Express & Star senior reporter James Vukmirovic speaks with former Olympic, European, World and Commonwealth champion Linford Christie about his visit to JLR in Wolverhampton, what he wanted to share with people and his own experiences
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00:00Hello, I'm Joseph Mirovic and this man needs some instruction but I'll give him one anyway.
00:05This is Linford Christie, Olympic, World, European and Commonwealth Champion all at the same time.
00:09We're here today at JLR for Black History Month.
00:13So, Linford, tell me a bit about what you're doing here today.
00:15You just said, I'm here at JLR for Black History Month, which I think should be more than a month.
00:20You know, it should be something that's celebrated all year round.
00:23Yeah, I'm here meeting the workforce, meeting the people that's behind the scenes.
00:29Have you had a chance to have a proper look around and see what you've been doing?
00:32Well, not this morning, I just arrived.
00:35But I went to one of the other car manufacturers' shows this morning and it was an eye-opener.
00:42They've got 5,000 people and it's 300 acres.
00:46You walk around and you see that the car starts off in a different way,
00:50different places, where different shapes are going on.
00:54And you're here to talk to the workforce, obviously.
00:57What's the sort of topic of discussion for today?
00:59Well, what we're going to do first, we're going to do a Q&A,
01:01which rather than me talking and telling people what I, you know, about me,
01:05they can ask the questions.
01:06Because maybe if I tell them about me, maybe that's not what they want to hear.
01:09They ask the questions they want to ask.
01:11And so, yeah, I mean, it's just to give them a little more insight into what I did
01:17and maybe how I got to where I got to.
01:20And a lot of people may have seen the recent documentary that you did
01:24and they will have heard about your struggles with the establishment,
01:28with everything that's happened going on, all the sort of conjecture about yourself.
01:31How important is it for you to talk about your experiences
01:33and the importance of not just black history, but black lives in general?
01:36Well, you know, the thing is, like, you have to, in order to be something,
01:40you have to go through something.
01:42And I think if I didn't have struggles, maybe I wouldn't have been as successful
01:45as I am or I've been.
01:48And I think that's one of the things, you know, to talk about that,
01:51to show people what went on behind the scenes,
01:54because normally they see the finish button.
01:56They see me when I'm running races and winning,
01:59but they don't see sometimes how hard I train, you know, like I said,
02:03the things I have to go through in order to get to where I got.
02:06So, yeah, I mean, it can, I suppose, resonate with some people.
02:11Maybe some of them are going through struggles themselves.
02:14And so for me to come through the other end of it,
02:16then they realize there is life.
02:18Maybe even 32 years later, after winning in Barcelona,
02:21your name still carries weight today, doesn't it?
02:23I'd like to think so, you know, if you say.
02:26But it's, as long as it's in the right way.
02:29I mean, you know, again, like I say, I mean, I just try to tell people
02:32that with hard work and dedication, you can be anything.
02:36You can be anything you want to be.
02:38I mean, I came from Jamaica at the age of seven.
02:40And, you know, gosh, we lived in two rooms and there were six of us.
02:43And so therefore, you know, you work hard and you get yourself out of it.
02:48So, and if I can do it, I'm trying to tell them anybody can do it.
02:51Just believe in yourself.