Page 24 - Ritz Issue 50

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As a spectator I've always found the shot a bit boring
GC: It's the most physically demanding event in terms of explosive effort. Each throw is equivalent to running five-hundred metres. So you're doing that six times in two hours. It's a very agressive event. You've got to have strength, speed, stamina, suppleness and skill and if you lack any one of those you're not a thrower. DL: When did you start training?
GC: When I was twelve.
DL: Were you a big kid.
GC: Yeah!
DL: And trouble?
GC: Yeah ... I was a bit of a problem. I had my first fight with a teacher when I was about seven.
JD: Did you win?
GC: I reckon I did. (Laughing.) 'er name was MARGARET EBB/DGE. We used to call her Cabbage Face. I 'ad another go with the art-teacher, JACK
WELDON, after he threw a lump of clay at me and I just got up like and all the kids were saying 'Go on CAPEY, do 'im' so we had a real punch-up. He nearly tore my ear off. After that my Mum went and gave him a good hiding .. . (Smiling) ... She's a big woman.
DL: So when did you calm down?
GC: I don't think I have. I just learnt to channel my aggression.
JD: Do you ever fight now?
GC: No. I wouldn't hit anyone now.
DL: Presumably you could do an awful lot of damage? GC: I'd rather not even think about it. (Laughing.) / propel the shot at fifty-two miles an hour, right! With a force of four-hundred pounds. With the same speed and force I'd knock someone's head off. I'd only have to hit 'em once.
DL: What were you doing in Holland last week?
GC: I was taking part in their Superstar series on TV. I had to tear a bike apart and pack it in a suit-case. I
beat their bloke. I had to. I can't stand losing ... I'm practising at the moment to go to South Africa. They have this fifty pound bar of gold and if you can pick it up at arms length you can have it! It's worth about two-hundred and fifty thousand pounds.
DL: Do you reckon you can do it?
GC: No, but I'm still going to have a go. (Laughing.)
DL: Were there a lot of injuries in the Strongest Man contest?
GC: Yeah. One guy broke his arm, one broke his thigh, ham strings went . .. one guys' knees went. The biggest problem is that physically you only go so far but then the mind takes over. Sometimes it doesn't matter what breaks, what goes, what snaps, you just keep on going. The truck pull was a bit like that.
Pulling seven and a half tons of truck over a fifty yard
course.
JD: You were running I
GC: You had to. The harness stopped your air when you started pulling.
DL: Is that why they gave you oxygen at the end of the course?
GC: Yeah . .. As I say, what really matters is the mind. You have to have the physical capabilities but then it's all down to the mind.
DL: Why did you lose the tug'o'war?
GC: The rope slipped and cut into my kidneys. Cut-off my blood and I blacked out. (Laughing.) That wasn't mental! I used to have this 'interference' of worrying about what other people would think of my failure so I went to see the guy who wrote 'The Inner Game' about tennis. I suppose he's a sort of psychoanalyst. Anyway, after seeing him I went out and beat the European and Commonwealth records.
DL: Do you have a sponsor?
GC: Dewhurst Butchers ... LORD VESTEY.
DL: Do you have a personal relationship with him?
GC: (Laughing.) I'm not bent! No .. . they pay for my food and my training. I think I met 'im once but the funny thing is they don't want anything in return. They don't really seem interested in commercialising the situation. They also help the kids I'm training. FORD supply my car. I also promote REBOP sportswear and own my own gym which I charge for people to use. (Smiling.) For a thicky from the backwoods, I reckon I've got my head screwed on.
DL: When did you go professional?
GC: Straight after the Olympics.
DL: You seem to be developing a very good image. Are you aware of it? •
GC: Of course. It's funny, some woman wrote something about me in The Star about how when I was an amateur I was mean, nasty and
unapproachable and since r went professional I'd become almost likeable. I thought, 'Yes lady, that's because I'm earning money.' (Laughter.)
DL: Is there a lot of cheating in athletics?
GC: Of course. You only have to watch the Russians, they're the best. In any sport there is cheating but one of the main things is just in putting people off. I remember in New Zealand at the Commonwealth Games there was this hammer thrower and we started
jeering him. You know ... it was hot and we'd had a few beers . .. anyway he came marching across, jumped the fence and put his fists up so I threw a glass of beer in his face, so 'is lot grabbed him and my lot grabbed me, you know, sort of 'keep 'em apart lads' sort of thing. Anyway we got carried off to the team managers office. Well, that night we were in a restaurant and I was down one end with my entourage and he was up the other end with his entourage, there
was a lot of shouting ... 24
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JD: Did you hit him?
early but it took me some time to learn the technique.
(Big dirty grin at JO.)
DL: Which do you find the most spectacular event? GC: Pole-vault. Got to be. A lot of people are arguing the point as to whether it should be classed as a gymnastic event.
DL: And which meeting do you like best?
GC: Oslo for people and atmosphere and New Zealand for scenery and climate. I don't like big stadiums
where people can only recognise you by the colour of your clothes. The crowd should be part of the event. DL: So you didn't enjoy Russia?
GC: No. MAGGIE made sure of that. I reckon sport makes the world a better place to live in and it should never become part of politics. While we were being discouraged from going to Moscow trade between Russia and England was increasing. The same thing in
the US but at least they compensated their athletes financially. I tell you, there's an awful lot of people who will never vote Conservative again.
DL: Will you be at the next Olympics?
GC: Only if it goes open.
DL: Do you think athletes would prefer it that way?
GC: Of course they would. The whole amateur thing is complete hypocracy. The officials know bloody well we all get paid in some form or another. They're just frightened of losing all that honorary power.
that if the thing went open they'd be kicked out. It will happen eventually.
DL: You don't like officials?
GC: I've always hated them and I've never made any secret of it.
DL: Do you ever compete on an amateur level now.
GC: Not really. I go round the pubs and do a bit of arm wrestling for charity. I remember one time I was doing it and a lot of blokes were taking me on and one bloke kept hanging back and letting the others go first and by the time I got to him I was a bit tired and as I'd thought, he was good. Gave me quite a hard time. I found out afterwards that he was a professional.
DL: Professional arm-wrestler?
GC: Yeah. He'd taken part in the World Championships in the States. There's a lot of money in it. Thirty • thousand dollars first prize. Another unusual thing I did was to the World Circus Strong Man Championships
on TV. An English couple won it. SAMSON and DELILAH from the East-End. Super couple. They arrived in a white chariot with white horses. Great act. DL: You obviously need a certain amount of bulk to be competitive but someone like ARNOLD • SCHWARTZENEGER has a much more defined body
GC: Underneath I'm as defined as him but a lot stronger. They take a lot of things to get into that condition.
DL: Like you?
GC: (Laughing.) You're not going to get me oh that again. I just drink a lot of Coca Cola. Listen, we often know a lot more about things than the doctors. They often say 'what do you think GEOFF? . .. (Laughter) ... I mean they often ask 'us' ...
DL: Is there anything you'd like to use but haven't?
GC: Yeah. (Grinning.) Raw sheeps balls. They contain pure testosterone, .the male hormone. The Greeks
used to use it.
DL: Have you ever tried.
GC: No thanks!
DL: (Laughing.) Don't tell me, you have to bite them off a living sheep. Thats probably what builds up your strength. TAKI warned me about the Greeks.
GC: Look, there are so many things that people are taking in the Eastern block countries that are non- detectable. It's a fact that all the Russian athletes at the Moscow Olympics were taking non-detectable drugs that enhanced their performanc.e. All the tests are years out of date anyway. They have a test for steroids but they haven't got one for testosterone.
Another non-detectable is removing two pints of blood, oxygenating it, freezing it and then pumping it back just before the event. This can increase performance by ten per cent. Then there are anti- puberty drugs for the female gymnasts.
DL: You said earlier that you thought your looks had a lot to do with you're success.
GC: Yeah. Understand me, I'm not saying I'm very good-looking, It's just that most twenty-two stone men are pretty ugly. (Smiling.) Anyway you have to keep telling yourself that ... Funny, I just been to a casting for Brut commercials but I wouldn't shave my bea(d off, so they wouldn't use me.
DL: Why wouldn't you.
GC: Well, it's taken me (and my agent) a long time to create an image. Shave the beard off and I'd have to start all over again.
DL: Do you have groupies?
GC: (Laughing.) Yeah, the trouble is there's a big age gap. There are plenty up to fifteen and then I seem to
get the over fifties. Actually, some of the old dears are really sweet.
DL: Someone told me you had a fear of flying.
GC: Ohl It's a phobia. I hate it. If I have to fly I have to sit in the cockpit then it's not quite so bad. Pan-Am won't let me but everyone else is OK. Listen, I reckon they want to survive even more than me.
DL: So you like to keep an eye on the driver.
GC: Damn right.
DL: Are there any sports that you'd like to do but can't?
GC: (Laughing.) Yeah. Hang-gliding!
, GC: No . .. I threw a chair at 'im ... Well he threw a chair at me first.
JD: (Laughing.) 'Ere I He started it I
GC: Well this chair came floating over (!)so I thought we'd better send one back. It all got a bit like a gangster movie. Anyway we were dragged off to the organiser's office and told to shake hands or go home. So I went out and got my gold medal and he came second. (Smiling.)
DL: That was really your first major run-in with the administration where your reputation as a wild man stuck?
GC: Yeah. I suppose it was.
DL: Is the drugs thing big?
GC: It's obviously rife! You're able to take many things within the rules of course ...
DL: What about steroids?
GC: No, no none of that .. . well of course (Big grin). If you've just had an operation you could be given steroids to help you recover . .. Pre Moscow three Yugoslavs got detected. All three got banned then all of a sudden one comes out with a doctors certificate and 'low' an' 'behold' he's the best Yugolsav.
DL: Do you use anything?
GC: That's a leading question. (Big grin.)/ use anything thats available within the rules ... Just! . .. I'm not saying anything. (Laughing.)
DL: Do you worry about wearing your body out?
GC: My body·? My body is finished. (Laughing.)/ might
just about struggle to forty and.that'll be that. Your joints wear out. My fingers have already gone. They
hurt all the time, even when I'm not doing anything. I can't straighten my right arm. I go to Peterborough regularly to see the rhumatologist and have injections in my shoulder.
DL: Does it worry you?
GC: No . .. it's my life and my body. You're only here once and if you've got something I think you should use it. So if I can throw a shot further than anyone else then I should use that. I'm a thrower and'/ owe everything to that.
DL: But it's throwing that ruins you're body?
GC: Yeah. That's why I stopped. It puts tremendous strain on your body, all the time in exactly the same way. The same line, over and over again for twenty years. You wear out one side of your body. What with that and the injuries I decided I'd had enough. I've done three Olympics, four Commonwealths, nine Europeans and sixty-seven Internationals which is a record.
DL: What were your opponents like in the Strongest Man contest?
GC: 'Orrible. (Laughing.) Really 'orrible. I got on a/right with the Canadian guy but he was a shot-putter. It's a mean business with a lot of money at stake. It's not a game but they take it too seriously ..Ilike to muck
about a bit and if you can mix the two I think you're
the winner.
_DL:Do they have other jobs besides being strong men.
GC: Yeah. Pig-farmers, lawyers . .. Funnily enough, as athletes, throwers' education level is higher than the rest (laughing) but we have a few beers, mess about and get a bad reputation. The runners on the other hand are very serious. They don't eat or drink and they only eat the right things. Very boring.
DL: What's the greatest threat to your health.
GC: (Laughing.) Women.
DL: Do you drink much?
GC: Funnily enough, the last time I got really drunk was in 19 74 and that was my best year. I won the Commonwealth. I won the European indoor and came third in the outdoor. I was also the World Record Holder. I beat the World Record Holder at Crystal Palace and went mad. Broke all the lights and bent all the keep-left signs. (Laughing.)/ had to go back the next day to straighten 'em all out and pay for the damage.
DL: Who do you admire as a sports 'personality'?
GC: 'ENRY COOPER.He's a super guy and he's done 'imself a/right considering his limited verbal capabilities. (Laughing.) "Well GEOFF, 'ow you doin' 'en son?" 'Fine Henry'. "/ don't know 'ow you do it. Where does it 'urt most?" 'In my arms Henry'. "Ohl Right GEOFF. Good luck then son. "/ like him a lot. But there are quite a few athletes I dislike. But as a
promoter of my own athletics meetings I have to be a bit careful. (Laughing.) If I say nasty things they won't turn up.
DL: When are you starting that?
GC: I've already started, done two so far. Intact we had the second largest crowd in the country at a little tin- pot meeting in Lincolnshire . .. Cinder track with no stadium, nothing. It was great. I got sixty-eight internationals there and a crowd of twelve-thousand. DL: What does your dad think of your success?
GC: Not a lot. He's a simple man. Does 'is job, goes down the pub, has a_pint of beer, game o'darts and goes home. I think 'e keeps track of what I'm doing and where I'm going but 'e never says anything. You've got to remember my Mum's been married four times ... I 'THINK' I know who my dad is. • (Laughing.)
DL: How old are you now?
GC: I think I'm thirty-one.
DL: You said you thought you were strongest when you were eighteen.
GC: Yes, but then the skill factor comes in and that takes a long time to learn. I was lucky, matured very