Christine Ohuruogu

The Olympic gold medallist on shooting the breeze with Usain Bolt and Prince Charles and her inability to sit still
Christine Ohuruogu
Olympic gold medallist Christine Ohuruogu models the latest line of fashionable stick man running London 2012 T-shirts

Hi Christine. Hello Small Talk, how are you?

Struggling as usual, Christine, but all the better for talking to you. But like all our other interviewees, you're probably only using us for a plug. What is it you're hawking? Pictograms, Small Talk. It's just under 1,000 days to the start of London 2012 and the London Organising Committee are launching a series of icons of all the different events that will be on the Olympic programme. These will help people work out where they're going around the Olympic village. So I'm sitting here wearing a T-shirt with athletes on it ...

Really? What with us being far away on the other end of a telephone, you'll have to tell us who. Well, I say athletes. It's actually a stick man running. [Laughs]. But there are T-shirts with stick men doing all sorts of sports: triathlons, hockey, gymnastics ... you name it.

Of course anyone who gets lost in the Olympic village in 2012 could do worse than ask you for directions, what with you being a native of London's East End. Yes, I'm planning to do guided tours. Joking apart, it's a huge deal for me that the Olympics are being staged in London because it's a rare position for an athlete to be in, having the Olympics coming to their home town. People have it come to their native country, but for me to have the Olympics come to the area of London where I've lived my whole life is pretty weird.

Do you still live in east London? Yeah. I've moved out of the house I grew up in because it's a bit manic, but I'm only 10 minutes away.

So, how's the Olympic stadium coming along? Are the builders waking you up in the morning? I don't live that close to it, but it's coming along fine.

So, 1,000 days. Are you ticking them off on a big calender or scratching marks into a wall like a prisoner counting down to his release date? Well, I don't really go to training and think about the Olympics, because you can only focus on the next major championships and there are so many other things to do before we get there. As athletes we pretty much do what we have to do one championship at a time and then when the time comes, God willing we're fit and we're healthy, we can really, really, really start looking at competing at the Games.

When you're out there on the track, is there a big difference between running at home when the crowd is partisan and completely behind you and running in a foreign country where they don't necessarily want you to do well? The nearest experience I'd have of that is from running at Crystal Palace, where you just get a huge feeling of pride at seeing all those people who've come out to support those of us who are running for Great Britain. It's great to be able to give them something to be happy about. It adds a little spring to your step.

Small Talk imagines that the prospect of training on cold, dark, wet October mornings would remove the aforementioned spring, quick sharp. Do you ever wake up, look out the window and think 'You know what, I can't be bothered'? Regularly, but I go training anyway. You have to find a way to get on with it, you know? Because if you're not out training, everybody else will be, so you have to find a way to get the work done no matter how painful or unpleasant it might be on certain days.

Golf and rugby sevens have just been introduced as new Olympic sports. What new disciplines would you introduce, given the choice? Netball would be great. I played it when I was younger and a lot of girls who play it work very, very hard and I think they don't get the recognition they deserve. We have very good teams in the UK.

When did you realise that you could run faster than a speeding bullet? There was no great revelation. Running around with other kids, as you do when you're small, I knew that I was faster than them, but I didn't think I had any special gifts or was super quick. I just did it because I enjoyed it.

Our extensive research conducted in the minutes leading up to this interview showed that you're from a very large family. No doubt you honed your skills rushing to the breakfast table to make sure you got fed? [Laughs] Exactly. I spent a lot of time as a kid fighting my way to the table and sprinting to get to the remote control first.

You got an MBE in the New Years honours list. Do you get any perks with that title? Not that I'm aware of.

So you're not allowed graze your sheep in Hyde Park or anything like that? Well I don't have any sheep, but that might be worth looking into. I do get letters after my name, which I suppose is nice.

Do you use them when you're signing cheques or credit card bills or autographs? I don't, because I'd forgotten all about them until you brought them up. Maybe I should start putting them after my name from now on.

Who presented you with your MBE? Prince Charles did.

Nice bloke was he? Yeah, he was. We were talking for a really long time. He knew about what I had done and said he'd watched the race. Then he was asking me about my training and asking me if I took a break after the Olympics. He knew a lot and we had a very nice chinwag.

By any chance did he ask you to name your favourite TV show? No, why?

Because that's what Small Talk is about to ask you and we'd hate top be accused of copying his style. Oh, OK. Go on then ...

What's your favourite TV show? That's a hard one. I love so many ... I'm really into Frasier at the moment.

Do you have a Twitter page? I do, but I keep forgetting to tell people about it, so nobody knows it exists. Can you please put a link to it in this interview so people can come and say hello?

Consider it done. Here's your Twitter page, Christine. Anything else you'd like us to plug? Well, seeing as you're asking, I have a website too.

Your pushing it now. Is this the website you speak of? That's the one. Thanks Small Talk.

Cheese or chocolate? Cheese, definitely. I love it.

What was the last piece of music you downloaded? I think it was some African music, but I couldn't tell you exactly what.

What do you get up to when you're not running around an athletics track at top speed? Apart from sleeping, I can't actually sit still for longer than a couple of seconds, so if I'm at home and I've got nothing to do I usually end up tidying up.

Small Talk's the exact same, apart from the not being able to sit still bit. And the cleaning up when there's nothing else to do bit. It's weird, you know, because if there's some tidying or cleaning to be done I just can't ignore it. I can try, but it's there nagging away at me until I've done it.

It's the same in our house, Christine, except Mrs Small Talk does the nagging. Now, if she was to trip over her feather duster, fall down the stairs and we asked you out for a drink the day after her funeral, what would you have? You know, I'm rubbish. I don't even know the names of drinks. I drink wine, but only because it's there. I don't even like alcohol that much, to be honest. Just get me an orange juice and I'll be happy.

Who's the most famous person you have on your mobile phone? [Thinks long and hard] Eh, does Usain Bolt count?

Well he's no Dean Gaffney, but he'll have to do. I think he's definitely the most famous person on my phone.

Are you good mates with him? Yeah, we have the same agent and we talk a lot. He's very good to me.

Who'd win a fight between a lion and a tiger? I'm going to go for the lion, just because I prefer them to tigers.

And on that bombshell, Christine, Small Talk's gonna love you and leave you. Thanks for your time. My pleasure Small Talk, thank you.

31 October 2009 will mark 1,000 days to go until the start of the London 2012 Olympic Games and, as the Official Sportswear Partner, Adidas has created a official limited edition T-shirt to celebrate this landmark occasion. Click here or call 0870 240 4204 to get yours now.

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