Kelly Holmes

thumb|Kelly Holmes in 2004 Dame Kelly Holmes (born 19 April 1970) is a retired British middle distance athlete and television personality. Holmes specialised in the 800 and w:1500 metres events and won gold medals for both distances at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. She set British records in numerous events and still holds the records over the 600, and 1000 metre distances. She held the British 800 metre record until 2021. Quotes "Holmes finds self-belief and double delight" (2004) "Holmes finds self-belief and double delight", The Guardian (August 30, 2004) I don't think I'm coming to terms with it at the moment, I have been looking at my gold medal [from the 800m] every day and tears have been my filling my eyes. I was thinking 'Oh, my God, I've already got one gold medal and I just want this over and done with'. I just wanted to celebrate but I'd focused so much on getting another one. My career has been such a roller-coaster but I just kept sticking in there and I knew in my heart that there was something in there for me to fulfil my dreams. If you had told me I had to run that time to win a medal I wouldn't have turned up, The 1500m has been a psychological barrier for me. I knew I was stronger than I've ever been, but it's what goes on in your head that counts. I knew when I won the 800m that I had to be as confident as possible and that this would be my only chance to do what I have done. Taking on both races was going to be physically and psychologically very demanding so I sat down with the medical team and worked out the best way of recovering. Each morning I would get my protein drink ready, my carbohydrate drink ready and my rehydration drink ready and put them in the fridge. Then I would get my food ready which the doctor would give me when he saw me after the race. I suddenly thought that the first person I would see after the heats was Sally Gunnell when she interviewed me for the BBC, so I sent her a text asking her to bring me a bag of nuts. She did and so I was munching and drinking, and that was good because the recovery process had started. I then went to the warm-down track, had a massage, got on the bus back to the village, had more food and then into the ice bin. I kept to that routine because it felt so right for me to do it and I was recovering quickly which was crucial. After the first heat of the 800m, the races were always around the same time so I stuck to the same routine. I left for the track at the same time, I kept wearing my Team GB dog-tag around my neck and it became my lucky charm, kissing it. When I went to the warm-up track I would listen to Alicia Keys singing 'If I ain't got you' and applied the words to the gold medal I wanted. I sang it as I warmed up and it brought tears to my eyes because I was dreaming of a gold medal. When I eventually got it, I kept the same routine for the 1500m. I cried before I left to run the 800m final because it was either going to be my dream or it would all go wrong, and I cried again before the 1500m - I have been an emotional wreck. I knew I was in the fittest shape of my life but I still needed that self-belief. So I started texting my old coach Dave Arnold because he knows me so well and telling him what times I was doing in the training sessions and he ended up saying it was 'bloody fantastic' and that I had to go for it. External links Category:1970 births Category:Track and field athletes Category:Living people Category:Sportspeople from England Category:Women in sports Category:Women from England Category:People from Kent Category:LGBT people Category:Olympic gold medalists Category:Women born in the 1970s