00:00Hello, I'm Joseph Mirovic and this man needs some instruction but I'll give him one anyway.
00:05This is Linford Christie, Olympic, World, European and Commonwealth Champion all at the same time.
00:09We're here today at JLR for Black History Month.
00:13So, Linford, tell me a bit about what you're doing here today.
00:15You just said, I'm here at JLR for Black History Month, which I think should be more than a month.
00:20You know, it should be something that's celebrated all year round.
00:23Yeah, I'm here meeting the workforce, meeting the people that's behind the scenes.
00:29Have you had a chance to have a proper look around and see what you've been doing?
00:32Well, not this morning, I just arrived.
00:35But I went to one of the other car manufacturers' shows this morning and it was an eye-opener.
00:42They've got 5,000 people and it's 300 acres.
00:46You walk around and you see that the car starts off in a different way,
00:50different places, where different shapes are going on.
00:54And you're here to talk to the workforce, obviously.
00:57What's the sort of topic of discussion for today?
00:59Well, what we're going to do first, we're going to do a Q&A,
01:01which rather than me talking and telling people what I, you know, about me,
01:05they can ask the questions.
01:06Because maybe if I tell them about me, maybe that's not what they want to hear.
01:09They ask the questions they want to ask.
01:11And so, yeah, I mean, it's just to give them a little more insight into what I did
01:17and maybe how I got to where I got to.
01:20And a lot of people may have seen the recent documentary that you did
01:24and they will have heard about your struggles with the establishment,
01:28with everything that's happened going on, all the sort of conjecture about yourself.
01:31How important is it for you to talk about your experiences
01:33and the importance of not just black history, but black lives in general?
01:36Well, you know, the thing is, like, you have to, in order to be something,
01:40you have to go through something.
01:42And I think if I didn't have struggles, maybe I wouldn't have been as successful
01:45as I am or I've been.
01:48And I think that's one of the things, you know, to talk about that,
01:51to show people what went on behind the scenes,
01:54because normally they see the finish button.
01:56They see me when I'm running races and winning,
01:59but they don't see sometimes how hard I train, you know, like I said,
02:03the things I have to go through in order to get to where I got.
02:06So, yeah, I mean, it can, I suppose, resonate with some people.
02:11Maybe some of them are going through struggles themselves.
02:14And so for me to come through the other end of it,
02:16then they realize there is life.
02:18Maybe even 32 years later, after winning in Barcelona,
02:21your name still carries weight today, doesn't it?
02:23I'd like to think so, you know, if you say.
02:26But it's, as long as it's in the right way.
02:29I mean, you know, again, like I say, I mean, I just try to tell people
02:32that with hard work and dedication, you can be anything.
02:36You can be anything you want to be.
02:38I mean, I came from Jamaica at the age of seven.
02:40And, you know, gosh, we lived in two rooms and there were six of us.
02:43And so therefore, you know, you work hard and you get yourself out of it.
02:48So, and if I can do it, I'm trying to tell them anybody can do it.
02:51Just believe in yourself.
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