Colin Jackson

“When you are young, you don't worry about it. But when you get older, you realise the grief you have caused yourself.”

“I think I'm naturally irresponsible because when I was a young athlete I was successful quite early in my career and everything came too easily to me. I soon found that if I was out with 10 people for dinner in a restaurant, I would be the person picking up the bill. It would happen often and I liked the power of it.”

“Everyone makes mistakes - you must learn how to deal with them.”

“I remember my grandmother, Maria Roslyn, very well because she used to visit us in Wales when I was growing up. She was born in Panama, but later travelled to Jamaica where she met and married my grandfather.”

“To avoid false starts you need to work on your discipline and wait for your triggers. And if you start doing false starts you're putting yourself under pressure, and that's the last thing you need. You've got six or seven other guys up against you, so you don't need to give yourself extra things to worry about.”

“People have got to remember that for the 400m hurdles you need the lot; the endurance of a middle distance runner and the speed of a sprinter.”

“Being down on my knees is painful and I have to be careful with twisting and turning. But I still work out, I still go to the gym and do yoga and Pilates because I don't want to give in to it.”

“I've been to Toronto several times and I would say that my best holidays have been there. I love it as a city, particularly because you can enjoy the North American lifestyle without the hassle you can get in the U.S.”

“I always think the best way of motivating yourself is to put yourself in a situation where you feel like you're belonging to something.”

“You know, if you want to go out for example, you're always checking and making sure whether the pollen count is super high. I always slightly freak out if I haven't taken my antihistamine tablet, and things like that really do play havoc with you.”

“Although Jamaica and Panama are great places to visit I could never call them home.”

“I can't even explain the feeling of coming off the blocks because I never think about it. It's natural. I don't analyse it that way.”

“Every day as an athlete, I would perform with injuries and then hobble into bed but then go out the next day and do it all again.”

“I've had seven operations on my knees already - four on the right knee and three on the left knee.”

“Athletics really was my secondary sport, cricket was my first love.”

“I'm a big fan of South Wales, but North Wales isn't too bad either.”

“When people ask me about improving their diet, usually the answer is that they eat too much and they drink too much. Serving sizes and alcohol intake are two things people can reduce pretty quickly.”

“I spend the longest time moisturising my body; I get through a tub of whipped body butter every six weeks.”

“I'm afraid I'm not really interested in starting off someone's career and trying to turn a nobody into a someone.”

“Because I've had to travel so frequently through work, I've also learnt how to be independent, and how to pick up aspects of different lifestyles.”