When Jonnie Peacock won Paralympic gold at London 2012 he lay in bed pinching himself.
When he retained his 100 metres title in Rio four years later he stood on the track kicking himself.
The British blade runner now has the chance to emulate Usain Bolt by helping himself to a hat-trick of sprint titles.
“I’ve got a point to prove, I’m more hungry than ever,” said the Cambridge star. “I’m ready for another emotional rollercoaster.”
Peacock is fired up after being denied the chance of a third straight world championship crown by injury.
But it is the Paralympics where his legend has been built and he arrives in Tokyo with a box full of golden memories.
“Nothing in my sporting life will ever match it,” he says of 2012 when he was serenaded on the start line by an 80,000 capacity crowd.
“I’ve accepted that. I accepted that that night. I remember lying in bed thinking should I retire because it’s never going to get better than that.”
An unknown teenager, only fifth in the worlds the summer before, Peacock was carried to glory by the London roar in a Paralympic record time.
Rio saw the same result but his emotions were altogether different.
“What I remember is the sheer panic of that night,” he said.
On the start line he kissed a St Christopher given to him by his mum and step-father. On his blade he taped an army badge given to him by his late grandfather.
Two lucky charms which would do their job but go missing during the race.
“I remember my mum telling me the sweetest thing,” said Peacock, who contracted meningitis aged five and had his right leg amputated just below the knee.
“She said that they don’t need to be found. If someone else finds them it’s their turn to have the luck.”
Peacock would return to an empty stadium to look for the missing trinkets along with members of the press corps including your correspondent.
“It was like one of those police searches for evidence,” he recalled. “We didn’t find them but they were later handed in, so maybe I’ve got a few years of luck left in me.”
Peacock puts that to the test over the coming days, lining up in the men’s T64 heats on Sunday week (Aug 29) and the final a day later.
Since Rio he has found added fame, becoming the first less abled competitor on Strictly , partnered with Oti Mabuse, before delving into his family past in Who Do You Think You Are?
He loved the experience but was glad to get back to the track, saying of celebrity life, “I want to watch TV, not be on it.”
When lockdown then denied him that chance, closing facilities and postponing the Paralympics, he fretted about his Tokyo chances.
“I had had a knee operation and was just returning to running and needed a level surface,” recalled Peacock, who is supported by the National Lottery. “Training on a road or the grass was no good. Let’s just say I had to jump a couple of fences.”
His ingenuity paid off and a year on the 28-year-old is ready to be big in Japan.
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