The accidental Team GB Olympian leaving Paris with two medals

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A little over a fortnight ago, Sam Reardon watched the Olympics opening ceremony on television from his bedroom of the south London family home; a spectator observing from the outside. That he will walk out in Paris’s Stade de France for Sunday’s closing ceremony with two Olympic medals hanging round his neck marks perhaps the most extraordinary British turnaround of these 2024 Games.

Reardon was never meant to be in the French capital. Battling to recover from a hamstring injury at the start of the year, he did not even make the 400 metres final at the British Olympic trials, which was little surprise given he was not ranked in the country’s top 10. When, a few weeks later, he knocked an almighty 1.29 seconds off his personal best to win the 400m B race at the London Diamond League he was suddenly catapulted to third on this year’s British rankings list.

But it was too late. That 44.70sec victory came too late for the Olympic qualification window and the British squad had been confirmed without him. So he would watch events from home. Sorry, he was told, but rules are rules.

Then, a belated reprieve. Charlie Carvell, a member of the Team GB 4x400m setup in Paris, had suffered an injury and was being withdrawn from the squad. The morning after the opening ceremony, Reardon was training at his local Bromley track when he received the unexpected news that he had been called up as a replacement.

A day later, he landed in Paris. By the end of the first weekend of athletics action, he had helped Britain’s mixed 4x400m team to bronze. On the final night, he added men’s 4x400m bronze.

Since the turn of the century, only Mo Farah, Kelly Holmes, Christine Ohuruogu and Kelly Sotherton had picked up multiple athletics medals for Britain at the same Olympics. Now Reardon was one of those in Paris to join them.

“It’s been a crazy non-stop journey,” said the 20-year-old, who receives no British Athletics funding. “It’s all come at me at 200mph but I’ve tried to soak it up: running sub-45 for the first time, then getting to the Olympics, getting a run, winning a medal and then winning another one.

“I’m forever a double Olympic medallist. I could end my career here and I’d be happy.”

He did, in fact, already have plans for the past fortnight. With international racing on pause during the Paris period, Reardon was due to undergo a spell of endurance training, stepping up in distance to test himself over 800m. His first outing was supposed to come in the National Athletics League representing his Blackheath and Bromley club. Instead, on that same day, he won the first of two Olympic medals.

“I wanted to give back to the club that has done so much for me,” he said. “We are fighting to stay up in the NAL Premiership and I hadn’t raced for them this year so I really wanted to do it for them, but then I got the call-up.

“I couldn’t tell them why originally because it was all very secretive. I knew the team manager was a bit peeved when I first pulled out, but when he found out it was to go to the Olympics he let me off.”

There was added poignancy to both of his podium visits – the second of which came after he missed the men’s 4x400m final with a hip niggle having run in the heats – where he carried a photo of his late mother Marilyn in his pocket.

Marilyn was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2018 and died the following year. Reardon explained that it had been her dream to see her son compete on the biggest stage.

“Watching London 2012, I said I wanted to become an Olympian,” recalled Reardon. “She never doubted that I would make it here.

“I remember her jumping up and down on Super Saturday cheering on the Brits. She was a very loud supporter – always the loudest when she came to watch my track meets.

“She always said it would be just as much her dream to see me on the Olympic stage, and her life would be complete if she could see me standing on the top of the podium one day singing the national anthem. That’s the ultimate goal – to one day stand there and sing the national anthem for her. But we’re going in the right direction.

“It meant the world to have her support. She was my best friend, biggest motivator and inspiration.”

What a turnaround from that one unexpectedly dazzling performance in London last month.

“I can pinpoint the moment where my life started to change. One run is all it takes to turn your career around. But I couldn’t have imagined everything that would come from it.”

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