Mum and Dad always knew I was very determined. Mum would call it stubbornness. If somebody said I couldn’t do something, then I’d try to prove them wrong. I was like that from when I was a little boy, and if somebody dared me to do something, then I’d do it. She thought I would grow out of it, but I got worse. And as soon as I discovered skiing, I’d do daredevil stunts on skis. Mum and Dad never tried to stop me … I don’t think they could have!
My dad was a plasterer and he’d usually gone to work before I got up, and he would be just coming in when I went to bed. Sometimes he worked weekends as well. He had a mortgage to pay. I was closer to my mum than my dad, because I saw her more.
My brother is 18 months older than me and my sister is three years younger. I’m the middle one. I was born in Cheltenham and that’s where I grew up. When I was a child, my brother was always picking on me. Generally, he was the one who would start the fights, but I gave as good as I got.
My sister was very bossy as a child. Even though she’s three years younger than me, she would try to boss me about and tell me to stop fighting with my brother. She’d shout at us like my mum did. She hasn’t changed – she’s still like that now. She’s a school teacher, and she was born to be one.
The worst thing that happened to me as a child was seeing my brother get pushed into a cement mixer. I was about eight and he was 10. We were playing on the building site where my dad was working. We managed to start an old cement mixer, then another kid pushed my brother towards it. His T-shirt got caught in the crank shaft, and it started twisting it around. And then it started twisting his skin. He was in a right mess.
Social services came round to our house to speak to my mum once, because my brother, my sister and I were all in hospital at the same time. My brother had ridden his bike into the back of a car, I had a knee infection and my sister had hurt herself doing something else, and each of us was in a different hospital. I don’t know what social services actually said to my mum – she only told us about it quite a few years later.
My mum and dad were really supportive of my skiing. They took me over to the ski centre as much as they possibly could, and to racing competitions all over the UK. Dad didn’t know anything about skiing and didn’t want to put any pressure on me. I don’t think they quite understood what had happened with me competing in the Olympics until I went for a drink with them in a pub in Oxford, a couple of weeks later. When I walked in, the whole pub just erupted. They were quite shocked by it all.
I’ve got two daughters of my own, and I loved watching my children grow up. I tried to be a hands-on dad as much I could, but for a while, I was working too much – from 8am to 8pm, and at weekends as well. Then I realised I was doing just what my dad did.
I was gutted when my wife and I separated three years ago. I found it desperately hard. I missed reading my daughters stories when they went to bed, I missed cooking their tea and their bathtime. I missed just being with my girls, every day. It was a horrible situation and it’s still very, very difficult. I try to see them as much as I can, and I make sure the time I do have with them is quality time.
Becoming a dad has made me softer. I cry a lot easier now than I ever did, and I think that’s because of the kids. I don’t know why. I guess fatherhood has just brought out a softer side in me.
