Chris Boardman

Olympic gold medallist

I rode my first bike race when I was 13-years old.

I always liked to compete but my family didn't let me race at first. But they eventually relented.

The interest was there for me because I could see my own standard rising against the clock and each week I moved forward a little bit more.

Then I started beating other people so that kept me interested.

And as I got older, I began to take it pretty seriously.

I was on the national cycling team from the age of 16, but I was going to the World Championships and getting an absolute kicking.

I then started to slowly claw my way forward even though I wasn't in the medals. A lot of the time I wasn't even qualifying.

But it wasn't until I was 21 that I realised I could win the World Championships. That's when all life began to revolve around this one sport.

And that's where it stayed for the next decade.

Chris had to work hard for his success

For me, being serious wasn't the amount of cycling I was doing, it was more the mental approach.

In my late teens I was cycling around 13 hours a week.

That increased to 16 or 17 hours of event-specific work.

But it was the change from having a laugh with your mates to wanting to win and doing more training and analysing what was working and what wasn't.

My mental ability was my strength.

It was the ability to apply myself to one specific task beyond reason or logic.

If you looked at the odds of who's going to win an Olympic title you probably wouldn't even bother.

But someone has to win. Tenacity was my best asset.

Mental assets

Faster than a car

Career highlights

My mental ability was my strength Chris Boardman