Family Man Phillips Sees Silver Lining in his Olympic Silver

Phillips Idowu, much-criticised for his eleventh hour decision to withdraw from the Commonwealth Games due to security fears and a desire to stay with his family, has found a solution to a situation that will have struck fear through the hearts of British athletics.

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The 31-year-old reigning world and European triple jump champion, as well as a former Commonwealth, world indoor and European indoor gold medallist, has discovered that the day of the final of the triple jump at next summer’s World Championships in Daegu in South Korea coincides with his daughter, D’Karma’s, third birthday.

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“I’ve never missed either of my two children’s birthdays and I never will,” he insists, says the family man who withdrew from defending his European indoor title to be present at the birth of his son, Prince, last year. Yet, unlike the Commonwealths and the European Indoors, the World Championships is one meeting he definitely does not want to skip. “I want to go into the 2012 London Olympics as the best triple jumper in the world so that means going to South Korea and defending my world title,” he explains.

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So what is the man with the many coloured hair and facial studs to do? “The family’s going to come out to South Korea with me and on the day of the triple jump final I’m going to spend the morning celebrating D’Karma’s birthday, and the evening nailing the gold medal.”

British athletics, on a high after a successful European Championships and Commonwealth Games, will breathe a collective sigh of relief, even if some may have reservations over Idowu’s domestic plans on his biggest professional day of 2011.

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“If D’Karma was at home all I’d been thinking about was her having a birthday party and me not being there,” Idowu adds. “She’d be missing me and I’d be missing me. I wouldn’t be in the best frame of mind to go out and win another world gold, that’s for sure.”

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Idowu, alongside heptathlete Jessica Ennis, who also has world and European outdoor titles to her name, is the most successful British athlete still plying his trade, and should lead Britain’s assault on track and field honours inside London’s near-completed Olympic Stadium in less than two years’ time.

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Yet this did not make him immune to widespread criticism after he announced, via twitter, that he would not be travelling to Delhi just a week before the Games began, and despite attempts by his manager to change his mind.

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Today he remains unrepentant about his decision, but insists it was one not made lightly. “I was desperate to go and defend my Commonwealth title,” Idowu explains. “I was on a high after winning the European title in Barcelona and I kept on training hard in order to go to Delhi and take the Commonwealth title. I was in excellent shape and ready to claim another gold medal. If I knew I wasn’t going to go I would have stopped training in August and rested.

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“At the end I had to sit down with my family and discuss the pros and cons of going and we decided it would be best if I stayed at home. With me family will always come first. People are entitled to their opinions but I was a little surprised by the backlash I received by not going to Delhi.”

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Questions over Idowu’s hunger to win may have been raised by his Commonwealths decision but there is little doubt that the man remains hell bent on going one better in 2012 than the silver medal he won at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, a resulted for which he was highly criticised for, and indeed highly critical of himself about. Two years on and the man is thankful for what winning silver has done for him.

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“I have learnt to love that silver medal and it is because through a silver medal there has been a silver lining,” he says, taking a break from playing some basketball, his initial love as a small boy, with the British team at Crystal Palace the other day (see relevant photos).

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“Two years’ ago I came home distraught by failing to win the gold I should have taken after dominating the triple jump throughout the season up until Beijing.� But I was taken aback by the love and support I received on my return home from family, friends, fans and sponsors, people I thought I’d let down. I wasn’t expecting it and it made me revise my views.

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“Perhaps more importantly it made me really hungry to succeed. I’d been criticised for being inconsistent up until that point, and for failing to emerge from the shadow of Jonathan Edwards. Well, winning that silver changed everything.

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“It really hurt to come second. It’s a feeling that will live with me forever and one I have vowed never to experience again. It’s also fuelled my flame. From that point onwards you’ll see I’ve won everything, and in every different styles too. In 2009 I dominated the season and took the world title but this year’s not been so good, but when it mattered at the Europeans in Barcelona, I won again. It proves that I can go to a major championships and win, no matter what’s gone on before.�

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“Everything I’ve achieved since Beijing I see as stepping stones to 2012. The Olympic final will take place two miles from my home in Hackney yet I’ve not seen the stadium for a long, long time now and will not, either, until I walk in there to compete.

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“If I’d won gold in 2008 I very much doubt I would have had the motivation and desire to go on for another four years. The silver has made gold in 2012 possible and I very much expect to take this opportunity.”�

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Phillips Idowu is Fuelled by Lucozade Sport – Supporting British Performance. Find out more at www.lucozadesport.com