KILTY Richard

General
HUMBLE BEGINNINGS
He grew up in a disadvantaged area of Stockton-on-Tees, England, and once lived in a homeless hostel with his family. After failing to make the 2012 Olympic Games in London he nearly gave up pursuing a sporting career. After recovering from injury in February 2013 he had no coach or national funding, and decided to quit athletics in order to join the military. He went to an army recruitment centre but his father persuaded him to try a 60m race first. With no special training he ran the race in 6.62 seconds, and decided to try to make the British national team. He trained by himself, won the 60m world indoor title in Sopot, Poland, in March 2014, and then secured a sponsorship deal with Nike. "I went into the [2014] world championships ranked around ninth or 10th but I thought to myself, 'You've got an opportunity here to completely change your life'. I had nothing. I was living in my dad's spare bedroom when I was in Teesside, I didn't have a car, I didn't have a kit contract. When I trained in Loughborough, I would share [British sprinter] Harry Aikines-Aryeetey's spare bedroom with a friend. We were just sleeping from house to house. So I thought to myself, 'I don't even have a home, all I've got is this opportunity in front of me'." (theguardian.com, 22 Mar 2014; telegraph.co.uk, 27 Feb 2019)

60M SPECIALIST
He has had success over 60m, a distance only contested indoors, becoming world champion in 2014 and European champion twice. "Most sprinters would swap their careers to achieve what I've done, that's for sure. I get the vibe off people who have achieved nothing over 100m that they are like, 'Oh, it's just the 60m'. But I tell you what, I'm doing better for myself than most of them are. If the 60m is my thing, then the 60m is my thing. I don't need to do it over any other distance. It's like saying to Usain Bolt, 'Why don't you do it over 400m?' Anybody who says it's just indoors, look at how many great sprinters have failed to achieve what I have. Asafa Powell, Linford Christie, Kim Collins, Nesta Carter all failed to win the world title. It's changed my life. To the people who try to doubt and try to speak a load of nonsense, thank you. That's why we're here right now." (telegraph.co.uk, 27 Feb 2019; metro.news, 26 Sep 2019)

EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS OMISSION
He was not selected by British Athletics for the 2019 European Indoor Championships in Glasgow, Scotland, but was ultimately invited to compete at the tournament by the European Athletics Council [EAC]. He eventually placed fourth in the 60m final. "I was really upset to be honest [about not being selected by British Athletics]. I feel like I am a character in the sport, I have had a lot of success. I took it worse than not being picked for the Olympics in 2012. I was dropped by one of my sponsors. I got an email saying they didn't want to work with me any more and that I wasn't doing enough social media, which I was. That's cost me a couple of grand a month." (bbc.co.uk, 20 Feb 2019; athleticsweekly.com, 28 Feb 2019; powerof10.info, 02 Mar 2019; mirror.co.uk, 02 Mar 2019; thetimes.co.uk, 02 Mar 2019)

ATHLETICS MARRIAGE
He met his wife Dovile, a Lithuanian triple jumper, at the 2015 European Championships in Prague, Czech Republic, where he won his first European title. Dovile gave birth to their son, Richard Junior, in 2016. "We started to see more of each other in Beijing [at the 2015 World Championships] and then travelled back and forwards. I would go to Valencia, where she lived, to watch her train and she would come over to the north east [of England] and then she decided to move across. In the past I was just thinking about myself, travelling around all the time, no commitment. It has been great to have a family." (european-athletics.org, 03 Mar 2017)