Learn To Love It

14 JAN2011

In my job as a sports journalist (writes Chris Broadbent), one of the great privileges is actually meeting some of the UK's and indeed, the world's greatest sportsmen and sportswomen.

As well as writing for southernrunningguide.com and reporting on the regional running scene, my role has taken me to Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and multiple European and World Championships.

Often when interviewing an athlete, journalists will spend their time probing to find out what makes that person so unique, almost as if they are a freak. Sometimes the writer has success, Usain Bolt's incredible stride length and Ian Thorpe's enormous feet spring to mind.

But more often that not, winners are actually quite normal people. In my experience, most are not freaks of nature with massive physical advantages. Quite simply, they just love what they do and that means they train often and they train hard.

The perfect examples were presented to me as interviewees the other week at the launch of BMW London 2012 Performance Team in Greenwich. Yorkshire brothers Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee are the two of the finest triathletes in the world at the moment.

If you bumped into them on the street, you wouldn't believe they were at the very elite end of one of the world's most challenging sports. They have no bulging muscles or square jawlines to speak of, they are two of the most regular lads you could ever wish to meet.

On the same day, I also met diving superstar Tom Daley, sprinter Mark Lewis Francis and Olympic gymnastics medallist Louis Smith, but as a distance runner myself, I was most looking forward to meeting the endurance specialists the Brownlees.

The perfect examples were presented to me as interviewees the other week at the launch of BMW London 2012 Performance Team in Greenwich. Yorkshire brothers Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee are the two of the finest triathletes in the world at the moment.

If you bumped into them on the street, you wouldn't believe they were at the very elite end of one of the world's most challenging sports. They have no bulging muscles or square jawlines to speak of, they are two of the most regular lads you could ever wish to meet.

On the same day, I also met diving superstar Tom Daley, sprinter Mark Lewis Francis and Olympic gymnastics medallist Louis Smith, but as a distance runner myself, I was most looking forward to meeting the endurance specialists the Brownlees.