Darren Campbell: Passion Personified

Sport is a powerful entity. It captivates crowds, encapsulates viewers and has the power to completely change lives. The thing about sport is that it traverses all levels of the social strata, it is not limited to a specific class.

For this reason the archetypal rags to riches stories always prevail, those who have overcome inequalities and broken through boundaries to stand on top of the world and say 'I am the best'. These are people who not only have the raw talent, but live and breathe sport. Darren Campbell exemplifies this.

A man who not only lives and breathes sport, Darren also uses his success and winning mentality to reach out and help others realise their potential. Coaching aside, his role in the Sky Sports Living For Sport programme helps to boost the confidence of young people, so they aspire to achieve as he did as a youth.

As a young boy growing up in the notorious Moss Side area of Manchester, Darren looked like being another statistic of kids in deprived areas being failed by a system which promised to alleviate their difficulties. Sport was his way out.

"For some people it's the only way out," says a reflective Campbell. "My best friend was murdered when I was 17 and I just remember thinking 'what a waste of a life.' If I was ever fortunate enough to realize my dreams, I'd have to do my best to make sure that no other young person ends up in this situation."

Now 37-years-old, Darren's sprinting days are behind him, but his infectious passion for sport is ever-present. He pinches himself when he looks at his home, a shrine of hard work, dedication and pushing yourself to the limits. It is a house which is in stark contrast to the small dwelling he lived in with his mother and sister on the estate.

"I used to walk past the big houses on the way to school and think 'I'm gonna have that and I'll get that the legal way.'

"No one ever knew that when I was running because I didn't want anyone's sympathy. It gave me the opportunity to start again, allowed me to harness and channel some of the things that I learnt on my estate to help me in sport."

Campbell is a firm advocate of using life experiences to his advantage, something he tries to instill not only in the young people he mentors, but in the elite athletes he helps coach. It was drawing on these experiences that he believes won him a 200m silver medal at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.

Reminiscing on a race in which he was pipped to the gold by Greek sprinter Konstantinos Kenteris, Campbell takes solace in his performance, suggesting it was down to his ability to deal with the high pressures of an Olympic final.

"I knew that when I went into the cold room [with the other seven athletes], that they were more scared than me, even though they were faster than me. I've got real life skills.

"When I used to say that I never get scared on the track, that's because I know what real fear is. Being stopped five times a night by the police, that's scary, being in a nightclub and you hear gunshots, that's scary. Running from there to there, what's scary about that? I think the key thing is that I know about me, so what's there to be scared of?"

Four years later and Campbell made it to the top step of the podium, alongside team mates Jason Gardener, Marlon Devonish and Mark Lewis-Francis, after one of the most nail-biting relay finals of all time.

While his team-mates were reflecting on their unbelievable achievement, Campbell was thinking about his journey to the dizzy heights of Olympic champion.

"The night I got that Olympic gold I realised that it wasn't actually about the gold medal, it was about the journey that I'd been on. It was the fact that something had given me belief that I could amount to more than just living on my estate. I could amount to more than just being in a gang.

"I think for many young people the scariest thing is being the first to step away and do something different, which for me meant moving to south Wales when I was 19."

It was breaking away from a lifestyle threatening to subsume him, which lead Darren on a pathway to glory. He'll be the first to admit making mistakes, making wrong decisions as he progressed through the ranks of the juniors and into the limelight of elite athletics, but it is learning from these mistakes and using these experiences which made Darren not only a great competitor, but now make him the perfect mentor.

Looking ahead to the 2012 Olympic Games in London, Darren is a firm follower in the power of belief and highlights the importance of the home crowd as part of that idea. Referring to his successes during the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, he knows just how important a crowd can be.

In 2002 Campbell picked up a bronze in 200m and gold as part of a victorious 100m relay team, at a time when he hit a low point. "I wasn't in great shape, I'd been injured all of 2001, I broke up with my partner, who I had my son with and didn't think that I'd get the opportunity to run in Manchester, my home town.

"It was one of the few times that I didn't think that I could do it and the crowd gave me that belief to perform.

"If there's 70,000 people in the stadium, 65,000 people will want you to do it and that's a great thing. Boxers talk about it all the time, being in an arena and feeling the will of the people. If you embrace it instead of being afraid of it then you will perform to another level."

For now though Darren is relishing the opportunity to give back to something which changed his life. Pointing to the current crop of talent, he wants to help inspire and mentor the next Jessica Ennis, Philips Idowu or Dai Greene and change their lives the way athletics changed his.

His passion will always be there and through a broad smile he finishes by saying "I'm always going to be a part of sport in some way shape or form, you just may not know it's me."

The Sky Sports Living for Sport Student of the Year awards encourages schools across the UK to nominate pupils whose involvement demonstrated how sport supports students in developing skills such as confidence, respect and a sense of achievement. For more information please visit: http://livingforsport.skysports.com/