Jamaican-born former British sprinter Linford Christie explained why he never thought of representing Jamaica during his years as an active sprinter.
Christie was born in Saint Andrew, Jamaica and during his early days, he was taken care of by his grandmother. where he was brought up by his maternal grandmother. When he was seven, he relocated to England to reunite with his parents who had moved five years before.
He spent all his life in England and went to school at the Henry Compton Secondary School in Fulham. He realised his athletic talent after competing at the London Youth Games in 1997 and later on joined the Air Training Corps in 1978 where he took athletics seriously.
Channel, Christie explained that he never learnt how to run when in Jamaica, one of the main reasons why it never crossed his mind to go back and maybe don their jersey at a championship.
“No, it was never something that crossed my mind because I learnt to run in England. If I had learnt how to run in Jamaica, I would have run although I could never lose because Jamaicans always won and Jamaica was British back in the day. It was just one of the things…it never really crossed my mind to run for Jamaica,” Linford Christie said.
Representing Great Britain has earned him great praise and he is the only British man to have won gold medals in the 100m at the Olympic Games, the World Championships, the European Championships and the Commonwealth Games.
He won gold medals at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games and the 1992 Stuttgart World Championships. Linford Christie is also a three-time European champion, titles he won at the 1986, 1990 and 1994 European Championships.
The 64-year-old also won three Commonwealth Games gold medals, winning the 100m and 4x100m relay titles at the 1990 edition of the event before claiming top honours in the 100m in 1994. He became the first European athlete to break the 10-second barrier in the 100m and held the British record in the event for close to 30 years.
Linford Christie is also the former world indoor record holder over 200m, and a former European record holder in the 60m, 100 m and 4x100m relay.
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At the time he was retiring, he had won 24 medals overall, more than any other British male athlete before or since. The legendary sprinter also had challenges in his career as he tested positive for a banned stimulant in 1988 during the Seoul Olympics.
In 1999 he was suspended for two years by World Athletics after the banned substance nandrolone was found in a test, although he had been effectively in retirement since 1997.
He also made milestones as a coach, with his two athletes, Darren Campbell and Katharine Merry, winning Olympic and World Championships medals.
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