Olympic medallist Roger Black, famed for his sprinting prowess in the 1996 Atlanta Games, has undergone open heart surgery to address a problem first identified when he was just 11 years old. The Gosport-born former 400m runner, now 58, had long joked about his aging body, attributing his habit of dozing in front of the TV and frequent coffee breaks on long drives to “becoming an old git.”
The issue resurfaced during an annual echocardiogram last August, revealing the need for major surgery despite Black’s active lifestyle. Although he maintained daily 30-minute jogs, the diagnosis of severe heart valve disease and damage to the main blood vessel carrying blood from the heart necessitated prompt action, reported the Express.
