Steve Backley: Life After Athletics

10-11-2008 13:32

Specialising in the javelin Steve Backley was a firm fixture in the athletics team of Great Britain for fifteen years winning medals at three different Olympic Games and four consecutive European Championship golds and three consecutive Commonwealth golds.

2004 was his final year of competition for Backley at the Olympic Games in Greece he did attend the games in Beijing but this time from the other side of the fence as he worked for the media. I caught up with him to talk about the Helly Hansen Adventure Series that he is backing and life after athletics.

You are backing the Helly Hansen Adventure Series 2008/09 what is it all about?

Well it’s an adventure challenge there are three separate sports discipline the first being power running, which is about 10k, the second is a mountain bike challenge of about 25k and the third is canoeing, flat water canoeing of 1.5k. It’s a challenge teams of three to enter and you will all have to finish all three challenges and it’s about getting that third person over the line and the distances have been set up so that it is a challenge, it’s not a push over you will have to train for it, and it’s going to be about getting that third person over the line because you have to finish as a team.

I’m looking at doing the last one in march and I’m going to have to train for it (laughs) it’s not the sort of thing that you just enter but I’m really looking for ward to it there are three events left 7th December, 1st February and the 29th March is the final event on Lake Windermere.

And why are you supporting this event?

It’s something that I’m kind of, I retired from javelin throwing in 2004, and it’s something that I have sort of taken on as a lifestyle challenge from the fitness training side, I did a lot of strength and power training for a lot of years and I can’t do that anymore, I had a hip replacement two years ago, and I just wanted to do something to keep me fit so I know jump on a treadmill and do a 5k run or I get on a bike. But doing something that combines the sort of activities that I’m involved with, and being in a lovely location with the support of a great brand, are all the reasons really.

Well that sort of leads me into my next question you are obviously known for throwing the javelin for Great Britain for many years what are you up to mow that you have retired?

I’ve spent the last four years putting fingers in pies, I have too many pies and not enough fingers at the moment, my main thing is I do a lot of motivational speaking I travel around the country talking about the Olympics to corporates about the games and lessons that I learnt that can parallel across to business life and everyday life. I’m big into the whole idea of preparation whether it be from a business perspective or a personal perspective or a sporting perspective into how people to deliver the best possible performance and again that ties into the Helly Hansen challenge.

And how did you get into athletics, I suppose javelin isn’t the most popular choice?

No but them I guess that football blows any other sport away anyway if you do anything other than football or rugby then it’s a minority sport, or by default the way it’s going in this country. But athletics for me is the fundament of human movement run, jump, throw they are the rawest sporting disciplines and I was brought up, as an athlete, as a runner, I wanted to be a middle distance runner, and I watched guys compete in the 1976 Olympics, I was only seven, and I wanted to be an Olympian. Then I became a javelin thrower by the time I was fourteen and that was more of a result of being around athletics and starting to do my javelin.