The 2012 Olympics are happening in the UK right now, and so, every tournament brings us it`s sets of new sport stars, villains, moments of personal triumphs and bitter rivalries. In 1980, the rivalry was between two British athletes. Possibly because the U.S and other nations had pulled out of the games, the focus on these two young men was intense .... for 1980.
I vividly remember my teenage sisters dividing themselves into two camps - Coe or Ovett - and writing the sportsmens names on their home economics schoolbooks. It would never, never happen now .. but these two, back in the early 80s would have shared wall space with musicians and Hollywood film stars on a lot of teenage girls bedrooms.
Rather famous for saying little to the press, the interview with Steve Ovett was the longest he professionally gave. Recorded around the height of the drama between the 800 and 1500 finals in which Steve had beaten the favourite Coe in the 800, and Coe had beaten Steve in his top discipline the 1500 metres. They rarely ran in the same race - Coe had a stipulation written into his contract to avoid racing against Ovett if ever possible.
Although not included in this interview, Coe took the 800 metre loss badly "the very worst 800 metres of my 20-year career" as he recalls .. his father, was a bit more blunt.
"You ran like a cunt."
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