Read the transcript of the Get Set interview with Shanaze Reade before she competed at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games
I’m Shanaze Reade, I’m 19 years of age, and I do BMX racing.
I started about ten years ago now. Basically my uncle took me to the local BMX track to watch my cousins race, and they were taking part in a regional event, so I went along and watched and after the race you could hire bikes out, so I hired a bike out for a pound and I think it’s probably the best pound I’ve ever spent!
BMX racing definitely isn’t a male dominated sport. In the male category at the World’s there was just as many girls as there was guys. Girls out there: you don’t have to be shy, or anything like that. As soon as you’ve done it once, then the fear of everything goes, so go out there, have fun and try it.
Before I start racing I’m really excited. The night before I usually have about four or five hours’ sleep, because you’ve trained hard and you’re in the best shape of your life, and you just want to get out there and race.
You can only do your best and if your best is a third or a fifth or whatever place that may be, you still get that same exact feeling.
I’m a world champion but I see myself on a scale of 1 to 10, I’d say, about a six. My coach is always telling me that there’s a lot of areas I need to work on and that’s the only way you can get better and improve. Once I won the World’s my Grandad says there’s always someone round the corner faster than you, so that motivates me just to do well and not to let anyone beat me.
It’s generally wake up at about half past seven, be training for half past eight (that’s the first session), then have lunch, then the second session is training, so it’s generally two sessions a day and each session lasts for about two hours.
Kelly Holmes for sure is one of my sporting heroes just because it took her so long to climb the ladder but she never stopped when people said she would never make it, she kept going and got her goal at the end of it and got two gold medals.
For sure, her determination and courage to keep going all the time and the fight to win – I don’t think any other athlete compares to that. Reading books about Daley Thompson and the fights and battles he used to have with his other competitors for me was really inspiring.
If you don’t enjoy what you’re doing when it’s raining when you open the curtains in the morning and you don’t want to get on your bike or put on your running shoes, then you’re not going to do it. The day I stop enjoying the sport is the day I retire from it.
