Tom Bosworth: my greatest race

The British record-holder put life on hold to peak at his debut Olympics in Rio but he was stunned when he found himself leading the field and forced to deal with a rapid change to his own expectations

Olympic Games, Rio de Janeiro, August 12, 2016 – 20km race walk, sixth place, 80:13

I came so close to qualifying for the London 2012 Olympics but I felt that was a blessing because it was such an epic Games and I think being part of that might have cost me a bit of motivation. I was very motivated for Rio because my dream was to go to all major championships, and I’d done everything else.

January 1 rolled around and I was just living like a nun. Not going out. Sleeping in an altitude tent. No socialising. I never got to see Harry, my partner. It was just focus on every single day, every little bit of one per cent I could find. 

The season had gone so well. I put away a couple of really fast 5000m races indoors and then records just kept falling in the outdoor season. I finally got the 20km British record in Slovakia in March, too. My time of 80:41 was about two-minute PB, and a big step forward, so I was hoping for a top 20 for Rio. 

I just was on cloud nine: getting selected, going and getting all my kit. Life was good. When happy and healthy, athletes tend to perform. I got to Brazil in that sort of place.

The village was incredible. The race walk course was only 15 minutes away. Obviously, no sensible athlete touched McDonald’s until they were done but, from my room, I could always see the queue. If I saw someone in it, I’d go: “Get me four million chicken nuggets, please, and I’ll be down.” We were in a brilliant location.

I’d become pretty good friends with Mo Farah so we spent a lot of time together because we were racing at similar times, did similar things and drank a lot of coffee.

Race week was all nerves. I had never been nervous before a race because I honestly never thought I’d do anything. Then, suddenly, I was like: “Holy s***, this is the Olympic Games!”

I had nerves in my stomach and I was on start line going: “I think I’ve screwed it up because I don’t feel like I’ve eaten properly. I don’t feel like I’ve warmed up correctly. I feel like I’ve frozen a little bit.”

Then the race began and I tried to tell myself to just get into it and then everything would be fine.

My PB pace was 4:01 per kilometre. I knew I was really fit and I just moved through the group, checked…