On the 184th episode of “Listen In With KNN” on Fox Sports 1340AM/96.9 FM, host Kelsey Nicole Nelson welcomed Olympic medalist Colin Jackson.
Jackson competed in Seoul in 1988, Barcelona in 1992, Atlanta in 1996, and the Sydney 2000 Olympics. At 19 years old, Jackson medaled in the 1986 Commonwealth games by winning a silver medal in the 110m hurdles. In 1988 at the Seoul Olympic games, Jackson won his first and only Olympic medal by finishing 2nd in the 110m hurdle with a time of 13.28 seconds. He would win gold at the 1990 Commonwealth games in Auckland, New Zealand in the 110m hurdles. Jackson was asked about the monumental moments and what they meant to him, Jackson said, “Once you are up and coming and developing as an athlete you hang around with the best and see what the best are doing and you grow alongside them. Me going to win all of my medals, I think I put it down to my previous heroes in the event.”
When asked which particular Olympic games hold the most special place in his heart, Jackson said, “You never forget your first Olympic games. Seoul was my very first Olympic games and I was excited, to say the least. 21, your the 2nd best in the world in a sport, three years previously I was in school, and then three years after that you thrust upon the world to be one of the trailblazers of your country. When you think about how many people can be Olympians there’s only a limited amount that can make it a year from the whole planet.”
Queen Elizabeth the 2nd awarded Jackson with the CBE (Command of the Order of the British Empire) award. “When the letter arrives it arrives long before it’s announced and you’ve got to keep a secret maybe for two months and you’re not telling anybody that you got this award from the Queen. It’s a very special medal because it’s not something you train for, it is something that comes out of the blue and it was so lovely to go to Buckingham Palace and see the Queen.”
In 2021, Jackson participated in Dancing on Ice, pairing up with Klabera Komini, a professional American ice dancer. Jackson and Komini would finish 3rd in the Dancing on Ice competition.
In 2017, Jackson came out as gay while promoting a television series called “Rainbow Heroes”. Jackson was asked what the experience was like and when did he find the strength to be comfortable to be in his skin, Jackson said, “You gotta own yourself, own you, own your space. First of all, you’ve got to appreciate that people will like you or not like you regardless of every single thing you do. It was done in a way that I felt was was easy, nice, and I wanted to feel like I was advising other people. You just want people to look at you and just take you for what you can do instead of just looking at you and putting you in a box straight away.”
Jackson is a brand ambassador and international director for S4K (Sport 4 Kids), he is responsible for growing the brand and transforming the children’s sport internationally. “I never thought I would have the role that I do, I’m an international director for a project called “Wings for Life World Run” and we raise money for spinal cord injury research. We had just shy of 170,000 people running for one cause in May this year.”
You can find Jackson on his social media sites: Instagram ColinRayJackson, Twitter ColinJackson, and Facebook ColinJacksonOfficialÂ
