The Commonwealth Games are once again putting the spotlight on some of Wales’ best sporting talent, with a new generation chasing medals on one of sport’s biggest stages.
Few athletes have done more to inspire those who followed than Colin Jackson. Widely regarded as one of Wales’ greatest-ever sportsmen, the Cardiff-born hurdling legend enjoyed a glittering career that brought world titles, Commonwealth gold and a world record that stood for 13 years.
Although the one prize that eluded him was Olympic gold, Jackson’s place among Britain’s athletics greats has never been in doubt. Now 59, he remains a familiar face on television as part of the BBC’s athletics coverage while also enjoying a successful career away from the track.
From world record holder to TV star
Jackson’s achievements on the track remain extraordinary.
During his career he won 12 gold medals, eight silvers and one bronze across major international competitions. His defining moment came at the 1993 World Championships in Stuttgart, where he clocked 12.91 seconds to set a 110m hurdles world record that would stand for 13 years.
He dominated the event throughout the 1990s and became one of the defining athletes of his generation. Despite his remarkable success, however, Olympic gold remained agonisingly out of reach. Jackson suffered heartbreak in three successive Olympic finals and finished his Games career with a silver medal.
His achievements nevertheless cemented his status as one of Britain’s greatest athletes and paved the way for a successful second career.
Colin Jackson and his dance partner Erin Boag perform during series three of Strictly Come Dancing in 2005(Image: BBC)
The Cardiff-born star has become one of the BBC’s most recognisable athletics pundits, having been part of the broadcaster’s coverage for more than two decades. Alongside television work, he has also tried his hand at presenting and has appeared on popular programmes including Strictly Come Dancing and Celebrity MasterChef.
Jackson has also passed on his expertise by coaching Welsh athletes Timothy Benjamin and Rhys Williams, along with swimmer Mark Foster. Away from sport, he is also a director of multimedia production company Red Shoes and is an ambassador for various organisations and charities.
Charity work and coming out
Retirement has also seen Jackson devote time to a number of charitable causes.
In 2013, he launched the Go Dad Run initiative alongside his sister Suzanne to raise money for Prostate Cancer UK. He has also become an ambassador for SPAR’s mental health campaign, SPARk a Conversation, while joining Sport4Kids as its international director and brand ambassador in 2016.
As he approaches his 60th birthday, Jackson continues to enjoy a busy and varied career, but life has not always been straightforward.
In 2017, aged 50, the former Team GB star publicly came out as gay during an appearance on Swedish television after previously denying his sexuality on two occasions, including in his 2004 autobiography.
Speaking in the Swedish documentary Rainbow Heroes, Jackson explained he had kept his sexuality private because he feared it would become sensationalised after a former partner sold a “kiss and tell” story about him to a newspaper years earlier.
That incident prompted him to tell his parents, whose response has remained one of the defining moments of his life.
“I was waiting for them in the kitchen,” he recalled. “They walked in and they sat down. My mother could see my face and I was quite distraught. It didn’t faze them at all. My mum went: ‘First of all, is the story true?’
“And I said it’s true, so it’s not like I can deny it. And then she went: ‘Well, why are people so disgraceful?’ I just realised, I’ve got the best parents.”
Two years later, Jackson admitted he had been surprised by the worldwide reaction to him coming out.
“All of a sudden my friends were ringing me from LA, Las Vegas, Canada and it made news all over the world,” he told the LifeTimes podcast. “I was like, ‘Wow! Okay, I didn’t think I was that relevant’.
“I can understand now why an active footballer wouldn’t necessarily want to come out in that sense. If you just want to concentrate on your sport and focus on your teamwork, you shouldn’t have to deal with all of this.
“If I was a competing athlete I would have found it very distracting for me. When you don’t see many major footballers in that sense (coming out as gay), I totally understand how they would feel.”
Colin Jackson set a world 110m hurdles record of 12.91 seconds in Stuttgart 25 years ago. Image: Mike Powell/Allsport UK
Health battle and life now
Jackson has also spoken candidly about the physical price his remarkable athletics career took on his body.
He previously revealed he had developed a degenerative condition that left him in constant pain and fearing he could one day end up needing a wheelchair.
“I’m in constant pain but you learn to live with it,” he said.
“I’ve got the body of a man in his mid-30s but the knees of a man in his mid-80s. I’ve had seven operations on my knees already – four on the right knee and three on the left.
“I just can’t face any more. My knees lock up after long car journeys, and getting in and out of the bath is awkward.
“When you are young, you don’t worry about it. But when you get older, you realise the grief you have caused yourself.
“But I still work out, I still go to the gym and do yoga and Pilates because I don’t want to give in to it. Before I train I will take ibuprofen so I don’t exacerbate the problem. I’m praying for a miracle because I really don’t want knee replacements and I don’t want to be in a wheelchair.”
Colin Jackson recently wearing the 1986 Commonwealth Games tracksuit her wore when representing Wales(Image: Colin Jackson/ Instagram)
That miracle appeared to arrive in the form of stem cell treatment, which dramatically improved his condition.
Reflecting on the results, Jackson said: “I’m pain-free in the mornings. I live in quite a hilly place just outside Cardiff and what a difference it has made to walking up and down those hills.
“It reminds me of what life was like 20 or 30 years ago when I didn’t have these issues. It’s amazing.”
Jackson is a picture of health at nearly 60, looking remarkably young for his age. He is something of a fashion icon on his Instagram page, regularly posting pictures of himself modelling different outfits and enjoying life.
Content cannot be displayed without consentFamily upbringing
He grew up in the Llanedeyrn area of Cardiff alongside his older sister, Suzanne Packer, with the pair raised by their Jamaican-born parents. Sport and the arts would eventually take them in very different directions, but both would go on to become household names in Wales and the wider UK.
Packer enjoyed a distinguished acting career and is best known for playing nurse Tess Bateman in the long-running BBC drama Casualty. She spent more than a decade on the programme and has since appeared in a string of acclaimed productions including Keeping Faith, The Bay, The Pembrokeshire Murders, Doctor Who, Silent Witness and The Tuckers.
Colin Jackson (L) and actress sister Suzanne Packer(Image: David M. Benett)
The Cardiff-born siblings have remained close throughout their careers and have even teamed up for charitable causes. Suzanne has supported Colin’s Go Dad Run initiative, which he launched in 2013 to raise money and awareness for Prostate Cancer UK alongside his sister.