Most people doing the decathlon these days are quite boring, so people don't relate to them.

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

The decathlon takes so long to learn that people who are good athletes don't want to go back to the beginning again.

Sport and health are so important to our nation that they deserve to be right at the front of people's minds.

Retiring was hard. I'd spent 15 years doing something I loved, but when you get older everything seems to go. When I started spending too long with the physio and the doctor, I knew it was time to call it a day. But I had no preparation for being retired and I didn't know what to do.

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.

Even if you've been involved in a World Cup, the Olympics is huge. Only the Games has the power to change communities.