Brian Jacks: Olympian, Superstar and maybe... UFC coach

Sports Content Strategy with MrRichardClarke: Exploring sports content, journalism, digital and social media

Brian Jacks was a household in the UK in the 1980s. The pinnacle of the judo player’s sporting success came when he won a bronze medal at the Munich Olympics in 1972. But a few years later he would become much more famous as the UK and European champion in Superstars, a popular television programme that saw the best athletes of the day compete in events outside their niche. The show grew throughout the world to become perhaps the first modern example of how sporting heroes could cross into mainstream media, with all its financial benefits, through light entertainment television.

Now living in Thailand, Jacks talks about his motivations, how he leveraged his Superstars fame, his rivalry with Daley Thompson and why he’d love to be a grappling coach in UFC

Podcast partner: Sports Tech Match - Simplifying Sports Tech Procurement

TOPICS

Was his mental strength the key to his success, not his physical strength

The importance of a challenge

Making sure you have the grit to make his career ‘gambles’ pay-off

Why Brian believes Team GB judo is ‘soft’

“You have to see what failure is to see what achievement is”

Getting on to Superstars

How he monetised his stardom

Did you he enjoy the fame?

His approach to Superstars - breaking down the problem?

How do you find his ability to rise to a challenge?

Would he have fancied turning to UFC?

Coaching Neil Adams and punching him in the face as motivation before the biggest bout of his career

The power of community in his success

Being from a Black Cabbie family

The rivalry with Daley Thompson

Brian’s life now - his fitness, his hotel and charity work

Feeding over 32,000 people who were starving as a result of the pandemic

Running his apartment block business

His ambitions now