The Big Interview – Greg Rutherford

Greg Rutherford speaks to sportindustry.biz about life after the podium and his work with Asda Active, a new initiative from the supermarket to Get Britain Moving. 

Tell us about your involvement with Asda Active?

It’s something that I thought was a great idea when I was approached. Asda Active, in short, is about getting Britain moving, that’s the premise behind the initiative. They have partnerships with two very good charities, one of which is a programme I am very close to, SportsAid.

Through their involvement with SportsAid they’re getting 50 aspiring athletes who are breaking through to the national teams – Olympians and Paralympians – to help set up sports days with primary school kids. There’s going to be 400 sports days going on this summer and that’s going to be helped with the athletes’ involvement. The idea is to get people active. 

Asda surveyed 2,000 parents and a huge percentage were very keen to get their children involved in sport, but just didn’t feel there was enough opportunities out there. So in response, Asda Active is trying to get these sports days up and running and getting people involved again. 

From my point of view I think it’s a great idea, the legacy is obviously something that was talked about a lot and ultimately it comes down to getting the next generation of children involved and excited about sport. And if parents are concerned that there isn’t enough access to these kinds of activities then it is something that needs to be looked at. 

As part of the partnership with Sports Leaders UK, Asda Active is giving children the opportunity to gain sports coaching qualifications, allowing them to then go back to their local community and get even more people involved. Which is exactly what we need to keep the momentum going.

As an athlete, have you noticed a change in attitudes towards participation in sport – particularly in athletics – since the Games?

Certainly from what I’ve seen, I think clubs in general have been inundated with people wanting to get involved and become the next Jessica Ennis or Mo Farah. I think the main issue is that, because a large quantity of coaching is volunteer based, there’s just not been enough coaches available to take on the influx. 

In that sense, I’ve been very fortunate. I’m from Milton Keynes Athletics Club, which has a huge structure with hundreds of children, and they have the coaches that have been able to cope with it. They’re funded well, and we’re even called Marshall Milton Keynes now thanks to a new sponsorship deal, so that’s great, but a lot of the other clubs don’t have that, which is a problem. 

We’re seeing places where children want to go and be active, but there just isn’t the resource. We do risk missing the boat there if we don’t get the infrastructure in place where coaches can take on these kids that are all so excited by what they saw last summer.  

A few months back you gave a very honest interview, dispelling the myth of the mystical life-changing gold medal. How have the last twelve months been for you off the field?

It’s something I’m still dealing with every day and figuring out to be honest. I think people will just assume that if you are on the tv and winning things like an Olympic title that all of a sudden you are a millionaire and having a great time, but it doesn’t work like that at all. People have noticed that I’ve been doing a lot of tv shows and things like that; well that’s purely to try and keep the ball rolling. 

It’s not been as easy as I thought it would be post-Games. I gave eight-years of my life chasing this Olympic dream, and it finally came true after a disappointing time in Beijing. 

Don’t get me wrong, I had the best time I could possibly have had in London, and then was the time where I thought ‘right, life is going to change now, I’m going to be rich.’ But I think that was a naivety of mine, I’ve been involved in the sport professionally for eight years and even I thought that was how it was going to be, so you can’t blame the general public for thinking the same. But it hasn’t been great…

The Nike deal in particular would have been very frustrating, but it did present you with an opportunity to go ahead with your new ‘GRavity’ range. Is that something you’d like to develop more, and possibly progress with post-career?

Yes absolutely. The thing with Nike was that there was an offer on the table, but it put me in a position that I just couldn’t accept. It was not feasible and very restrictive. For instance, I wouldn’t have been able to be here today. That is why that wasn’t acceptable. 

The GRavity idea is something I’ve had for a couple of years and is something that I thought I could possibly develop if my career went the way I wanted it to, which was very exciting. 

What I need to wait for now, once it goes live, is see what people’s responses are. If the public like it and get behind the brand then that gives me the opportunity to expand it into something big. If they don’t, then I’ll just have to realise that I’ve invested into something that won’t work! 

But it’s something I’m very excited about and think could be fantastic. I’ve spent a lot of time making sure it works properly and looks right, and spoken to a lot of people to see what they would want from it.

All being well, it should launch within the next couple of weeks. It’s a nervy time, but the advantage I have is that I’m still an active athlete, so anything I think is needed on the market I can then work on and develop with the team. We get to create something that is quite exciting and I’m hoping can change people’s views of sport kit. Some of the major brands have done a great job in turning it quite fashionable, and that is a direction that we really want to take it.

You’ve had to pull out of this weekend’s Anniversary Games in London, obviously I’m sure you’re disappointed, will you be going to watch? 

I’ve basically been thinking about this competition all year and it’s one of the big ones I really wanted to be a part of. It’s an opportunity to go back into the Olympic Stadium in a Diamond League scenario, as well as a chance to compete in front of that incredible home crowd again. I’ll be honest I am absolutely gutted that I don’t get to have that. 

It’s something that has really hit me hard as well because I had a feeling I shouldn’t have gone to Paris even before I went there to compete, something just didn’t feel right. But I decided to go. It’s a tough one for me anyway because obviously if I don’t compete then I don’t earn at the moment, that’s the issue I’m in. 

It was also a Diamond League meet, which is great prize money to be honest, but ultimately I tore a hamstring, which takes me out of trials and now the Anniversary Games and also puts the World Championships in doubt. It’s heartbreaking.

Will I make an appearance? I might do something around it, but I don’t think I could sit in the stadium. 

You famously cheered on Mo Farah trackside this time last year…

That was an incredible moment. Not only was he a good friend, but he is also one of Britain’s greatest ever Olympians, so watching him cross the line at a home Olympic Games to win a gold medal in that fashion was amazing as an athletics fan.

I was already shaking after what had happened to myself, so it was absolutely exhilarating to watch another Brit come through and win a gold medal as well. 

Beyond London 2012 last week rewarded a number of local projects who had used the spirit of the Games to drive social change in their communities – have you noticed a change?

I think everybody remembers where they were during certain moments of the Games, and everyone still speaks so fondly about the whole experience, so I think being able to harness that enthusiasm and use the Olympics to move their ideas forward is a great thing. Everything that surrounds getting people involved in sport and building that community spirit, it’s what the Games is all about. 

I’ve definitely seen a huge change with a lot of pop-up organisations and venues come off the back of London 2012. Even in my hometown of Milton Keynes, the amount of people that want to do sport has been huge, so it’s fantastic to hear that projects and organisations are being rewarded.