Seb Coe

Having said that, I lost both Olympic finals at 800 meters.

So it's not always fail-proof.

It's interesting because the 800 meters, if you look at the development of the 800 meters, there have only been four world record holders in effect of the last 50 years.

Alberto Wontorena broke it in 1975-76.

He held it until I broke it in 79.

I held it from 79 until roughly 1998.

Wilson Kater held it until 2011.

And then, of course, the magnificent David Radice broke it the year before.

He then broke it again in the London Games.

by running gun to tape, still the best single performance at the London Games in any sport, extraordinary race.

And so it's not a distance that the records change hands that often.

Why do I think mine stayed as long as it did?

Look, I never try to oversimplify things.

or overcomplicate them, but I was the product of world-class coaching.

I had a coach, my father, who was, as I said, he was a mathematician.

He was an engineer.

He was very, very process-driven.

And there was no training I did that wasn't measurable.

And because he had a real understanding of endurance, particularly from road cycling and the science of biomechanics and anatomy, that certainly wasn't going to elude him.

But what he was really good at is that he realized that to move to where I needed to move,