NARRATOR: You’ll hear an interview with Allison Curbishley. She’s a professional athlete, and she’s been a
member of the British team at two Olympic Games.
ALLISON: My name is Allison Curbishley and I do 400 metres and 400 metre hurdles.
INTERVIEWER: What about, I mean…um…on a typical day, if you can have a typical day, what would…how would it
start?
ALLISON: Um…well, if you take sort of at the moment, what we are now sort of coming into the season
in…in… May…um…which is pretty much a hectic time for us, training is pretty intense. Um…I’d
get up, I’d train round about…I go down to the track about nine. Um…we, you know, Coach would
always, say, be at the track for about nine for ten, which would mean nine o’clock we’d be there to
warm up, takes about an hour…um…and would be ready to run and start the session at ten, this is
if we’re on the track. And the session would usually take sort of somewhere in between half an hour
and an hour and a half, depending on what we were doing. Um…and then it would be a…a
gradual warm-down, stretch, have lunch straight away…um…replace all the…the lost energy, and
then basically the rest of the day is pretty much…um . . . We might have another session to do later
on in the evening, which would be a light circuit, or, you know, er…if we’ve done a heavy session in
the morning we might just rest. Um…and it’s a very easy-going lazy day for the rest of the day.
Uh…we try, I mean, I try and keep myself busy. I read, I, you know, I love listening to music, and
obviously TV and what . . . It just depends where we are, and you just keep yourself busy. And, you
know, the group that I train with is very social, so we often spend time together, we love sitting
around in coffee shops in Bath, you know, that’s what we do, that’s what we spend our time doing
most of the time.
INTERVIEWER: Work hard, play hard?
ALLISON: Well, this is it, you know, we’ve basically got to spend the afternoon…uh…doing very little, because
you’ve got to conserve the energy for the training session the next day.
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INTERVIEWER: Do you think there’s still that attitude in Britain or overall that…um…it’s the winning that counts,
it’s not the playing?
ALLISON: Yes, yeah, definitely, and I think…but I also think that, you know, as an athlete, you’re in the wrong
because, you know, I don’t think any athlete would settle for silver if they had the chance of gold.
Um…I think in general, yeah, the journalists do kind of take…they can’t seem to see any good out
of coming back with a silver medal from a…an Olympic Games. They don’t see that as success they
see it as a, you know,…pretty much a failure.
INTERVIEWER: From where I’m sitting even to be at the Olympic Games would be…er . . .
ALLISON: Oh, yeah, isn’t it!
INTERVIEWER: . . . I mean, what was it like at…?
ALLISON: Oh, I mean, it was…er…it was very good for me because I’d gone as a…as a…um…relay member,
and so there wasn’t the pressure on me as an individual athlete, and I was sort of eighteen at the
time. And…and, you know you just I think just the feeling of stepping out onto the track on the
sort of second last day just to compete in the . . . I’d been there the whole…I’d gone three weeks
preparation with all the team, just to do that one relay leg at sort of pretty much the end of the
Games. And it was quite…um…it…it was awesome, it really was. I never got frightened, which I
thought I would, I thought I’d get very very nervous, but I just got excited. And you walk onto the
track, and walk down the home straight and, you know, there’s like a crowd of 80,000 people.
Um…and the noise is…is just…just phenomenal, oh, it really was. And it’s just, there’s very little to
describe…there are very few words that can describe the feeling that you, you know, you feel, just
running down the back straight, and…um…you know, passing the baton on to the next . . . But I
mean there was big relief…sigh of relief once you’ve passed the baton. But, you know, it
was…and…and…it was just great for me to sort of experience that as a first major, then to go on to
Athens sort of last year, and sort of pick up from there, you know, it was . . .
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INTERVIEWER: What do you really love about your job?
ALLISON: Um…I love the feeling of a successful training session, I love the feeling of a successful
race…um…and of achievement full stop. I mean, there’s…um…last year, which was my most
successful year…um…in which I gained two championship golds: um…one at European level and
one at World Student level. And there’s nothing like sort of standing on a podium watching the
Union Jack going up, knowing it’s for you, and listening to the National Anthem. You know, no
matter whether you are patriotic or not you…you get a buzz from that. Um…you know, I…I love
the travelling…um…although we don’t see a lot of the countries that we go to we see pretty much,
you know, a 400-metre track looks the same wherever you are. Um…but it’s nice having the
opportunity to sort of taste different cultures and…and sort of . . . And, you know, I’ve been to so
many more countries that I…at the age of sort of 21, 22 than I could ever have dreamed of. You
know, and I…um…I just…I…I…I like coming back and relaying it to my parents, who haven’t been
able to travel with me, and have just been there on the other end of the phone, you know. And it’s
nice to be able to make them part of it. Um…I love the socialising, the social aspect of it. I’ve made
some…you know, all my best friends are part of my sport now, although going through University
and…and friends at home that I’ve grown up with, it’s nice to have sort of the…the friends that
bring you back down to reality, and . . .
INTERVIEWER: What do you not enjoy so much?
ALLISON: Um…obviously when you’re injured, it can get you down, you know, you…you’re not doing what
you want to be doing. You…you know, somebody is actually stopping you from doing something
that you love. Um…and there’s the worry of now it’s full time for me, you know…um…what do I
do if I did get injured, you know?
INTERVIEWER: I’m just thinking of what att…human att…attributes would make a good sports person.
ALLISON: You’ve got to be confident, you’ve got to be selfish, you’ve got to be . . . Uh…but team work is just
so important, and although, yeah, athletics is individual…um…you’re constantly out for your team.
You’re constantly looking out for . . . A training group’s a team, you know. Um… wherever you are,
you know, you…you are part of a team, nobody ever neglects the fact that you are individual, and
leaves you on your own, you know, there’s always somebody there, just you yourself and your coach
that…that partnership is a team.
Um…I keep saying selfish, you have to be very selfish. A lot of people don’t like to admit that but
you do. You are very very selfish and purely because, you know, if you’re not getting sleep, the food
that you need, the…you know, your training’s going to fall to bits, you know, if you need to be in a
perfect condition to turn up at the track for training, to turn up at the track to race.