Twenty years after her unforgettable achievements in Athens, Kelly Holmes looks back on her double gold and talks about Keely Hodgkinsons chances in Paris

Kelly Holmes real rock star moment arrived in Newcastle. In town to end her season by running the Great North Mile, the scale of the reaction to her presence was unexpected, to say the least.

It was bonkers, she recalls. There were security guards all around me, people were screaming and shouting at us, I was pushed into the car, there were people jumping on the bonnet, trying to get on the car and knocking on the window.

It became almost dangerous because people were literally pouncing on me and just wanted a bit of it. Id never witnessed that and never experienced it so it was a bit overwhelming.

That burst of Kellymania in September 2004 came when the golden afterglow of Athens was at its brightest. The then 34-year-old had returned to the UK with two Olympic titles to her name and her sporting dreams realised. Its now 20 years since the former British Army sergeants eyes so memorably lit up when beating defending champion and former training partner Maria Mutola to 800m victory, before putting that medal in the top drawer and immediately turning her focus on winning the 1500m prize she had craved since watching Seb Coe win gold in Los Angeles in 1984.

She crossed that finish line first, too, the feeling made all the sweeter given the years of struggle she had endured. In a top-level career lasting 12 years, Holmes had major issues to contend with for seven of them thanks to ruptured calf muscles, torn Achilles, three operations on my stomach, glandular fever and tonsillitis. There were mental battles to be fought, too, and just a year before the Athens Olympics Holmes suffered a breakdown.

All of that meant she headed into the final Games of her career feeling like she had nothing to lose. Two decades on, Holmes looks back on the time of her sporting life and also assesses the chances of Keely Hodgkinson following in her footsteps and perhaps getting to experience a rock star moment of her own.

What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Athens 2004?

There are different parts to it. I think of how well the team had prepared. We all went in with a relaxed attitude and we just had such a wonderful time in the holding camp in Cyprus.

In the Olympic Village I shared an apartment with Jo Pavey, who has been a friend of mine for years, and I had my own room for once. I remember putting my beds together and putting up all the motivational sayings and the cards that Id received and it made me feel in the zone.

It was also the first championships Id gone into in years when I didnt have an injury, so I didnt have that anxiety to cope with, and I went in with a different focus. It was my last Games and I had a great team around me. Id struggled a lot the year before so in my mind I had nothing to lose and [the focus was] to go out there and do what Id been dreaming of for 20 years. I had a different belief and attitude towards what I was there to do.

And Tina Turner played a big part in helping you at the training camp?

Tina Turner always has a role to play in my life but I remember, just prior to the Olympics, I had my last training session in Cyprus. I was going down to the track with my training partner [two-time Olympian] Anthony Whiteman and Zara Hyde Peters, who was the UK Athletics endurance director. I was there just to do two 400m repetitions with a 10-minute recovery, but it was going to have a massive bearing on whether I did the 800m and 1500m or just the 1500m, which Id still been deliberating.

We were on the way down, I was in the back of the car and we had the radio on but it was all Cypriot stations. It was the most nervous Id been because it was almost as if this session was going to decide my future. Andy turned the dial and as he did that I said: I really need to listen to Tina Turner, Simply the Best right now. As I said it, he turned that dial and the song came on. We just didnt say a word. We went to the track and I had never run that session better in my whole career. I think there were a few moments that happened along that journey that were just fate.

In the 800m final, you were seventh coming through the bell. Was there a part of you that worried youd given yourself too much to do or was it all part of the plan?

One thing about being older and having been in the game for years, is you have that [racing and training] experience. In training I had been very consistent about my pacing. I planned how I was going to run the race and I needed to run a consistent pace rather than it being erratic.

In my day the 800m tended to be run in a very erratic way fast in the first 200m, then it all slowed down, bunched up and then it went again the last 200m.

But that race worked out well for me because I stuck to my pace. The challenge when you do that is that youve got all these people in front of you and at any moment they could just go and ruin your whole game plan! You have to be very alert and very aware.

I can be critical of that run. [I watch it now] and Im thinking: Why am I running in lane two and three? Its ridiculous. I look back now and think I could have won it by a much bigger margin!

I picked the runners off but, of course, Maria Mutola was a formidable athlete and she was just in front of me so it was a case of tracking her. Again, though, I made mistakes.

I tried to go too wide on the bend, she knocked me and that was my saviour, because it made me think: What am I doing trying to go now? I would definitely have lost if I had tried to go with 150m to go. It made me hold back.

Then we were running neck and neck and Id said in training that the thing I needed to do when I got to about 30m from the line was to relax.

By relaxing I mean bringing my shoulders down and not tying up. The thing that happens in races is that you want to fight and use the other athletes energy but that makes you tense up so you lose your breathing, you lose your technique, you lose your form, you lose your focus, so relaxing was a reminder to just breathe and go with that same pace. I practised it all the time in training.

Id messed up in so many races where Id tried too hard and this, literally, was me making that step forward. Athletes are coming in fast but you dont look at them. You just look for the line and, like I said, I think it was fate that got me there rather than tactics.

But there was no time to celebrate. You were straight into the 1500m heats the following day.

I had just become an Olympic champion but I had to put the medal away in a box and put it in the top drawer. When I won 800m bronze at the Sydney Olympics, I did it after only six weeks of running. The rest was in the gym or the pool and fitness work. I also entered the 1500m at those Games and my coach then, Dave Arnold, believed I could win a medal. I was actually in the shape to do that because I was getting faster and faster and faster.

I made it to the final but the one thing that let me down was my focus and my belief. I remember Dave being so upset with me that I had let myself down and effectively my team down too because they put so much into me, believing I could be good, but I was so overwhelmed with the 800m that I lost my focus.

So, in Athens, I remembered those people who had had my back all the time my physio Alison Rose, Anthony, Zara and thinking that I couldnt afford to let myself down again, so I had to regroup.

I was in the shape of my life and not injured for the first time, so I couldnt afford to ruin it by just going in half-heartedly. That was really hard to refocus and pretend you havent done something thats the biggest moment of your life was the biggest challenge but that was also part of the strength that I showed.

Youve said before that in the 1500m final it felt like you were floating.

The third lap of the 1500m is really important because you can either lose your focus or regain your position and feel like you know what youre going to do tactically. When I came into the second and third laps, it felt like something was picking me up. It was so weird. It was like I was just sort of floating through that third lap and into the last.

Ive watched the video back and the only reason I was looking around was to see where [Moroccan 800m silver medallist] Hasna Benhassi was. I remember she was so strong at finishing so even though the Russians were my biggest rivals I was looking for her and thinking: Is she on my heels?. When I saw that she wasnt, I thought: Ive got to go!. I just went for the line and I was extending my lead as I hit it.

Was I in the shape of my life? Absolutely. My training had been so focused. But I wasnt an athlete that could have maintained that same focus for years and years and years. Some do and they become champions every single year but that was not me my body let me down and sometimes my mind let me down, yet my heart kept me going.

Given your mental breakdown the previous year, do you look back now and wonder how you managed it?

In one way, yes. In another, no. In 2003, no-one spoke about mental health so Id dealt with it all on my own but what I did realise was that the team around me believed in me enough to stick with me. I had asked them: Please help me stay injury-free because I know I can do it now.

When I had my breakdown, it was before the World Championships in Paris but I still won a silver medal in the 800m. I was standing on the rostrum and Id had all these people saying: Shes friends with Maria Mutola and theyve helped each other but I was thinking Youve no idea what Ive got going on in my life but I won a silver medal. And that made me feel empowered to think that I could go through everything that anyone could throw at me from an external point of pressure as well as an internal fight to stand on that podium.

Because of all of the disruptions I wasnt always meticulous in my running, despite being really successful. Sometimes my nutrition was rubbish and my focus was down or I was low and, when you have those highs and lows, it will stop you being free enough to do everything.

It stops you fulfilling everything that you should fulfil because theres always some barrier. Anxiety will stop the freedom to just run and enjoy it.

Your mental health will sometimes knock your confidence so badly that you question everything. Youre still training but youre not getting the best out yourself and then your mental health will affect your physical wellbeing so then youre fighting everything.

In 2004 I allowed myself to have the freedom to just feel happy, to take off all of those things, and I just think I was always meant to be an Olympic champion, if Im honest. It just took a bit longer than I wanted.

Looking forward to this summer, what do you make of what Keely Hodgkinson has achieved and her chances of winning Olympic gold, especially now that Athing Mu wont be competing in Paris?

I think shes got a really mature head on her for an athlete of her age. With Mu going out it heightens her chances of being an Olympic champion and I hope that pressure and expectation doesnt get to her.

But she knows thats there and shes very strong-minded. Shes also so relaxed as a person about what shes done I would have taken that leaf out of her book myself!

Do I think she could become an Olympic champion? Yes. But she cant become an Olympic champion until shes on that start line in the final and thats what people have to remember. Shes got to get through the rounds without anything going wrong. Then shes got a chance of winning.

The moment you start to say: Shes going to be an Olympic champion, then the person its likely to have a detrimental effect on is her. If she were to win it, shed be the first British Olympic 800m gold medallist since myself 20 years ago, and only the third British female, along with Ann Packer [who won it 1964], so that would be amazing.

She runs so well and shes a really strong athlete but youve got seven other people in your way and you never know how a race is going to be run, either.

Its one of those races where you hold your breath most of the time, because so much can happen in such a short space of time and at high speed. It chops and changes and you just think its all going one way and then, suddenly, disaster! Thats what happened with Mu.

Thats the complexity of 800m and why I think its one of the hardest races out there. If you take the 400m, for example, yes its tactically very hard and very fast, but youre in your own lane whereas the 800m is very fast and very hard with other people in your way.

In the 1500m you have time to make adjustments, to have time for things that might go a little bit wrong, but with the 800m you have to be so in the zone for that whole period of time. You have to be ready on that chosen day and in the right frame of mind, eyes wide open and ready for anything. Thats why its tough. Whoever wins that deserves it.

I really believe that Keelys got the attitude, the credentials and the experience behind her now to go out there [and win]. And shes fed up with silver.

This feature first appeared in the August issue of AW magazine. For more, s