Task 2
Questions 13-18
Read the article The Face of the Games. For questions 13-18, choose the correct answer
(A, B, C or D). Mark your answer on the answer sheet.
The Face of the Games
At just 1.5m, Sandra Williams seemed too small to me to be an Olympic champion, but it was her single-minded pursuit of victory that brought her gold. Bullied at primary school for being ‘such a scraggy little thing’, she started training not to be pushed around. And in her teens, when other kids were looking for part-time jobs to get much-needed pocket money, she was on the track, six days a week, her dad urging her on in the pursuit of excellence. But all the determination and hard work paid off at the Games.
Sandra wasn’t just carrying her own hopes and dreams to the Games but ours, too, because the media decided that she was the face of the Games. A giant portrait of her greeted people arriving at Heathrow. She would pass massive posters of herself on her way to training. “I would look the other way, only to see myself on the other side of the road. You’re obviously doing something right if you have got pressure on you, but it was hard.” The amazing thing about Sandra is that it didn’t appear to affect her. She was an inspiration to us all.
The highlight of the Games for most British people was when Sandra won gold. “It’s an amazing feeling when you win, like a massive adrenalin rush beyond your imagination. And then I sank to the ground, my legs unable to support me. It still hasn’t quite sunk in what I achieved. Every time my dad comes around, he’s, like: “You’re an Olympic champion!”. I don’t yet know what to make of it all. But I do know that it has justified the many years of hard training I’d put in for that moment.
“I was so proud to run round the track with the Union Jack around my shoulders. I had proved to myself that I was the best in the world. It made all the years of self-sacrifice worthwhile. It was fantastic to see my parents at the side of the track, so happy. It hadn’t been easy for them either, and I should dedicate my success to them. And my trainer hugged me as if he had won gold himself. I couldn’t have given him a better reward for his commitment to me.”
But it has not been an easy road to victory. “It was hard for my parents to find the money for track suits and running shoes. I suppose I was very selfish, because my training took priority over everything. I was a real problem for them. And I had constant arguments with my trainer and we ended up having couples counselling – it was the closest I got to walking out on everything. But I’ve been seriously lucky. My greatest fear was always that of getting injured, but, thankfully, this hasn’t happened.
Sandra had much to overcome. “You had to be tough to survive in the community I grew up in: high unemployment and kids basically living on the streets. And my father being Nigerian, I stood out a mile from the all-white kids around me. And my trainer always pushed me to my limits, so I’d crash through the pain barrier on almost a daily basis. Fortunately, I’ve a sort of grim determination that I’ve inherited from my father, a determination to be on top of that podium.”
And on top of the podium she was, with a gold medal around her neck.
What motivated Sandra to take up sport?
How did she feel about being the face of the Games?
How does she feel about winning Olympic gold?
She says she won gold for
Her main problem earlier in her career concerned
She attributes her mental strength to