Greg Rutherford

Gregory James Rutherford (born 17 November 1986) is a retired British track and field athlete who specialised in the long jump. Quotes I knew I was in great shape. My team are incredible and I have the most amazing parents and beautiful girlfriend in the world. I've got a pretty good life, I cannot lie. Everybody has worked so hard for me. I thought I was going to jump further than that, but I don't care, I'm Olympic champion. What a night for British athletics - three gold medals. I can't thank everyone enough. This is what I have dreamed of my whole life and to do it in London is just incredible, I might wake up in a minute. Greg Rutherford wins Olympic long jump gold for Great Britain, August 04 2012 This is what I have dreamt of my entire life. What a night for British athletics – three gold medals out of a possible three. I got to see my folks in the crowd. I don’t think it has sunk in properly. I knew I knew I was going to be a sportsman and when I picked athletics I knew I wanted to be Olympic champion – I might wake up in a minute. I thought I was going to jump further, But I am Olympic Champion, so who cares? Rutherford: ‘This is what I have dreamt of my entire life’, August 05 2012 Over the years, I've had torrid luck with things going wrong, And then here comes London 2012 and everything goes right. If I sit back and think about it, or watch any of the footage, I still get emotional. As it stands, it defines my life. It's the crowning glory and everyone associates me with it. But my bad luck has been ridiculous at times. It's an interesting one, I think the issue was that we had 29 gold medallists at London 2012 alone, without the Paralympics, and we're in an economic slump. It's business, so I'm trying not to take it personally. We're trying to revisit it with Nike as a way of getting my shoes sorted. Ultimately, I jump in their shoes and my feet are used to them. It was a real shame but it's also been a catalyst for me. I'm doing it myself now. I thought I'd be clever and refer to Newton, As a jumper I try to defy gravity as long as I can. But no matter how far I jump I'll always hit the earth eventually. Ultimately the clothing company is a large investment on my part and I'm taking a huge gamble. But having a focus away from the track is good for you. It was one of those fairytales where everything came together when I needed it most. People said: 'Oh, you came out of nowhere.' I'd say: 'Hang on – I've been jumping at this level for seven years and I've been a world top 10-ranked athlete most of my senior career.' It was hopefully going to happen at some point. I was just lucky it came together in London. As soon as I started moving down the runway for my first jump the crowd got louder and louder in anticipation of the take-off. They were in a frenzy because of Jess. I remember thinking: 'Wow, that's loud!' and before I knew it I was at the board and I ran through. I had to draw on my experience and refocus. The second round I jumped 8.21 and was in the gold medal position. I then had three decent jumps and on the last one I'd already been announced as Olympic champion. I probably shouldn't even have attempted that one because I was on the verge of tears. I was looking for my parents and then I heard Dad's voice. I ended up jumping into the crowd. I get emotional even now talking about it. I've had 30 hamstring tears, Before I joined Dan Pfaff [Rutherford's most recent coach until they stopped working together earlier this month] I was averaging five a year because my jumping technique was terrible. Since Dan changed my technique I've had one bad tear – in January 2012, which I kept quiet. But you always go through injury when you push your body at the highest level. Tonsillitis was also a chronic issue until 2009 as I was getting ill every six weeks. On the morning of the 2008 Olympic final I woke up with severe tonsillitis and had to compete through that. The next day I was taken to a Beijing hospital in an ambulance. It turned out I had lung and kidney infections with tonsillitis. I don't do things by half measure – and that's why London meant so much. I lay in bed for three and a half hours – staring at the ceiling. I was worried that if I went to sleep I'd wake up and discover it had all been a dream. I'd won Diamond League events but nothing could match that moment. It was absolutely out of this world. At about 5.30am I got up, got dressed and walked around on my own. It was quite peaceful but at the same time it was funny because people who had finished their Olympics were rolling in, half-cut or even worse for wear. I went to the dinner hall but didn't eat much. Ultimately the gold medal was the one thing I'd wanted my whole life and I'd got it. As much as I went into that final wanting to win, in the back of my mind I thought something was bound to go wrong. It always does for me. So when it went right it was hard to absorb. The last few weeks things haven't been going massively well for me, I had a pesky knee injury where there was fluid around a couple of tendons. I'm also still recovering from the hamstring injury I picked up at the Diamond League meeting in Paris. It'll be tough to see my competitors out there, but I'm working as hard as I can to be ready for the world championships in Moscow. All being well, we'll get it sorted. I'll only be 33 in 2020 so if I'm still jumping well and I've got the same passion there's no reason to retire. I'd never want to retire on a low. I want to go out with a bang. Only if the Rio Olympics and London 2017 [at the world championships] go incredibly well would I consider retiring because I have a different hunger now. It's no longer a case of proving everyone wrong after they all used to write me off. It's still not easy but I want to prove that my Olympic win wasn't a one-off. I don't want it to be the defining moment of my life forever. I want to achieve a lot more before it finally ends. Greg Rutherford: 'Here comes London 2012 and everything goes right', July 22 2013 It was a swipe, I seem to be the ‘luckiest’ athlete around – and that’s one of the most frustrating things. You compete against a vast array of people and train your whole life for those moments. When it finally clicked in London it was after seven years as a pro. Yes, the distance wasn’t so exciting [his winning jump of 8.31m was the shortest victory leap in an Olympic final since 1972] but the previous one had been won in 8.34. I wasn’t jumping like Carl Lewis but I still won an Olympic title. Everyone said it was a fluke, a one-off. 2013 was a bad year but in 2014 I won two major competitions in 17 days. People still say: ‘Oh yeah, but he only did this …’ It’s annoying – especially when people with influence and power say it. I’ve had it my entire life. Even before I really started no one said I would make it. But I always had belief. I take my three dogs for long walks every day and I use that time to talk myself through winning every major competition. I set myself distances I want to reach. I basically commentate and rehearse winning. I’ve never finished second in my head, ever. I love major competitions, Before London I said as long as I’m fit and healthy I have a great chance of winning the Olympics. I went in as world No1. Same as last year. As long as next week is the same I have a good chance of winning the worlds in Beijing. It’s lessening. People say never search your name on Twitter because you’ll see horrible things. But I do and I see people who don’t like me. But interestingly some now say, ‘Oh, Greg won again … he wins a lot now.’ That’s a change. But a lot of people still say: ‘What do you do between Olympics? Do you get a job?’ Seriously. That shows the sport is lacking massively. I’ve not been funded since 2012. Medical support has been offered but even that has lessened this year. I have a [10-month-old] son now. I need to think about paying the mortgage. Medical support was readily available after the Olympics but even that’s diminished greatly. It’s very frustrating and I get very angry. It’s like saying: ‘When you do very well you are not allowed to earn too much money. So we’ll remove a certain section.’ That puts you in a position where, in the months that you’re not competing, you have to be creative as to how you earn money. It’s not like I’m poor but I feel annoyed about the way the medical support has been cut away too. I have been paying for my own medical treatment the last 18 months. It’s very frustrating when you ask somebody at your national governing body to help and they say no. They will say we have a medical outlet in Loughborough – but a three-hour round trip for me means any medical work will be undone by the time I drive home. It doesn’t make sense. I know other athletes have access to home treatment – they are covered by UKA. I find that very annoying. It’s as if your national governing body is more of a hindrance than a help. Absolutely. But the worst thing is that after I jumped really well in Stockholm, a couple of weeks ago, an email comes through [from UKA], saying: ‘Does Greg need anything?’ You want to turn around and say: ‘Come on. You’re three weeks away from a world championship. I’ve had nothing offered all year. Now it looks like I am a medal chance you want to help me?’ I politely refused. I don’t think that’s right. It’s a problem that needs to be addressed. The worlds are exceptionally hard and there are some really good jumpers out there. Mike Hartfield [second behind Rutherford in the Diamond League standings] is one while Marquis Dendy and I have traded blows this summer. He got me in London, I got him in Stockholm. The main guy to watch is Jeff Henderson. He’s jumping really well in America with an 8.52 and an 8.50 [Rutherford’s personal best is 8.51m]. But [Aleksandr] Menkov the defending champion [from Russia] and Jinzhi Li, the Chinese athlete, could also have had really good training blocks. The IAAF needs to do a lot more on the issue. I also feel that countries which have systematically doped need to be confronted. Craig Reedie, the president of Wada [the World Anti-Doping Agency] came out the other day and said there would never be sanctions against countries which systematically dope. You think: ‘You’re saying it doesn’t matter that they breed a nation that dopes?’ Sadly that has happened in Russia because the amount of people who had failed [drugs tests] is staggering. I’m sorry. You can’t turn around and say that was just the athlete. There has to be something more sinister going on there. To then turn round and say you can’t do anything? That’s just turning a blind eye.”Is the long jump “cleaner” than most disciplines in track and field? “I like to believe it is clean now. You have to be careful not to say people have cheated in the past. It would be wrong to say that just because they jumped further than me. But over time you see clusters of people jumping exceptionally and then things drop off. I’ve had the pleasure of jumping against Ivan Pedroso, Dwight Phillips and Irving Saladino – they were phenomenal jumpers who still did not produce anywhere near the distance of others in the past. The long jump is not where it once was and I don’t believe that’s because of a dip in talent or training methods. It’s wrong, Mo kills himself and trains so hard. Look at people throwing wee and spitting on Froome because a doctor went on French TV and said what he does is not humanly possible. When it’s [Alberto] Contador nothing happens. Contador goes down with clenbuterol and says it’s contaminated meat. People say: ‘Oh, it’s Contador so it’s OK,’ but if it’s a Brit winning? He’s spat on and has wee thrown at him. There are problems in the IAAF – not just with doping but the way they run athletics. [IAAF officials] are quite happy to sit in Monaco on a huge pot of money but when it comes to investing in the sport it’s not happening. If they pumped some of it back into athletics we’d have a sport people want to watch. We don’t have that. They quite happily travel around in first class and stay in expensive hotels. The IAAF earns a lot of money. Where is it going? It’s not dead, but athletics has changed again for me. I’d fallen out of love with it after all the criticism I took in 2012-13. But last year was great and I’ve got so much to achieve. I want the long jump to be my sole focus. At least I can say I’ve had three runs down Lillehammer at 100km an hour on a tea tray. If I could do that it would be the perfect end to my athletics career. But to then become the first Briton to win summer and winter Olympics? Maybe after Rio next year I might give the skeleton a go again. To become a double summer and a winter Olympic champion would be some story . Greg Rutherford: ‘UK Athletics is more of a hindrance than a help’, August 17 2015 External Links Category:1986 births Category:1980 Category:Track and field athletes Category:Living people