Richard Whitehead: my greatest competition

A British para-athlete recalls his T42 100m European title in Grosseto in 2016.

Tthe europeans were a few weeks before i turned 40, but i’d only been sprinting since about 2010, so i think my athletic age was still pretty young. I haven’t really had a lot of injury problems.

I felt like I had a lot of small gains to build on and a lot of areas to improve on – whether it was sports science, nutrition or just sheer strength on the track. It was a challenge not only for me, but also for my coach and my team.

The hard work I put in to get to the 2016 Paralympics helped me win the 100m as well as the 200m in Rio.

Grosseto was a great prepared race. I wanted to go out with guns blazing. Everyone said I was a very slow starter. Because I have longer levers, you can get really tight in that movement pattern and it affects forward movement, forward propulsion and maximizing speed.

My strength and conditioning coach Dave Jackson and I worked tirelessly at Nottingham University on the indoor track doing 10m, 20m, 30m push-ups, but it’s never easy on a 40-year-old to get fast-twitch fibers going. To do that and really get those one-on-ones to work was really hard.

The people I trained with on the track were people I knew could push me through the first 10-15 meters. I have a straight leg so no knees. The levers that I have to propel my body through are much larger, so I have to drive my arms and legs in this trajectory that is more aggressive.

I’m a pretty well built, big guy and it’s good to have muscles, but it’s about trying to use them effectively. With my deadlift in the gym, I’ve been chasing really fast movements to get those hips going.

When I was competing over 200m there was an expectation that I wouldn’t be taken down, but I wanted to have that in the 100m as well – to be able to explode to the finish.

First there was the 100m heat in Grosseto and I was the fastest qualified for the final with 12.46. My legs felt really good.

I’ve always been an athlete who likes to feel like my glutes and hamstrings are fired up and ready to burst out of the blocks with instant power. My coach, Keith Antoine, always wanted me to perform in the heat, not on the coast, because when you go into that fight, you don’t want to reach, you want to know that the time is at your feet.

I made it to the finish and felt really confident. I had a game plan in my head around the block explosion. I really try to stay as low as possible for those first 10 or 15m, then slowly ease into my run, keeping form as best I can and not being tight for the last 50m.

There was a false start. It was so minor and I went out with it too. I went for the gun. When I wear my glasses, I’m very aware of space, so it comes from the movement of his hands. I pushed back and the light came on at that point and I realized it was a wasted push, but it was strong, like a strong deadlift.

That gave me a lot of confidence and then I went out and had the perfect race. Three days later I also won the 200 meters. I thought, “This is how I want to do in Rio.” The 100m wasn’t a personal best, but it was very close to the world record.

I know a lot of times when I give talks or presentations I bring up this race to show that when the going gets tough, you don’t just let things happen – you make a difference and try to change people’s perceptions of what can and it cannot be possible.

Winning the 100m in Rio didn’t happen. There was a false start in the final and my energy levels were affected and I took silver. I had to win this race. I expected to win the 200m anyway, but I wanted to do the 100m and 200m because in 2012 I was seventh in the 100m.

To come back four years later and try to win it when I was nowhere near London would be amazing.

I pushed myself to the limit and was really happy with my season in 2016, but in Rio after winning the 200m, the 100m was just a step too far. This is athletics. Sometimes you can have all the tools, but if you can’t use them effectively, especially at 100m, one little mistake and your race is over.

I had some great opportunities, one that slipped away isn’t something I really look back on, but after having such a great year, a lot of the other athletes were expecting me to come away with another double gold.

» For information about the Richard Whitehead Foundation visit white head.base

» This article first appeared in November issue of AW magazine