More than 40 years after Sebastian Coe powered to his second Olympic 1500m title, he is still running hungry. He’s in the gym most mornings at 6am, cranking out 40-50km a week on the treadmill, doing conditioning work or lifting weights, before meticulously recording his workouts in training diaries – just as he did during his golden heyday. Even at 68 he is still chasing a fresh ambition: securing the most powerful job in global sport.
“I will work harder for this than I’ll probably ever work for anything,” Coe insisted in December when he launched his manifesto to be the next president of the International Olympic Committee. “It’s the dance that I just couldn’t sit out.” That dance, however, is about to get a lot more frenetic.
