Giles is a walking miracle
ELLIOT GILES was walking through Heathrow Airport on Saturday morning when a young boy, spotting his Great Britain tracksuit, asked him for an autograph. Giles happily obliged. ‘Can I ask who you are?’ the boy then enquired.
This is not unusual for Giles. When he won a surprise bronze medal in the 800 metres at last month’s European Athletics Championships, his rivals had no idea who he was either.
Their coaches noted a phenomenal burst of acceleration that enabled the 22-year-old from Birmingham to get himself out of trouble before chasing two world-class Polish athletes down the home straight.
But runners of considerably more experience were stunned by the emergence of a British middledistance runner whose raw ability might just make him an outside bet for an Olympic medal.
Matt Yates, a former European indoor champion who is now coaching Giles, certainly thinks he is a ‘special talent’.
Giles had not been hiding. He is just emerging from three years of injury hell that reached its nadir when he was involved in a serious motorcycle accident in July 2014 that left him with temporary brain damage and a knee so badly mangled that he first had to learn to walk again before making a tentative return to running last year.
‘The accident happened in the centre of Birmingham,’ says Giles. ‘I had my brother on the back and we were sideswiped by this car turning left. I don’t really remember anything.
‘My memory of the accident only really comes from what my brother remembers and what I’ve seen on the CCTV footage. But I hit my head on the kerb and my leg was trapped between the car and the bike.
‘I was in hospital for three weeks and the rehab after the accident. Virtually learning to walk again was tough.
‘My knee had been crushed and it was collapsing every four or five steps. It was quite funny actually because I went through a phase where I developed this really funny dance move. My knee would collapse and I’d go with it.’
A sports and education student at St Mary’s University in London, he was also forced to drop back a year in studying for the degree he now hopes to complete next summer.
‘There was some damage to my brain that meant I couldn’t read or write for a while,’ he says. ‘And when I did start to read again I’d have to read things four or five times because I was unable to retain any information.’
One might ask what such a talented athlete was doing riding a motorbike in the first place?
‘I have a bit of a problem when it comes to speed,’ he admits, having ridden his motorbike around Europe only last summer. ‘But I’ve parked the bike for now and drive a car instead.’
Giles has certainly spent far too much time watching from the sidelines, his catalogue of injuries so extensive he keeps them on a file called ‘Elliot’s disastrous injury profile’ that goes back to November 2011 when he suffered a stress fracture of his left tibia and soon afterwards damaged his right Achilles tendon.
‘That was the beginning of the injury rollercoaster,’ he says.
His list of injuries is astonishing, with issues repeatedly resurfacing with his calves, hips and knees. He was so unfortunate, he was unable to compete for three track seasons between 2012 and 2014, which made his victory in the British Championships in June similarly remarkable.
‘After the issues I had at the start of the year, I honestly didn’t think it would happen,’ he says. ‘I got very emotional at the end.
‘I wasn’t emotional about winning the race. I was emotional about the journey I’d been on up to that point.’
Giles is reluctant to make any predictions of his own.
‘After everything I’ve been through, I’m just delighted to be going to the Olympics,’ he adds.