After mental health struggles contributed to his premature retirement from top level athletics, former Olympic hurdler Jack Green talks about how he is now using the lessons he learned to help others excel.
Jack Green is in his car heading north to Loughborough. Departure was delayed slightly by his daughter’s lunchtime nap over-running following a morning trip to Whipsnade Zoo, but he still has plenty of time before his evening’s engagement as a keynote speaker to the latest cohort on the British Athletics Futures Programme.
The 34-year-old has done plenty of this kind of thing. Since giving his first keynote speech exactly a decade ago, he estimates that he has delivered talks to more than 500 organisations. Usually, the clients are big businesses or corporations, so it is nice to have a rare chance to speak to the people who he considers his own; those hoping to follow in his all-too-briefly trodden footsteps.
Public speaking is a common assignment for retired sportspeople, offering those who reached the pinnacle of their field the chance to earn some money for sharing the wisdom they learned along the way. The reason Green has done so many is that he is better at it than most; he has a lot more to say.
During his running career, he made two Olympic 400m hurdles semi-finals and two World Championships semi-finals. He also won world and European 4x400m medals, missing out on the Olympic relay podium by just one spot when finishing fourth at London 2012. But he contested his final competitive race – at the 2018 European Championships – aged just 26, before ultimately deciding to call time on professional running.
“In the end, you can look at my career as a bit of a failure,” he admits. “I’m okay with that, because I also achieved a lot. But, overall, it is a shame. I definitely, physically, had the capabilities of achieving more. But that didn’t happen. So I had a very short career in the end. It’s quite sad, really, but I’m content enough with it. It’s one of the things I had to be to make the decision to retire. But there was a lot that wasn’t achieved. There was definitely more there.”
Physical ability was nothing Green lacked, making his first two global semi-finals by the age of 20. It was something else that went awry and brought about the premature end. The winter after falling at a hurdle at those London Olympics, his mental health deteriorated to the extent that he “didn’t want to live” any more.
“I couldn’t finish training sessions but, quite frankly, running wasn’t particularly a priority at that point,” he says. “But I couldn’t understand what was happening because I didn’t believe in mental health. It wasn’t anything I’d been exposed to, so I didn’t think it existed. I thought it was for people who needed an excuse to not be successful. It wasn’t until I started to race in 2013 that I essentially broke down.”
Barely able to complete a race (he finished just two of the five 400m hurdles competitions he attempted in 2013), Green was diagnosed with depression and anxiety disorder, prompting him to step away from athletics. Given that involved relinquishing both British Athletics funding and his Nike contract, it was a brave decision for such a young man to take.
“I didn’t know if it would be a day, a month, a year or forever,” he recalls. “I gave up everything, as well as damage to my reputation. It was a big decision, but I just didn’t want to run. I couldn’t keep on doing the same thing over and over again, and expect myself to be better.
“The idea was to have a break, learn more about myself and then make a decision from there. But in reality, and with the benefit of hindsight, I just ran away from the pressure and expectation, so started to feel a bit better because no one expected anything of me. I just ran away from the things I was struggling with. Then I returned to the sport because it’s all I knew I could do.”
Having not competed for the best part of 20 months, he quickly picked up where he left off in 2015, routinely making international teams over the following few years despite his mental health worsening again.
“At that point, after coming back into the sport, I became something of a mental health advocate, but I still definitely struggled with accepting the stigma around it,” he says. “Also, I became quite successful again quite quickly, which leant into me not learning. In hindsight, I didn’t learn anything about myself. I just fell back into the same routine and same habits.”
The initial plan in late 2018 was to take another sabbatical and return for the Tokyo Olympics. But, when his therapist asked why he wanted to give running another go, he “couldn’t come up with one reason”. Instead, he decided to retire. At an age when many runners are yet to even reach their peak, Green stepped away for good.
With bills to pay, he used his steadily acquired mental health expertise to gain employment in a number of corporate roles, notably as global wellbeing lead at BBC Studios. In addition to his keynote speaking, he also embarked on a coaching career, working across football, rugby and cricket, as well as guiding Italy’s multiple Olympic sprinter Gloria Hooper.
Having stepped back from coaching three years ago, he recently made the decision to return to athletics in October after mentoring a number of elite hurdlers rekindled his appetite.
“I was spending a lot of time on the phone supporting athletes and coaches, and I could see how much more fulfilled and happier I was,” he says. “The big question was how I could make it my full-time gig because it’s what I do best and what I think I’m best at.”
The intention was to create a development group of promising young athletes and build from there, until British 400m hurdles champion Lina Nielsen reached out and asked if he was available to coach her. For the past few months, the pair have been based together at Lee Valley in east London, with Green harbouring hopes that this year can be the springboard to bigger things.
“If you have a world-class athlete like Lina Nielsen come and approach you, you don’t say no,” says Green. “I made her very aware of my shortcomings: my lack of experience, my age, my family commitments, work commitments. This was as big a decision for her as for me. We’ve both gone into it with eyes wide open.
“I pitched what I can do for her, and how I view the bigger picture. My relationship with Lina is a partnership. We’ll never do anything without her understanding of why we are doing it. That’s important to me.
“The longer-term plan is to create a hub for the best 400m hurdlers in the world to come and work with our group. I just need to get it right with Lina.”
His coaching approach is intimately guided by his own experiences. Do not expect his duties to be confined to a stopwatch.
“I’m very big on looking at the bigger picture,” he explains. “Relationships are so important to me. Where I specialise, compared to other coaches, is in how people think, and supporting them on that. The emotional side of it, and factoring it into performance.
“You’re a human being for 24 hours a day and an athlete for just a few of those, so why are we not focusing on the bigger picture? If you’re struggling financially, struggling with relationships, with family, or otherwise, outside of the sport, it’s going to affect your performance. It’s actually really simple stuff. I know about people’s families, I know what’s happening in their lives, I ask those questions and we build those relationships.
“At the same time, I am incredibly harsh. But I know when to push and when not to. I just look at the bigger picture in a way that coaches don’t typically see as their responsibility.”
It all begs the question of what his own running career might have looked like if athlete Green had benefited from present-day coach Green in his corner.
“I wouldn’t have retired at 28 if I had me around,” he states, firmly. “I didn’t have a bad career, but if I were coaching myself now I would be expecting a lot more achievements. We could have got more from that person.”