Matthew Hudson-Smith pulls out his phone from his pocket. ‘I’ve still got the email,’ he says, before scrolling through his inbox to show Mail Sport a message he received 10 years ago.
It is from the Army and it includes a link to ‘apply now’. In June 2014, aged 19 and disillusioned by athletics and his job, Hudson-Smith duly did.
‘I was bored out of my skull working at Asda, Brierley Hill at the time,’ recalls the 29-year-old. ‘It was fun to flirt with the old people – they loved my till! But it was just repetitive work.
‘I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I knew I didn’t want to work at Asda and I didn’t want to go to university. So when I got that email, I was like, “Make money? Travel the world? Why not?” and I signed up.’
Hudson-Smith then waited to hear back from the Army about the next stage of the recruitment process. However, at the same time, he was offered a surprise chance to run the 400 metres at a Diamond League meet in Glasgow.
British 400m star Matthew Hudson-Smith is targeting a gold medal at the Paris Olympics
Hudson-Smith has enjoyed a remarkable journey since he was working at Asda 10 years ago
There, he shocked himself by finishing third with a personal best of 44.97sec from lane eight – the second-fastest time in Europe that year. Suddenly, the Army could not have been further from his thoughts.
‘My life literally changed in a day,’ admits the Wolverhampton runner. ‘It could have been a lot, lot different.’
A decade on, Hudson-Smith is now the fastest European over 400m in history, lowering his own continental record to 44.07sec at Thursday’s Diamond League meet in Oslo. He has picked up a silver and bronze from the last two World Championships and, on Monday week, he will look to win his third straight European title in Rome.
But Hudson-Smith’s eyes are on the bigger prize in Paris. There, he will bid to become the first British man to win the Olympics 400m title since Eric Liddell, when the Games were last held in the French capital 100 years ago.
‘That is definitely the goal for me – be the second Brit to get the Olympic gold and create my own history,’ says Hudson-Smith.
‘Last year was bittersweet. I came away with the world silver but the gold was on the table. This year, we have got a plan and it is just now sticking to it and executing it.
‘It’s not about the European record, I’ve got it. It’s about the gold now. You can take away times but a medal is yours forever.
‘To become an Olympic champion would mean the world to me. It would be a combination of 10 years of hard work in one moment. The time is now.’
Hudson-Smith once applied for the Army but now is the fastest ever European 400m runner
He lowered his own European record to 44.07sec at last week’s Diamond League meet in Oslo
Hudson-Smith describes this summer as a ‘redemption slash revenge tour’ as he looks to make up for his previous Olympic experiences. On his debut in Rio in 2016, he finished last in the 400m final. ‘It was very much naivety, I didn’t really know what I was doing,’ he admits.
Five years later, Hudson-Smith did not even make it to Tokyo. He withdrew just days before the Games because of injury but he was also struggling with his mental health.
Living in Florida away from his family during the Covid pandemic, he felt isolated. He also got himself into huge debt because of a lack of medical insurance and sponsorship money to cover his injury treatments.
Hudson-Smith was so low he attempted suicide – something he revealed to reporters after winning that breakthrough world bronze in Eugene in 2022.
‘I didn’t really plan to say anything,’ he admits. ‘I had just won a medal and I was just emotional and it literally slipped out.
‘When I said it, I was like, “Oh c***” and looked at my agent because I didn’t want it to be a headline. I didn’t really want to be one of those people who used it as an excuse.
‘But now I think it’s good to be open and honest about mental health because I think more athletes are now talking about it.
‘Everyone in track and field has a story and I think it’s good that people are now saying their stories because it makes us more relatable. When we show our personality, it shows we are actually human.
Hudson-Smith – who holds the European 400m record – is desperate to be the first British man to win the Olympic 400m title since Eric Liddell when the Games were in Paris 100 years ago
Hudson-Smith is coached by American Gary Evans but also has a Brit in his corner — Christine Ohuruogu, the 400m Olympic gold medallist from Beijing 2008, who acts as a ‘mentor’
‘I’ll be real, I don’t eat vegetables every day. I go out, I slip up and eat burgers with my friends. But it’s good to be relatable and not be a robot.’
Hudson-Smith insists he is in a happier place now, as his performances – not least Thursday’s run in Oslo – have proved. After suffering Achilles issues in the build-up to last summer’s World Championships in Budapest, and tearing his calf on the home straight in the final itself, he has barely missed a day’s training this year. ‘Healthy mind, healthy body,’ he says.
He still lives in Florida, where he trains alongside one of his biggest 400m rivals, the Bahamian Olympic champion Steven Gardiner.
‘I have been there since 2017 now, but I am still European to the core,’ he says with a smile. ‘I drink tea in 24 degrees weather and people look at me like I’m a nutcase!’
Hudson-Smith is coached by American Gary Evans but he also has a Brit in his corner – Christine Ohuruogu, the 400m gold medallist from Beijing 2008, who he affectionally calls ‘Granny O’.
‘She is like a mentor, someone I talk to very frequently,’ he explains. ‘She has helped me a lot with my mind frame and how to prepare for a championships.
‘It’s an advantage in my corner to have someone who has been there, done that and achieved when it counts at a championships. She is who I really want to be like that – to show it when it matters.’
Hudson-Smith also speaks to Roger Black and plans to talk to US legend Michael Johnson. ‘I am trying to soak up all the knowledge and get the gold,’ he says.
Black was the last British man to collect an Olympic 400m medal with silver at Atlanta in 1996. Liddell, the last to grab gold, had his life depicted in the 1981 Oscar-winning film, Chariots of Fire.
Could a movie be made about Hudson-Smith if he emulated Liddell in Paris? ‘Imagine!’ he replies. ‘It would be the wildest show going.’
For confidential support call Samaritans on 116123 or visit www.samaritans.org or the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline on 988 in the US.