THE BIG INTERVIEW BARRIE WELLS @ATHLETICSWEEKLY N 2008 Barrie Wells was sitting in the Bird’s Nest stadium in Beijing watching the Olympic Games and had an idea. After Imaking millions selling insurance The most generous businesses, the money was burning a hole in his pocket. Donating it to international charities was a possibility. Yet what really excited him was the idea of bolstering the man in the sport chances of British Olympic hopes in the run-up to London 2012. “I told my son, who I was sitting BRITISH MILLIONAIRE BUSINESSMAN AND ATHLETICS FAN BARRIE WELLS HAS HELPED next to, that I was going to give a lot JESSICA ENNIS-HILL, KATARINA JOHNSON-THOMPSON AND OTHERS REACH THEIR of his inheritance away to athletes,” POTENTIAL WITH HIS SPONSORSHIP AND SUPPORT. JASON HENDERSON MEETS THE says Wells, “and he thought it was MOST GENEROUS MAN IN ATHLETICS a great idea!” After Beijing, Wells set about surely been the sport’s biggest identifying people from various benefactor in the last decade or so. Olympic sports to help, which Social distancing is only just included, among others, Katarina starting to kick in across the Johnson-Thompson and Jessica country, although soon after my visit Ennis-Hill. In total he spent about Wells’ office will, like many others, £2 million helping them realise temporarily close. So I am lucky to their ambitions, effectively turning get my interview with him in before him into one of the biggest unsung the national shutdown begins. heroes in British athletics as the On one side of his office are athletes won global titles. framed photographs of the many I meet Wells at the offices of his athletes he has helped, such as Barrie Wells Trust in Lancaster. I KJT, Ennis-Hill, Jenny Meadows, Dai have bumped into him a few times Greene, Holly Bradshaw, Steph Twell, briefly on the athletics circuit over Mike Rimmer and Jodie Williams, the years and we had exchanged plus those from other sports such Quarter-miler: emails a few times but I was keen as gymnast Beth Tweddle. On the Barrie Wells (left) to get to know a man who has other side of the room are photos takes the baton of his brilliant Box4Kids scheme, where seriously ill or, in some cases, terminally ill children enjoy VIP treatment in a special box at sporting events like the Anniversary Games in London or football matches at Anfield – the home of his beloved Liverpool FC. In total I spend a fascinating am going to give this to athletes as explain what I was going to do there “She recommended different four or five hours with him and it it is the sport I understand. In that was no real enthusiasm for it.” sports to me like swimming, could easily have been twice as stadium in Beijing, I thought ‘London He jokes: “I thought they might triathlon, etc., although British long. As I discover, he knows his is in 2012, I love athletics and I can have sent a car to my house and Cycling didn’t really need my athletics history and statistics get involved and if I sponsor picked me up straight away to talk money and it was an idea which better than I do, whereas the story athletes I can go and watch them about it. But they didn’t. So I then was foreign to their culture, of how he came to fund athletes is train and be on their journey.” wondered ‘what do I do next?’” although my discussions with a remarkable tale of generosity and Having a couple of million He continues: “I still wanted to do them were all very amicable. philanthropy. pounds to give to athletes is not it, though, so I went to see Baroness “I then saw Niels de Vos (UKA Before the Beijing Games he had an everyday occurrence, though, Sue Campbell, who was the chair at chief executive at the time) and toyed with the idea of sponsoring and initially he had trouble actually UK Sport, the organisation that did went in with my list of athletes and Katarina Johnson-Thompson (top) with athletes but says of the moment in trying to give it away. “I found it the (official) funding for all the sport. showed him the ones I wanted to benefactor Barrie Wells; Adam Gemili at a Box4Kids event (above); and Wells at Newmarket the Bird’s Nest: “That was when it hard to engage at the time with UK And she saw me right away with no sponsor and he asked if I wanted racecourse with Box4Kids families (right) came together for me. I thought I Athletics,” he says. “When I wrote to messing. any input but I told him I knew who 26 AW AW 27 THE BIG INTERVIEW BARRIE WELLS @ATHLETICSWEEKLY Wells never tried pole vault Box4Kids – a winning idea himself, although ironically one of WHEN Barrie Wells bought a spectators’ his funded athletes was UK record- box at Anfield in 2010 for seriously ill holder Bradshaw. As a sprinter, children to enjoy a VIP day watching though, he ran 4x400m at the AAA Liverpool FC, he had no idea how Championships and competed at much it would grow. His Box4Kids the famous White City stadium. concept is now at around 200 venues Later, he made a comeback as with Premier League football grounds, an over-40 veteran athlete while racecourses and entertainment living and working in Singapore venues like the O2 Arena being from 1979-86. “It was beautifully among the places used. Hip hop group warm with a great climate and An annual box at Anfield costs around Rak-Su with ideal for training,” he remembers. Barrie Wells “Someone suggested that I took £80,000 but Wells has generated such goodwill (top left) and with his scheme that he finds people now Box4Kids children up athletics again and come back donate boxes to him. UK Athletics, for example, as a master. So I did and despite provide a box at the Anniversary Games at the London Stadium WHAT THEY SAY: weighing 19kg more and being so DAI GREENE, 2011 world 400m hurdles champion: and on one memorable occasion Niels de Vos from the many years older I only ran two “Barrie started helping me long ago and helped me seconds slower and clocked 52 governing body took the children into the bowels of the stadium with accommodation costs as I moved from Cardiff seconds as a 42-year-old.” to meet Usain Bolt. to Bath to be with a different coach. I would do school He even travelled back to the UK “He told the kids they had a surprise,” says Wells. “We went appearances in return and got the opportunity to underneath in the stadium and we saw Usain Bolt. It was introduce lots of students to hurdling, which was great. to have a tilt at the British Masters hilarious as Bolt pretended to ignore the kids on purpose but “Barrie is probably the most enthusiastic and Championships and was narrowly then quickly turned around and surprised them with a huge optimistic supporter of athletics that I know. He beaten after going off too slow. smile, which was a really nice moment.” Barrie Wells with his original group of is always there to follow the athletes that he has But he won Asian masters sprints sponsored athletes, including Jessica supported. It’s a rare thing to get someone who loves to titles and then made another mini- Wells’ team in Lancaster work hard to provide more children Ennis-Hill, Steph Twell, Katie Hewison, support athletes as much as he does, he understands with a VIP experience and Wells says: “We would love to use Michael Rimmer and KJT comeback as an over-50 and ran that it’s not always an easy journey to become an elite boxes that maybe aren’t going to be used, which sometimes 24.8 for 200m. athlete. His Box4kids scheme is a clever idea, offering happens. If it’s for a Premier League game, we can fill it in an Wells modestly plays down fantastic experiences to kids, it’s a pleasure to be a his performances, though. “When hour after talking to the hospitals.” part of it.” you see what other people do, it’s incredible,” he says, with his ‘inner Barrie Wells (third from left) at I wanted. He was a bit surprised that to team up with coach Malcolm influenced her and she quoted men and women that he chose fan’ resurfacing. “Steve Peters for a Box4Kids event before a I had Katarina (Johnson-Thompson) Arnold and Meadows found winter Steve Prefontaine, who once said, to sponsor, 11 made the top six example is an incredible masters Liverpool FC match as she was only 15 at the time and training camps in South Africa ‘The best pace is a suicide pace at London – an extraordinary sprinter.” hadn’t come across his radar much. valuable. and today looks like a good day to achievement. “Those Olympics were Now aged 79, Wells still looks in But he was happy to write what Yet Wells was hugely intrigued by die’. I told her he died in 1975 but a culmination to me,” says Wells. good shape. Not just physically but was a very good letter to Jessica one athlete in particular – Johnson- she said that she knew that but mentally too. He proves it as well Ennis, Katarina’s mum and about Thompson. He had a passion for that she could relate to it. So when A lifetime in athletics with a party trick that illustrates eight athletes in total to ask if they combined events himself and she went on to the start line in the Track and field runs in Wells’ blood.