Colin Jackson certainly knows a thing or two about being successful. The Welsh sprint and hurdles icon, after all, is among the greatest to have represented Britain in athletics, having won multiple World and European Championships gold medals in a decorated career and held the 110m hurdles world record for more than a decade.

Given the fact that he had achieved global success at an early stage of his career, winning silver on Olympic debut in 1988 at the age of 21, Jackson is more than qualified to offer guidance to budding talent on the path to becoming a world champion.

‘Make most of what you have’

For the 59-year-old, who has taken up a career in punditry after retiring from athletics in 2003, the primary trait for any young talent – be it in athletics or any other discipline – is “passion”. Budding athletes, after all, may not have access to the best of training facilities in certain parts of the world, even in India, and it is this trait and the ability to make the most of what one has in hand that can make up for the lack of infrastructure.

“You’ve got to have a real passion for what you want to do. I remember being a kid, loving the sport of cricket, and I would have used an umbrella and a piece of wrapped-up paper as a ball to create my opportunity to play cricket, use something that was similar,” Jackson tells Firstpost in an exclusive interaction.

“There’s always some bit of ground that you could sprint on. There’s always somewhere that you could do some hill training on, potentially. There’s always a space for you to work something out, like how you could weightlift, for example. There are things that you can absolutely do to be creative. And when you’re young, because it’s very much part of play, you become very creative,” he continued.

Three non-negotiables for success

Continuing on the topic of young Indian athletes hoping to follow the footsteps of Neeraj Chopra, Milkha Singh, PT Usha and other track and field icons from the cricket-mad nation, Jackson listed three non-negotiables – having fun, getting the right mentors and working hard.

“First thing, you’ve got to have fun. You’ve got to enjoy the process because the process is going to be difficult and nothing that is worth achieving comes easy. So that’s the first thing I’d say. You’ve got to have fun. You’ve got to enjoy it,” said Jackson.

“The next thing is to align yourself with people who are successful and get great mentors on board. People who have been there, had experience before, people who’ve achieved, they will absolutely be more than happy to guide you.

“And then the final one is never forget to work hard. Nothing will come easy. You’ve got to be a hard worker. If you do, the fulfillment that you get will be absolutely wonderful. It’s the best thing ever. Sport is the best thing you could ever do in your life. So embrace all those three things and I think you’ll have an enjoyable career,” he continued.

No regrets over absence of Olympic gold

In addition to standing on the World Championships podium five times – winning gold on two of those occasions (1993 and 1999) – Jackson had enjoyed a red-hot run between 1993 and 1995, during which he reigned supreme by winning 44 consecutive races.

Despite ruling 110m hurdles for as long as he did, Jackson’s career wasn’t exactly a perfect one, with the one blemish being missing out on an Olympic gold. The Welshman, however, doesn’t carry any regrets over the absence of an Olympic gold medal in his cabinet.

“Olympic gold would have been great. It would have been absolutely fantastic. It would have just literally capped off something that had been perfect. But one of the things I kind of believe is that perfection generally doesn’t exist. And excellence is the most important thing.

“And to get 25 major medals in my career, I really, on reflection, can honestly go, ‘Do you know what, I can’t really complain about not getting an Olympic gold medal’,” said Jackson, who had been awarded Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his services to athletics in 2003.

Raising awareness on spinal cord injury

Jackson is also the primary force behind
‘Wings for Life World Run’ – a global charity race organised by Red Bull that has been taking place since 2014, which acts as a fundraiser for the not-for-profit foundation ‘Wings for Life’. The entry fee for this event, which is set to take place on 10 May this year, goes into funding research towards finding a cure for spinal cord injury.

Impressions from the start of the 11th edition of the Wings for Life World Run #wingsforlifeworldrun pic.twitter.com/6zzVNNzGiS

— Wings for Life World Run (@WFLWorldRun) May 5, 2024

“Wings for Life World Run for us is something that’s really important to raise awareness and funds for spinal cord injury. We realise that people get injured doing everyday things. I think lots of times people think you may get a spinal cord injury because you’re doing extreme sports, but that’s not the case. There are loads of everyday situations where spinal cord injuries can happen. And so for us to just raise awareness of that, so people understand the importance of raising funds for it,” said Jackson, who serves as the International Sports Director for the event.

“We have many labs that we associate with research projects that we associate ourselves with. All the funds that we raise go directly to those incredible researchers. We’ve had lots of success already. That’s one of the things that we absolutely enjoy. We see that what we’re doing, all the hard work that we’re putting in, is paying off.

“We give people who suffer from spinal cord injuries hope. And if you can have that hope, then that is just one of the wonderful things. So for us, we will keep doing the work we do. We will keep raising funds. We will keep the awareness going. And we’ll keep supporting great causes,” Jackson signed off.