- Former Olympic sprinter Darren Campbell says he lived a double life as a gang member during his career.
- "It was like I was living in two different worlds," he told BBC Sport.
- The Brit said he eventually chose to leave gang life behind after the murder of his friend.
Former Olympic sprinter Darren Campbell has opened up on his double life as a gang member while he was rising to the upper echelons of the sport.
Campbell was the face of British sprinting in the early noughties, winning silver in the 200m at Sydney 2000 before claiming gold in Athens four years later in the 4 x 100m relay.
On his way to the top, however, the sprint superstar was also heavily involved in gang life.
"It was like I was living in two different worlds," he told BBC Sport. "I had this
Campbell says his journey began while growing up on a council estate in Manchester.
"Initially it was a brotherhood, a group," he said. "Unfortunately, as time went on it became more of a gang. An 'us against the world' kind of thing, because that is how you found yourself.
"I wouldn't say we were bad kids because we weren't. But as we got older it was easy to get dragged into the different things on the estate. You became a product of your environment. The things you see are gangs, gun crime, knife crime, drugs.
"There was lots of fighting. That means you've got to learn to protect yourself and your friends as well. It was down to that - protecting each other - that we became a gang. Then things escalated from there."
Shortly after escaping an attempted stabbing just after he'd won 100m and 200m gold at the European Junior Championships, a teenage Campbell's friend and fellow gang member was murdered.
He knew then he had to get out.
"He didn't live on the estate where I grew up," said Campbell. "He was up to different stuff and got himself into a situation where there'd been an altercation with another group and they basically got somebody to assassinate him.
"That's the reality of it. To this day we still don't know who killed him.
"It was difficult. It showed me how fragile life could be and how quickly somebody could be taken away. It led me to a situation where I had a choice to make - whether to stay in Manchester or not - because my mum had heard I was on a hit list.
"When she asked me to leave Manchester, I just knew I had to go."
Following his move away from his hometown and a brief foray into professional soccer, Campbell began to take his athletics career seriously.
Years of training with some of Britain's best-ever sprinters such as Linford Christie and Colin Jackson propelled Campbell to the very pinnacle of the sport and an Olympic gold medal, which he broke into tears upon winning.
"When I won Olympic gold, the reason why I wasn't in the huddle celebrating with the rest of the team was because I was literally in floods of tears," he said.
"It was like I was having flashbacks of my whole life - the good, the bad, and the ugly.
"It all just came flooding back, along with the appreciation of how fortunate I was to have made it through and to have achieved my dreams."