My Perfect Day: Dame Kelly Holmes
Winner of two gold medals in the 2004 Olympics, Dame Kelly Holmes took time out from her charity work to tell walk about a few of her favourite things…
Where would you like to wake up on your perfect day? Franschhoek, near Stellenbosch, in South Africa. It has the most stunning landscape I’ve ever seen: all kinds of vegetation, vineyards and amazing flowers. The only thing is that I’m not really a fan of wine, so that aspect is wasted on me.
Where would you most like to go on holiday? There are so many places. I like mountains and lakes – and we’d need to throw in a log cabin and make it somewhere sunny.
Do you have a favourite walk? I like to do a lot of hiking, especially around the Peak and Lake Districts. I went there a lot in the army when I led expeditions. I just like to strike out in the fells. I’m really into rock climbing and I’ve been up Stanage Edge [in the Peak District]. Britain is definitely a place I want to explore more now that I have more time.
What’s your perfect evening out? It would have to be a Tina Turner concert.
Have your medals changed your life? I’m still the same person, though I’m more relaxed than I’ve ever been. Winning those medals is a weight off your shoulders. It was my dream to become an Olympic champion, the only thing I could ever think about.
How did you adapt to retirement? When I won my gold medals, I thought, ‘OK, now what?’ I realised I needed to rebuild my life. I’m lucky I’ve had lots of opportunities and the chance to balance my skills and priorities in a way I haven’t had to do before.
What’s been the best piece of advice you’ve been given? Never stop believing you can achieve what you want. A lot of people have skills and aspirations, but getting there is hard and it’s easy to give up.
What’s been your biggest sacrifice? I like lots of sports, particularly martial arts, but when I became a full-time athlete all that had to stop. Athletics became my life.
Any regrets? I don’t regret anything. I didn’t see as much of family and friends as I wanted but that’s changed now. There would be some things with training I would probably change if I did it all again but nothing else.
What are you most proud of in your life? It has to be the gold medals, but only in the sense that I’m proud that I believed I could do it. I kept going even during the bad times – and there were an awful lot of them.
Who are your heroes? Nelson Mandela – he’s just a god, to be honest. As a girl, I watched Sebastian Coe win at the Los Angeles Olympics and I was just caught by the fact that there he was at the pinnacle of his career. It was a fairy tale when he gave me my gold medal at Athens.
What did your army experience bring to your running? Confidence, discipline and a tough exterior. I had to deal with a lot of elite lads who gave me the ‘Who the hell are you?’ attitude when we met. I took a load of them off on a three mile hill run one day and said that if I beat them they’d have to do 5am training for three weeks. I bided my time at the back and passed them all near the finish line. I didn’t have any problems after that.
Could you ever be a couch potato? I’m a workaholic, but I need my holidays to refuel and I like to lounge around as much as anybody. I need that time to switch off and put things into perspective.
What are you up to now? I work with a range of charities and also have my own – the Dame Kelly Holmes Legacy Trust. The idea is to use retired sporting champions as mentors for people who may have encountered disadvantages. We try to make them realise they have more skills than they think.
Visit www.doublegold.co.uk to find out more about the trust’s work.
