Scotland and

the fact that we play Scotland in that tournament makes it feel bigger

than normal. And then you have this captain, Kate, who has been through

so much in the last few years and has told us that this is it, this is

her last year. What is it like having somebody with that kind of

experience in the squad who has been a leader for so long? She has been

captain through so many tournaments. If we were to do the best England

team of all time, she is in it, which reflects how good she is as a

player. Where she is really remarkable is what she does for the

team and the sport in our country. She is as much as a role model of

the pitch as for the young players on it. The team will miss her and

the sport will miss her, to be frank. We loved seeing the bronze

medal in London but the gold medal has eluded her so far. You know,

they are hard to get for a reason and you have to work really hard and

get a little bit of luck, that is for sure. If we want to get a gold

medal, we know when and who we need to beat and we are motivated to try

to win it. Not just to be averagely entertaining. It will be fitting for

Kate if she does go out that way. Fairy tales don't always happen but

it would be nice if it did. You have some new talent coming through in

the last couple of years. These girls are on a journey beyond Kate,

to Rio as well, and the intensity of this year would be good practice. It

is a journey to Rio and beyond now. For most people involved in the

London Olympics cycle, London was very much a milestone event. The

future was not considered so much, which is why in most British teams

there is much more turnover of players and staff afterwards. We are

very much thinking, OK, onto the next year. We talk about 2020 as

much as Rio, making sure the players in the squad can get through to that

tournament as well. The journey beyond London was to grow every

sport, take the legacy and move forwards, and that is what has

happened in hockey. The rankings have improved and the countries that

England now beats are stronger and better than before. After London, a

lot of the team was concerned that standards would drop but we got

better actually. They got into the finals of the European for the first

time in 20 years. Does that add its own pressure? I imagine at the top

the fear of failure becomes more significant. For a long time, the

British hockey teams have been towards the bottom, nothing to

lose. It certainly does change it and we have to work with a mindset

that does not allow us to be like that. Enjoy it? Yes. England's

hockey team led by Kate are genuine gold medal prospects for the

Commonwealth Games. For Wales, much of their hope lies with their young

boxers. Based most of the year in Sheffield within the British set-up,

it is rare for Sean McGoldrick and Andrew Selby to be able to spend

time at home with friends and family. Both learned their craft at

their local gym in Newport and they took boring to do but with them as

they went back to where it all began. -- Ore Oduba with them.

Do you remember how old you were when you walked in through these

doors for the first time? I was about eight when I first came in to

see it. My big brother came down here and he was ten and you have to

be ten to box. I came down there. What were you like as a

ten-year-old? Wild and loose! Throwing punches around. I think

that is pretty accurate. He was stopping people at an early age.

Like a Tasmanian devil? You had to control it? That kind of thing. The

coaches calmed me down a bit. They started making good of my talent. I

am sure you have seen hundreds of boys coming through the doors here.

Was there anything special that you saw the likes of and Andrew? Sean

had the dedication. He really wanted it. Andrew is just a class act. He

has great hands and feet, coordination. The pair of them are

class acts. Is that what you were like as a young fighter, Andrew?

Erratic? Needed controlling? I needed controlling but I used to

lose a lot as I was younger and then I got better. Why was that? I was

fed up of losing! My mum told me to keep at it and I would do well and I

did. Mothers always know best. Yes! I saw his talent. I knew that once

he won a fight he would get the confidence he needed and then every

fight that he won, he got better and better. You have seen his highs and

his lows. Oh, yes. I have seen him very low, saying that is it. Games,

he was low. On days like this, the top and bottom judging scores are

discarded and the middle scores are added up. Selby will have to wait

for the decision. Selby is defeated, the double European bronze

medallist. He said he would not go to the Olympics. I said, what? All

these years of boxing? He sulked for five or six hours, be looking at

him, him looking at me, then he started going jogging. We got back

up and went back into it. Everybody knew that I won that. They called it

a cab back, where we drew on points and I knew I should have won. It was

up to the judges. I chucked my vest of them. -- vest off then. When it

comes to the Commonwealth Games, I assumed that is not the way you want

to finish your Commonwealth career? No. I have improved a lot since then

and I am going for gold. What was it like watching him? Amazing.

Genuinely one of the best experiences. The youngest of the

team. We were not expecting him to get much more than experience. It is

so nerve wracking watching from the ring. You think he is stepping up a

level. You want him to win, not get hurt, box well, so much from the

outside of the ring as well as the inside. I would much rather be

outside than inside! It was really special to me at the time. It was my

first senior tournament and there was no pressure on me. I was just

there to enjoy the experience. It will go to count back. That punch

should have scored. Great from Sean McGoldrick. Battling away. It is

going to go to count back. Well, he has got it. Silver medal for Sean

McGoldrick. It was a strange way that he won the gold medal in Delhi.

I was boxing in the final. I drew the fight and then lost. At the time

the gold medal was not awarded to me. Several weeks or maybe a couple

of months later, the guy had failed his drugs test. Eventually justice

was served and he got banned and his gold medal was taken off him and I

was upgraded. What would it mean to be in Glasgow and to win the gold

medal and to be on the podium and hearing the Welsh national anthem

for you? It would be special but I don't want to think... I am telling

myself that I want the gold medal but I just want to focus on one

fight at a time. That would be pretty special to do it twice. For

you, seeing these guys training day in, day out, then coming back

successfully from these tournaments, you must be like a

proud father. It is really rewarding to see the boys going away to the

tournaments that 20 years ago we could not even compete in. We just

used to compete in the first round and now we win medals. Fantastic. I

can see on your face that you are focused on this. It is a big thing

for me, a lot of pressure. I am ranked high in the world and I have

to prove it to everyone. With the team this year, we have a good

chance of taking the medal haul. I genuinely believe that we can finish

above in the medal tables in boxing and England and Scotland because our

team is that good. -- than England. How was that? Those sessions are

always difficult because they are stop and start. It is a lot of

concentration, especially the corner defence. If you get hit by a ball,

it hurts, so you have to concentrate. This is such a big

year, three major championships. The World Cup, then the Commonwealth

Games. Do you have to keep going up and bringing yourself back down, or

do you stay at one level of intensity? I think this year is the

hardest in awe of the cycles. The World Cup is probably our most key

tournament in hockey but the Commonwealth Games for the public is

huge. It is a case of switching on and then switching off and getting

good at that. Are you going to savour everything this year? Because

that is it, definitely? Yes. Just taking it in and enjoying every last

bit. Some tears along the way? Quite a lot. And not from a stick in the

jaw this time! Just emotion. None of that. Kate Richardson-Walsh has had

a career to be proud of. The relationship she has had over the

years with team-mates and of course her wife have been key to the

longevity and sporting success. For Andrew and Sean, it is the backing

of a coat at the beginning of their careers that has given them a goal,

and ambition. -- coach. And the support that Jonny Bellis has

received has quite simply changed his life and got him back on the

bike. It is a June double bill. We are back on the 29th when we will go

to Durban to meet somebody who could beat one of the big races of the

Glasgow Commonwealth Games. -- could be one of the big faces. This is

where dreams are made! You don't have to be World Champion or Olympic

champion to enjoy your sport. Get out there, participate and do

something. I hope you have been inspired today. We will see you next

time.