The mouse that roared
Dame Kelly Holmes is a massive fan of Laura Muir and believes Tokyo will be the Olympics where the quiet Scot follows her lead to become...
AS QUIET as a mouse, with the eye of the tiger. Dame Kelly Holmes has seen those characteristics create Olympic legends for Team GB in the past and regards them as a prime reason why Laura Muir can join her as a 1500metres gold medallist in Tokyo later this year.
Muir has started the season in the shadow of training partner Jemma Reekie’s surprise successes either side of the Atlantic, but aims to lay down a marker of her own at the Muller Indoor Grand Prix in Glasgow tomorrow by breaking Maria Mutola’s 21-year-old world indoor 1000m record of 2mins:30.94secs.
Holmes, of course, had to see off Mozambican legend Mutola in the flesh to win the first of her two golds when storming to the 800m title in Athens in 2004.
And, although in the latter stages of her racing career at the time, there are evident parallels to be drawn between the athlete that Dame Kelly was ahead of those defining triumphs in Greece, and the competitor that Muir is today.
They know what it is to be bridesmaid, yet never the bride at the very highest level. Muir took silver and bronze in the 1500m and 3000m at the world indoors in 2018.
Holmes had come third in the 800m in the Sydney Olympics and had two silvers and a bronze in her collection from the worlds before her epiphany in Athens.
They know what it is to have injury bring you to your knees in a major championships year. Holmes went through the mill physically and psychologically with leg issues before coming second in the 800m in the 2003 worlds in Paris.
Muir, meanwhile, almost didn’t make it to the start line in Doha last year as a result of a torn calf muscle and still returned fifth in what was a high-octane 1500m final in 3:55.76, just outside her own best.
Yet, for all their similarities, Holmes feels there are stronger comparisons with another two-time Olympic champion when detailing the raging fire beneath the Scot’s low-key demeanour. First on the podium in both London 2012 and Rio 2016, boxer Nicola Adams also learned the hard way what it was to be a challenger rather than a champion, having won silver twice at world level before breaking through. She didn’t shout from the rooftops about her abilities, her wide smile and ‘Babyface’ nickname proving her trademarks instead.
Put Adams in her chosen arena, though, and a lioness emerged, a warrior queen.
Holmes sees much of that hidden spirit in Muir and trusts the pride of little Milnathort in Kinross-shire — the runner who studied to be a vet while making it big — to keep the noise level to an absolute minimum until the moments it really matters.
‘Laura is maybe quite a quiet person, but if you have a look at some of the great fighters, great boxers. They are like little mice as well,’ said Holmes.
‘There’s Nicola, for example.
Yet you wouldn’t want a right hook off her.
‘Laura just happens to possess a quite incredible determination. I am not being funny, but you watch her running and you would never think she was going as fast as that.
‘She’s been quite smart so far. I don’t think she has ever bigged herself up or put herself on a pedestal, and that is brilliant.
‘That is why she can do it in Japan. She’s got that form. She has just got to keep letting the legs do the talking and not the mouth — and perfect the strengths which are already shining through.
‘I never talked about what I was hoping to achieve before Athens, because there is already external pressure — a real pitfall for athletes — and you can put even more on yourself.
‘Laura has beaten those around her and can beat them again, but she has just got to get there first. So let’s just be optimistic that everything is going to be fine.’
Being optimistic, of course, is not always that straightforward. Holmes spent large parts of her career dealing with the demons that arise from fear of illness and injury.
However, the way Muir handled her calf problem before the world championships in Doha in October — picked up three months earlier and a threat to her participation — told her all she needed to know about the Scot’s psychological steel. Muir also fell ill before the event, but was determined to be aggressive and go with Sifan Hassan in the final lap of the 1500m final until the Ethiopian-born Dutch athlete hit the gas and streaked away to record a new championship record. ‘When you get an injury, so many things get into your mind,’ said Holmes. ‘Am I going to get back? Will I get to the right standard at the right time? ‘All athletes have days when you are on the physio bed or it
Laura is quite quiet, but some of the toughest fighters like Nicola Adams are like mice, too
has just gone wrong. It is the champions, though, that cope with these things and get through them.
‘We saw that from Laura last year. She got hurt, she came back and was one of the best in the world. Sure, there were four others faster, but I couldn’t have got anywhere near those times when I was at my best.
‘Her team managed that problem well and kept focused. They seem to be right on top of these things.
‘I also came back and medalled at a championships after being extremely injured, though, so it can be done and that’s about having the heart and belief to go with that natural ability.’
The hell Holmes went through before winning that silver in the 2003 worlds still shapes her today in her new career as a motivational speaker.
She self-harmed during that period, cutting herself to relieve the anguish of injury before, eventually, being diagnosed with clinical depression.
‘A lot of my mentality changed because of the depression I suffered in 2003,’ recalled Holmes. ‘I felt I had been to the lowest of the low and I knew it would never get like that again.
‘In the indoor world championships before Athens, I got tripped and ricocheted down the track. ‘All I had in my head was that I’d fallen, my back was going to be a bit sore, and that I had to sort that and get on with it rather than worrying, which I did.’ Providing the body makes it to Tokyo in good shape, Holmes believes it is Muir’s mentality that will also make the difference for her when the action gets under way. Still considering doubling up in the 5000m, the 2018 Diamond League winner will face a number of talents at 1500m such as Hassan, Ethiopian pair Genzebe Dibaba and Gudaf Tsegay, Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon and American Shelby Houlihan.
Fellow Scot Reekie, also competing at The Emirates this weekend, might make the frame, too, if she can build on the remarkable form that has brought new British indoor records in the 800m, 1500m and mile in the last couple of weeks. Pure ability suggests that any one of several of the contenders could win. That’s where Holmes, who has been in contact with Reekie to congratulate her on emerging as a real elite contender, feels character and desire come into it.
‘When I was running, I was up against Maria Mutola, one of the best-ever middle-distance runners. She won eight titles indoor and outdoor and was a formidable athlete,’ she recalled.
‘You did think to yourself: “Am I never going to beat this woman?”. But, one day, you do.
‘With Laura, there are a handful of talented athletes who have come to the fore at the same time and the best girl will win on the day.
‘That is when it comes to mindset as much as physicality. It is probably more about the mindset. If Laura had been around five, six, seven years ago, she would have been winning every major championships there is.
‘She is already one of the very best athletes in the world. Tactically, she is really astute.
‘Has she got the credentials to be an Olympic medallist? Absolutely.
‘Can she become Olympic champion? If it is in the right race at the right time, yes.
‘Does she have that confidence? Yes. The way she runs exhibits true belief in herself — and coming back from injury to run the time she did in the world championships was incredible. The problem is there are other people who are just as good.’
While a clear medal prospect, Muir is likely to see the media spotlight dominated by the likes of sprinter Dina Asher-Smith or Sir Mo Farah on his return to the track. That may help her, too.
‘At the Olympics in Athens, I think I was quite fortunate because all the pressure, unfortunately for her, was on Paula Radcliffe. People had already hung a gold medal around her neck,’ said Holmes.
‘I was medalling at big events, but was always the bridesmaid and never the bride.
‘I kind of went into the Games thinking that the pressure was all off me and that definitely helped at that time.
‘You cannot get blown away or fazed by the enormity of what a championships is.
‘That’s really hard to say, because the Olympics is the pinnacle of your career and, for some people, it will represent a life’s dream.
‘However, it is just another race at another venue on another date, essentially.
‘Laura has handled the same rivals in races and this is just a different environment. I think she has matured, though. She has learned a lot from racing and in coming back from any setbacks she has had.
‘If she goes to the Olympics with absolute full fitness, she is one of the athletes to beat. Without a doubt.’
DAME Kelly Holmes was speaking to promote the ‘More Than Medals’ programme run by the Dame Kelly Holmes Trust, which recruits and trains elite sportspeople to work with young people facing disadvantage across the UK.
I medalled at a championships after returning from injury so it can be done