The former sprinter talks about coming back from the sidelines after the crash that nearly cost him his life, his struggles trying to get back on top and why he found peace after taking a break from athletics.
“So what are the goals?” asks the doctor, while an alarmingly emaciated James Ellington sits in a wheelchair pushed by his then-coach Linford Christie.
“To get back on track next year,” Ellington replies promptly. Emotionless, not missing a beat. “What do you mean, back on track?” replies the confused consultant.
“Full training. Competition,” Ellington says, prompting an interminable pause as the audacity of his statement hangs in the air.
Finally, so quiet that he has to repeat himself to be heard, Christie breaks the silence by gently suggesting more realistic aspirations for Ellington’s future;
The trailer sat on top of Ellington Instagram: page for nearly seven years now, offering a constant reminder of an athlete who never knew when he lost, even when his career was over and his life was recently in danger. A man of unprecedented dedication who would not bow to convention or accept the limitations of others. A man who refused to give up. Until, one day, he did.
I last sat down for a proper interview with Ellington when I visited his west London home in the spring of 2021. It was four years since the day that changed everything when the motorbike he was riding with British sprinter Nigel Levin at a training camp in Tenerife collided with an oncoming car.
Ellington’s injuries were so extensive – a compound fracture of his right leg, a fractured left ankle, a fractured eye socket, a dislocated and fractured pelvis, six pints of blood loss – that he was lucky to survive.
But when doctors told him he would never run without a limp again, Ellington ignored them, proving his determination by regularly climbing out of his six-week wheelchair and crawling to the floor to do push-ups.
“The worst thing you can do is doubt me,” he told me, a few days before a comeback 100m race in which he could clock a wind-assisted 10.40 against amateur runners at Dagenham’s Jim Peters Stadium.
At that point, her mission, fueling every painful step in her recovery, was to become a three-time Olympian in Tokyo that summer. When I asked if he could ever be satisfied without achieving such inexplicably lofty ambitions, he thought in silence for 12 seconds before finally giving his one-word answer. “No.”
Ellington’s quiet retirement from athletics two years later didn’t make headlines. Even British Athletics failed to mention anything on their social media pages, paying tribute to the sprinting mainstay of countless international teams. that silence prevails even today. But by then his plight was largely forgotten. Ellington and the sport belatedly went their separate ways.
So, with great intrigue, I set up another interview to find out two main things. what happened in those years since we last spoke? And, having come nowhere close to adding to his many post-crash international caps, has he been able to find satisfaction?
The truth, and she admits it took another two years to accept, she knew her work was in vain the moment she crossed the finish line for her heat at the 2021 Olympics. He was fourth at 11.00 in truly awful conditions with a -3.4 m/s headwind, immediately out of the competition. The only goal that had motivated him for years was over.
“It wasn’t even like I was upset,” Ellington, 40, says. – It was a strange feeling. You know when boxers say they know when it’s time to stop? Well, it just disappeared.
“Physically I was fine, but when I was running that line and I was going all the way back there, I was thinking, “This is a joke.” And immediately tried to convince myself that I would try again next year.
Definitely not. Is the same man who forced himself to train when his body was completely broken down to assume he didn’t return to the international ranks because he lacked the mental drive?
“Yeah, right,” he continues. “Physically, I saw a lot of things that I needed in training. I was training against people who were currently competing and doing what I needed them to do. But as soon as I entered the starting line, in my heart and head, I wasn’t feeling it. I used to do it in training, but as soon as it came to compete, it was gone. The energy it took to get where I got was so great.
“Everybody on the line wanted to take my head off because my name is my name. But I wasn’t the same James because of the accident. The boys are pushing to carry me and I couldn’t run.
“Going from a high level back to a not-so-high level, you can’t force that motivation. That was a big hurdle. By then I was burnt out. I was psychologically and spiritually burned.”
It’s a fascinating admission, but one that took years to accept. He returned to the British Championships the following summer, again withdrawing from the 100m, and was aiming for a third attempt in 2023, only to finally withdraw a few weeks before the National Athletics League meet. His best 100m since the accident was 10.39.
“I was doing my best in training, but when it came to the competition, I just couldn’t wait to go home,” he says. “It was weird, like I was being pulled back and forth trying to stick to the narrative of coming back, but the passion was gone.
“But I couldn’t get off the train because I said I’d go back to where I thought I could. I was really fighting for myself.”
Now, much later than doctors predicted almost a decade ago, he is officially a former athlete. After taking a year off to adjust to life without the relentless grind of athletics, he now works as a publicist and speed coach with people competing in other sports. This summer also saw the birth of his son, 14 years after he fathered a daughter from a previous relationship.
A delayed financial settlement from the crash was finally agreed last year, when the Spanish auto insurers of Levine’s rental bike accepted liability for Ellington’s damages. He says the money “definitely helped” but that restrictive Spanish laws meant it was one of the lowest payouts worldwide. The lawsuit was not against Levine, whose track and field career ended when he was suspended for four years in 2018 after testing positive for clenbuterol.
“After the accident, I was fine with him,” says Ellington of Levine. “I didn’t have any hard feelings towards him. It happens. But then he did some stupid things after the accident and it pissed me off because my name was being dragged into it because I was in the accident with him.
In fact, there are few athletes Ellington still talks to. She named two-time European 200m medalist Danny Talbot and says she remains friendly with most of the British female sprinters of her era. But athletics and those within it are largely a thing of the past.
“Sometimes when you leave the sport or something bad happens, you realize who your friends are,” Ellington says. “I was disappointed because I thought a few people from athletics were my real friends outside, but I was wrong. When that crash happened, some people went up and a lot of people you expected to be there just vanished into thin air.
“I watched the world title a bit this summer, but I’m not really aware. Someone will ask if I’ve seen athletics and I won’t even know it happened. I’m just not really interested. It’s nice to be out of that environment.”
A break from athletics hasn’t dampened his training obsession, which has him training five days a week and regularly participating in the martial art of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Working out, taking his perfectly sculpted body to greater heights, remains an addiction he intends to keep forever.
“Working out is my compromise,” he says. “I love the results of feeling strong and fit. I think mentally if I didn’t train I would go crazy. It keeps me organized, keeps my brain busy and healthy.
“I have to set an example. You show a lot of people who don’t practice what they preach. It’s very important, in the (coaching) field that I’m in, I tell people how to do things, and I have to actually be part of what I’m talking about.”
Every so often, an ache or soreness is a reminder of the trauma his body went through, but he says he’s “lucky not to have any residual problems” from the accident.
So now we both know the outcome, I ask the same question that caused him to pause so long during our last interview. Having doggedly defied medical expectations not only to run again, but sprint fast enough to mix it with some of Britain’s best, is he satisfied with what he has achieved since the accident, despite falling short of the Olympic dream he clung to?
“It’s a difficult question to answer,” he replies. “Because I’m not on that journey now, I can take myself out of it and see that I’ve done well. I’ve done well in that sense. But, at the same time, because I like to push myself and achieve the things I set my mind to, I’m not satisfied.
“When it was over, I can’t say I was too sad or disappointed. It was just the end of the road. I just accepted it. But I definitely look back with pride.
“I have good people around me, I’m happy, my body is working and I’m in good shape, better shape than some athletes who are still competing. I’m definitely succeeding.”
