RUNNING CONVERSATION MATT HUDSON-SMITH
THE TEAM GB 400M STAR AND WORLD CHAMPS SILVER MEDALLIST CHATS TO RW ABOUT ‘LACTIC FRIDAYS’ AND OLYMPIC AMBITIONS
ONE of the brightest stars in the GB team heading to the Paris Olympics this summer, Matt Hudson-Smith will be looking to go one better than the brilliant silver medal he brought home from the World Championships last year. Hampered by a serious achilles injury in the build-up, Hudson-Smith was just unable to hold off Jamaica’s Antonio Watson on the home straight in Budapest. But fully fit and super motivated for Paris, the 29-year-old from Birmingham will be one of our strongest contenders to take gold on the track. If he does, the most decorated British athlete in European Championships history will become the first British man to win a global 400m title for 100 years.
Hudson-Smith is not just an inspirational figure on the track; his openness around his mental health journey has added another strong voice to the conversation that is helping to bring the issue out of the shadows. We caught up with him to hear how he fell in love with running, what makes the 400m athletics’ toughest event and why he recommends therapy to everyone.
RUNNER’S WORLD: Is it true that as a youngster you had to make quite a tough choice between football and athletics?
MATT HUDSON-SMITH: ‘That’s right. I played football from when I was four years old, and I played for Wolverhampton Wanderers aged 10, so I got pretty good, but then I made the decision at around 16. It was quite hard, to be fair, as football was my first love and initially I did track just to help with my football – to help with my speed and fitness. I made the decision at 16 because, number one, I kept getting taken out by other football players; and two, I fell in love with the track. I fell in love with both the process – the grind – of track, and with having the power to change my own destiny. With football you have to rely on 10 other players, whereas on the track it’s solely on you. In football, you can have the best game in the world but if someone else messes up you can still lose 6-0, but I like the idea that if I mess up on the track, it’s on me. And of course if you win, you get all the glory!’
RW: What was it about training for the track that you liked so much? Was it the structure, the formula?
MHS: ‘The training is fun, mainly because you have a group with you; you have some of the best training partners in the world with you and you’re all going through the grind with each other. So yeah, the structure of it is fun, this pattern of doing something that you love every day. Not many people get to work doing something they enjoy every day, so I try to enjoy it as much as I can.’
RW: What led you to focus on the 400m?
MHS: ‘I think I kind of got conn
