Sometimes you have to resist working on your strengths in favour of your weaknesses. The decathlon requires a wide range of skills.

Having the ambition of becoming Olympic champion is a whole different ambition from wanting to be the greatest.

I was in the doldrums for a while after my athletics career ended in 1992. I spent six to eight hours a day training, for 18 years, and it took a long time to get over the regret that I wasn't competing in major championships any more. All I ever wanted to be was the best. But I find new projects and I keep things in perspective.

People tend to like an athlete's performance, but if you don't get a feeling for the individual, you're not very emotive about them.

There's no day when I don't think it would be great to be 25 years old and have the Olympics coming in less than 300 days - and be the best in the world. I can't think of anything so motivating.

If you work hard in real life, people tend to get in your way - either from inertia or prejudice - and they stop you achieving things. It's the worst thing about real life compared with sports, where you generally get what you deserve: if you're the fastest guy, you win; there are no other games being played.

It's good to be difficult to know. Too many people are too easy to know.