Derek Redmond on the power of perseverance: What defines you in life

The British runner was favoured to medal in the 400m race at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics but a hamstring injury forced him to pull up during the semi-final. Redmond decided to limp on before his father Jim made his way onto the track to help him continue. Just before the finish, Jim let go of his son and Derek completed the course on his own, prompting the crowd of 65,000 to give him a standing ovation. “Someone once asked me, ‘how do you become successful?,” he tells us. “And the easiest, and most relevant answer, is to get up just one more time than you’ve been knocked down.”