Mum would rather I had my leg back than gold medals... but I wouldn’t
AN ASTONISHINGLY FRANK INTERVIEW WITH PARALYMPIC SPRINTER JONNIE PEACOCK
JONNIE PEACOCK was chatting with his mother recently when the conversation took a heavy turn. Would he trade? Would he give back all those medals if it meant he could take back that leg?
‘ We had different answers,’ Peacock says. And then a long pause. For the runner, aged 24 and on top of his world, it’s a hypothetical deal he can resist.
Life on one leg is just about all he has known and two Paralympic 100 metres gold medals have feathered the nest. They certainly softened the falls.
But for his mother, Linda Roberts, the memories are too painful, too real, from carrying her little boy into hospital in his Power Rangers duvet in 1998, to being told there was a high chance she would never take her five- year- old home again. He got there in the end, but not before the meningitis took his right leg below the knee.
‘ I spoke to my mum about this not that long ago and even now, after all the good things inn the last few years, shee said she would swap it if I could have two legs and not go through what I went through then,’ Peacock says.
‘She said she would do anything she could to go back. I think it was obviously harder for her and my dad and my sisters because they knew about this awful thing happening — they were told there was a chance they might never take me home, a high chance.
‘A few days later they were told they probably would take me home, but the doctors had no idea what state I would be in.
‘For me, I wasn’t old enough to understand, so I guess I wouldn’t change things. That’s what I said to my mum. I would be interested to know how fast I might have been able to run with two legs. But I am enjoying it now.
‘I always say, ‘‘Give me the other leg when I get to 40 and the real life struggles start to hit me’’. But right now it has given me some amazing opportunities.’
From those opportunities have come incredible wins. He was the Paralympic T44 champion of London at 19, champion again in Rio four years later and the winner of a world crown and two European titles in between.
The goal now is the IPC World Championships in London in July, where he will be the face on the posters and the surest thing in a British team loaded with goldmedal prospects. He is the fastest in his classification this year by almost 0.2sec, and it is telling that his 2017 best of 10.76sec was a source of irritation.
‘It was actually pretty rubbish,’ Peacock says. ‘It was my second fastest ever (his personal best is 10.68) but I made mistakes. Trust me, from what I have been doing in training, I know I can go a lot quicker and that is why I was frustrated. The goal for London is to piece it together.’
London has been the be-alland-end-all since Rio. ‘It is probably a bit more important to me than Rio was,’ he says. ‘This, really, is where it started.’
His prime memory of September 6, 2012, four months on from his international debut, is simultaneously hazy and vivid.
‘I always go back to the same point in the final, about 60 metres in,’ he says. ‘I don’t remember almost any of the race before that but I really clearly recall this feeling of mad panic when I realised I was winning.
‘Suddenly I had this Deirdre Barlow neck, veins everywhere. As soon as I crossed I thought no one was there and then I was panicking again waiting for the board. I was thinking, “This is taking forever, did someone get me on the line?” Ah, it was horrible. And then just immense, immense happiness.’
Behind him was big, brash world record holder Richard Browne and tragic trailblazer Oscar Pistorius, who, less than a year later, was facing murder charges.
‘I was as shocked as everyone waking up to that,’ Peacock says. ‘It is incredibly sad — a lot of lives have been affected by it. He was the first face of Paralympic sport.’
THESE days the figurehead is Peacock, who is also an outspoken advocate for the Paralympic movement.
‘I’d like to see more of our events included at Diamond League meetings,’ he says. ‘We are selling out entire sessions at a big football stadium for these worlds. The product clearly works. But organisers don’t seem to see it that way half the time.
‘The situation is improving and they are including a few events at Diamond meets, but it is usually before the TV coverage starts. If we are selling 50,000 tickets for a session here, then surely they will sell more tickets by including it in good spots. The sport wants new ideas, this is there for all to see.’
So is Peacock, thanks to a sad tale with an ever-improving ending.
Channel 4 will show live coverage from the World Para Athletics Championships across Channel 4, All4 and More 4. The live action will be on Channel 4 from 7 to 10pm most evenings, while All4 will be live from the Championships most days between 10am and 1pm.