Colin Jackson on winning the race for healthy eating
As a former world champion hurdler, Colin Jackson has always been trim and fit. But appearances can be very deceptive and – as shocking as it may at first sound – during his racing days, Jackson was suffering from an eating disorder. It’s fair to say Cardiff-born Jackson, now 52, had a glittering career as an athlete – successes included an Olympic silver medal, becoming world champion twice and going undefeated at the European Championships for 12 years – yet his fuel tank was virtually running on empty much of the time, as a result of the disordered eating he was secretly battling. He’d go for days without meals, or eat, then make himself sick.
Jackson – who recently hosted the Qube Awards, a ceremony run by training provider Qube Learning to celebrate the merits of apprentices and trainees who’ve overcome challenges to succeed and feel proud of themselves – still holds the world record for the 60m hurdles, and his 1993 record for the 110m hurdles (12.91 seconds) stood unbeaten for almost 13 years. The athlete-turned-bbcpundit is now open about his eating disorder. “I suffered with bulimia and anorexia when I was training for the Olympics – I felt like I was overweight and eating too much. I had a job to do – and it was to run as fast as I could and I convinced myself that I had to be lighter to do it. Most days, I was on 800-900 calories and training flat out, I would drink a coffee but go for days without a meal. I wanted to be the best, and being lighter was what I thought was the way to be that.
“It was all done for tactical reasons. I wanted to weigh less, so I’d be sick or eat a lot less than what’s required to sustain a normal healthy body. My appearance didn’t come into it, I never thought about it, it was more from a functional aspect. I do look back on photos now and see how small I was.”
Ironically, Jackson reckons he would have been a better athlete if he hadn’t had an eating disorder.
“I would have had a lot more energy and trained a lot better,” he says. “I was fatigued and couldn’t see past what I felt was the right thing to do at the time. On reflection, I would have been an overall better athlete and a lot happier with myself if I hadn’t suffered with bulimia and anorexia.”
Happily, he eventually beat the condition. “I’m free from having an eating disorder,” he says. “As soon as I retired, there wasn’t the burning necessity to change to compete. I found it easy to stop there and then, it lifted a pressure from me that perhaps I hadn’t noticed before. It’s a hard thing to look in on when you’re in that situation yourself.”
So does he have advice for anyone showing signs of having an eating disorder? “My advice would be to stop and ask yourself: ‘Is this good for me, am I healthy?’ It’s easy to say this now I’m out the other end, but I do encourage people who suffer with an eating disorder to stop, don’t do it, don’t criticise your appearance, love yourself, be confident and believe in your abilities. And ask for help, don’t feel alone, reach out to people close to you.”
He adds: “I never doubted my ability. I was confident and overcoming barriers was never difficult – as long as I was truly self-motivated and stayed committed, I knew I could do it. I’m an advocate of challenging oneself. Don’t give up, it’s never too late to learn, believe in yourself and see how life-changing it can be. You can do it.” n For more about Qube Learning, see qube-learning.co.uk; information and support around eating disorders, see can be found through UK charity, Beat, beateatingdisorders.org.uk