AW catches up with the late Paris call-up who seized his chance to bring home some medals
Amidst the welcome chaos of post-Games media interviews and celebratory gatherings, Sam Reardon draws breath, albeit briefly, and acknowledges the privilege of such attention.
“You obviously want to be one of the people that’s being talked about in your sport [for the right reasons], so it’s been nice,” he says modestly.
The 20-year-old showed great maturity in dealing with a “whirlwind” few weeks that started with a substantial 400m best of 44.70 at the London Athletics Meet in July and concluded with winning two relay bronze medals at the Paris Olympics.
“I’ve not really had time to process the emotion of it all,” admits the Blackheath and Bromley athlete, who was a late call-up to the Team GB relay squad after the withdrawal of Charlie Carvell due to injury.
“Even when I got the call to go [to Paris] it was straight there, straight to work. It’s been one thing after the other, but it’s a massive dream come true for me.”
Sam Reardon (Getty)
Reardon’s performance in London changed the course of his entire summer. Post-Paris, the headline writers adopted a common theme – ‘Accidental Olympian’, ‘Little-known Team GB star’, ‘Unlikely double medallist’ – building a narrative that captured the attention of readers. For those who had paid close attention, however, he was far from a long shot.
Reardon had previously competed at major events including the European and world under-20 championships, as well as European and world indoor (senior) championships, most recently winning 4x400m bronze and finishing fifth in the 800m – an event in which he has a 1:45.95 PB – at the 2023 European Under-23 Champs.
He believes his recent success came from his focus on the 400m this year rather than training for both the 400m and 800m as he had done previously. The truth is that Reardon knew he had a chance of making the Olympic relay team and that was his aim going into the season.
“I guess because I got injured and missed the indoor season [he tore his hamstring in January] I hadn’t really been part of the team conversation,” he says. “The guys who were racing were running well and putting in good times and that was hard for me.
“When I finally got back to running healthy I found I still had the speed I’d worked so hard to achieve. Combined with the strength work I’ve been doing, we knew what I was capable of and I just had to prove it to everyone. When it all came together I ran perfectly in London and I executed the race plan better than we could have expected.”
Running 44.7 – three-tenths inside the Olympic 400m individual qualifying standard, but too late for selection purposes – opened up Reardon’s Team GB opportunity, but it also brought pressure for the young athlete who knew he was going to Paris for a reason and had form to live up to.
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“People told me to be that ‘44.7 runner’, so to go out there and run 44.96 on the first leg, I felt that I deserved to be there and it showed me I was capable of running on that stage. I think that mixed relay final, where I backed up what I’d run in London, was my proudest moment. To come away with a bronze medal topped it off.”
Moving to 14th in the UK all-time and to be ranked fourth in Europe for the year to date (also the European under-23 leader) has also moved the goalposts in terms of what he thinks is possible. Reardon now accepts that achieving an individual 400m spot for next year’s World Championships in Tokyo is a serious possibility.
“It’s given me belief that I’m not just a 400m runner/800m junior runner, but that I can actually be a 400m individual senior runner,” he says. “We were going to switch back to 800m for next season, but I think we’re going to keep focusing on the 400m because of how well it’s gone. I still think I’ve got unfinished business in the 800m but, right now, I’m focused on the 400m.”
If you could choose one person to train/compete with, past or present, who would it be and why?
David Rudisha. What he did over 800m in London [during the 2012 Olympic Games final] was just crazy. It’s one of my favourite ever races. I’d like to see how he trained and also what he could do over 400m.
» This article first appeared in the September issue of AW magazine. Subscribe to AW magazine here, check out our new podcast here or sign up to our digital archive of back issues from 1945 to the present day here
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