‘I feel like I am more popular as a pundit than an athlete’
➤ Lutalo Muhammad charmed BBC viewers during coverage of the taekwondo but is aiming to be back on the mat in Paris
When the taekwondo concluded on Tuesday, there was a palpable flatness across social media as it dawned on viewers that Lutalo Muhammad’s punditry stint for the BBC was over.
Britain’s two-time Olympic medallist has become the TV breakout star of these Games. As the nation fell in love with the excitement of taekwondo, Muhammad’s smooth tone of voice and authoritative style, some eagerly pointed out, was perfect for a slot on Cbeebies Bedtime Stories, the children’s TV show where heart-throb actors Tom Hiddleston and Bridgerton’s Rege-jean Page have soothed parenting bedtime routines everywhere.
A warmth and eloquence balanced with his measured assessment of Britain’s opponents and demonstrations of taekwondo’s repertoire of kicks endeared him to viewers, and – out of nowhere, Grazia magazine noted – “Lutalo Muhammad partner” and “Lutalo Muhammad wife” started doing the rounds on Google searches.
“I feel more popular as a pundit than a taekwondo athlete, which is so surreal,” laughs the 30-year-old. “I have seen some of those tweets. It feels like a massive blessing right now. I’ve seen those reactions, and it makes me feel very happy and proud that I was able to represent my sport well.”
Despite some disappointments, the exploits of Britain’s taekwondo team in Tokyo are likely to ensure the nation’s blossoming pedigree in the sport, with Bradly Sinden and Lauren Williams winning silver medals and Bianca Walkden another bronze to add to her medal from the Rio Games.
Muhammad’s punditry magic, though, helped to bring it all to life on screen.
He proved the perfect antidote when Walkden, a three-time world champion, agonisingly lost her semi-final in the dying moments, having experienced similar heartache in Rio when a spinning hook kick to the head in the last second of the match snatched the gold medal away from him. Watching his colleagues, he says, has whetted his appetite for Paris 2024, having missed out on Britain’s solitary quota place after a year hampered by injury.
“Mentally, physically and spiritually, I’m the best I’ve ever felt and my body is in the right place to attack these next three years,” Muhammad says. “I still feel like my best work in the taekwondo ring is ahead of me, not behind me.”
He has, however, made peace with the idea that gold might always elude him.
Stepping onto a taekwondo mat aged three under the guidance of his father and lifetime coach, Wayne, spawned an early obsession for the Olympics, with the young Muhammad plastering his bedroom wall with posters of iconic black athletes, including British sprinter Linford Christie and Michael Johnson. Now, his mentality has shifted.
“I used to feel like the gold medal is always this mythical thing,” he says. “I felt like I needed that gold medal to complete myself.
“But what not attaining the gold medal taught me was that I was complete without it, and I’ll be complete with it. I don’t need the gold to be complete. If I do get it, it’s a massive bonus, but I’ll be perfectly happy if I don’t.
“It’s that weird equilibrium. Maybe it’s called maturity. The gold medal represents something different to me now.”
Muhammad will be 33 should he be selected for his third tilt at the Olympics at Paris 2024. Conscious that he is entering the latter stage of his career, he has already turned to the likes of basketball veteran Lebron James and American football’s Tom Brady, the oldest player to contest a Super Bowl aged 43, for inspiration.
But it was Sarah Stevenson, Britain’s first Olympic medallist in taekwondo who won a bronze medal at the Beijing Games in 2008, who he idolised growing up and who he credits for the eight Olympic medals Britain has claimed in taekwondo since.
“Sarah’s always represented that pioneer status to me – she was a key part of why we even got to where we are now in the first place,” he says.
“We’ve almost seen a British renaissance of taekwondo in this country and it’s so bizarre – this Korean martial art is huge in Britain – and we’re so good at it. I don’t think there’s a better time to be a taekwondo athlete.”