It’s vital we let the public see the good and bad of athletics

Jake Wightman is back in action after injury problems and bidding for Olympic glory (Picture: Getty)

Twelve years ago, I was lucky enough, as an 18-year-old, to be at the Olympic Stadium for Super Saturday as my dad Geoff, who was commentating on the athletics, was allowed one extra ticket to each session in London.

I had been jealous of my brother, who got to see the 800metres final, won so spectacularly by David Rudisha, and Usain Bolt’s second successive 200m triumph, but in the end I think I got luckier.

The stadium was so loud as Mo Farah stormed to 10,000m gold on the back of Jessica Ennis-Hill’s heptathlon win and Greg Rutherford’s victory in the long jump that I couldn’t hear dad’s voice in the stadium.

It remains the biggest sporting moment I have witnessed and three British track-and-field gold medals was a massive inspiration for an aspiring athlete off to university.

And I remember running into Mo – not literally – while we were both training at Park City in Utah three years later and being so in awe of him. The Olympic Games has always had a special place in my heart.

My mum Susan went to the Seoul Olympics in 1988 and finished 12th in the marathon and in 2008 a group of us were allowed to go out and watch in Beijing. The assumption is an athlete has the perfect career to that point and Olympic gold is the icing on the cake.

But whether it’s Mo (pictured), Jess or Greg, all of them had their problems and setbacks on the way and there is a story behind what got them to that point where they could become the best in the world.

Wightman gets ready for another training session as he steps up his preparations for the Olympics (Picture: Instagram @jakeswightman)

If I have a positive Games in Paris, people will realise there is a back story behind me, too. Last year was a horrible time with injury and I had to sit out the defence of my world title in Budapest.

However, I’m very lucky to have the support of the National Lottery, which has helped me with the best physios and rehab team in the UK and things have begun to turn around, and I now have the chance to banish those memories of 2023.

A Channel 4 film crew in partnership with the Lottery have been following four of us – Josh Kerr, Morgan Lake, Keely Hodgkinson and myself – around for a new documentary about the British athletics team ahead of Paris.

It is an opportunity to show 
who we are as people, as well as who we are as athletes – and that is something we don’t do enough in track and field.

Mo Farah celebrates 10,000m gold on London 2012’s Super Saturday (Picture: AFP/Getty)

In the age of fly-on-the-wall docs like Manchester City’s All or Nothing on Amazon Prime or Netflix’s Drive to Survive, sports need to get their competitors out there and it’s up to us now to show we are more than athletes. People want to see behind the curtain now.

I suppose there’s a bit of pressure on us because people will surely become more engaged with track and field and maybe follow our narratives to France and beyond if they like what they see.

The film crew are with us on and off between now and close to the Games and I felt from the start it’s important for them to see the bad bits as well as the good.

It’s no good just showing people the nice side of athletics – they need to see how hard it is. You have to earn everything in this sport and hopefully I can show that after the year I’ve had.

The British trials in Manchester at the end of next month should give them some intense events to capture as everything heats up for the battle to get to the Olympics.

I’m out in Flagstaff, Arizona, getting in some warm-weather training and the plan is get the Paris qualifying standard ticked off. I hope this year clicks but I realise now I still have what I need to succeed.

I have work to do to get into a position where I can go for Olympic gold this summer but I’m in a good place after backing off a bit last year and allowing the world championships in Budapest to pass, which hurt at the time.

I haven’t rushed my comeback and at my age now – 29 – you do have to be slightly more aware of your body. So it is all positive over here in the USA currently and I can’t wait to be back competing on the European circuit as Paris grows ever closer.

Jake receives funding from The National Lottery, which raises more than £30m a week for good causes including vital funding into sport, from grassroots to elite level. This enables him to train full-time, have access to the best coaches and receive pioneering medical support – www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk