The former European 400m champion explains why he chose to be so honest in his autobiography and how he hopes his story will help others
Iwan Thomas was never one to take the easy option. In fact, he used to go out of his way to make life difficult for himself. An example? Rather than park directly outside the Southampton track at which he trained, the former European 400m champion would instead drive up to the nearby ski centre.
Why? Because that way he would have to walk further and also come down a staircase of 76 steps to get to the track. More importantly, though, he would have to struggle his way back up those steps after his session, usually throwing up somewhere along the way.
In his mind, this was another way to push himself that bit harder, another way to make his already aching legs burn even more intensely, another thing that his rivals – particularly his British team-mate Mark Richardson – would not be doing.
“I used to get asked: ‘Why did you park there?’” Thomas recalls. “I used to lie and just say it was more private up there but, the truth is, I knew Mark Richardson would finish his session at Windsor and then get to his car or go back to the nice indoor warm-up track, get a massage then go home.
“I knew when I’d finished [training] I’d be sick. 40 minutes later, I’d finally be able to get my kit back on and then have to walk 76 steps back up to my car. My legs would be screaming but I knew that, maybe with the exception of [1992 Olympic 4x400m bronze medallist] David Grindley, no one trained as hard as me.
Iwan Thomas (Mark Shearman)
“Maybe it was stupid parking at the ski slope but it gave me that little mental edge. When I’d line up and I’d look across to my rivals I’d think: ‘Yeah, you want it, but you don’t want it as much as me because you’re not an idiot who parked at the top of a ski slope. That was just [one of the] things I did to help myself.”
Thomas now admits that this philosophy of all-out attack, all of the time perhaps did the exact opposite in the long run. He is in reflective mood as he chats with AW, the purpose of the video call to talk about his new autobiography, Brutal. It is a searingly honest account of someone who took on everything, everywhere all at once – whether that be with the aim of winning his father’s approval, earning a compliment from his demanding coach Mike Smith or challenging for the greatest titles in a sport he has been able to fall back in love with but, for a…
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