Linford Christie documentary: Olympic greats reflect on their achievements

Linford Christie is one of Britain's most decorated athletes but he hasn't always had the best relationship with the sporting establishment and the media.

BBC One's 90-minute film will utilise unprecedented access and previously unseen archives to delve deep into the former Olympic champion's complicated legacy.

“I was told time and time again that I should know my place,” Christie, 64, told BBC Sport in a recent interview. “I didn't know my place.”

During his 17-year international career, Christie won more major championship medals (23) than any other British male sprinter and in 1993 became the first male 100 metres sprinter to win Olympic, World Championship, European and Commonwealth Championship titles in the same year.

After retiring, he helped other athletes win Olympic medals, including Katherine Mary, who won bronze in the 400 metres at the 2000 Sydney Games, and Darren Campbell, who won silver in the 200 metres at the same Games.

These successes came a year after Christie was suspended for two years after testing positive for the anabolic steroid nandrolone. Christie maintains his innocence.

Christie has also been subject to racism and headlines that sexualise his genitals.

In Kwabena Oppong's film, he comes face to face with his past.

He ends the film on a defiant note, quoting poet and activist Maya Angelou: “You may trample me into the dirt, but I will rise like dust.”

Christie moved to the UK from Jamaica at the age of seven to join her parents, who had moved to London as part of the Windrush generation.

In the film, he talks about his experiences with racism at school and from people in general.

Christie also detailed incidents during his professional career when he felt he was the victim of racism.

He said he felt the remark implied that “it's not something a black person should do.”

Christie also spoke about the time he was arrested while training for the 1988 Olympics after a police officer falsely accused him of driving a stolen car.

Despite these experiences, Christie remains patriotic, saying: “I'm as British as the Queen.”

At the 1991 World Championships, Christie set a new European record in the 100 metres, running 9.92 seconds, but still finished fourth.

The day after the Barcelona win, much media attention was focused on his skin-tight running suit, leading to comments about his genitals, with The Sun coining the term “Linford's Lunchbox”.

“It was the day after I'd won the most prestigious tournament,” Christie told BBC Sport. “That's not what I want to be known for.”

“The lunchbox incident has haunted me for years,” Christie said, adding that he believes it meant some women thought it was OK to approach him and “grab” his genitals.

In the film, he re-watches footage from a 1995 ITV episode of Sport in Question in which he breaks down in tears while talking about how he was treated in the press, and his children also cry as they watch it for the first time.

Christie briefly came out of retirement in 1999 to race for Dortmund in Germany in order to settle a bet with some of the riders he was coaching.

He won the race at age 38, but later tested positive for nandrolone, a banned anabolic steroid.

Professor Ron Morgan was one of the British Athletics anti-doping judges who looked at Christie's case.

In the film, he explains that the commission's role is to “prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Christie's sample was about 100 times the threshold level.

“You'd think that would be a huge amount,” Morgan says, “but the amount is so small that it wouldn't have any physiological effect, but it would trigger a doping test.”

Nandrolone is found in certain supplements and was the subject of a wave of positive tests from athletes between 1998 and 2000.

Former European 200m champion Dougie Walker and former British number one 400m hurdler Gary Cadogan were also banned for two years after the IAAF overturned a British Athletics ruling.

Speaking to BBC Sport about the disagreement between British Athletics and IAAF, Christie said: “We have a governing body in the UK and we need to let them make the decision,” adding: “British Athletics has exonerated me.”

“For two years I didn't earn a penny and spent almost all my savings trying to prove my innocence,” Christie said.

He told BBC Sport that even if he was now found not guilty it would make no difference.

“At the end of the day, they can't bring back what I lost,” he said. “They can't bring back the feelings I went through.”