Colin Jackson

When double world champion hurdler Colin Jackson was competing professionally, he refused to have a scientist or a psychologist come within a mile of him. He believed his talent was mainly something he was born with and he didn't want anyone meddling with it. Now that he's retired from sport he's agreed that scientists "can take me apart and really see what made me a champion". For this film he goes through extraordinary scientific hoops to find out whether he was born a natural athlete (he was walking by nine months, started running a few months later - and didn't stop running for the next 35 years!) or whether it was just hard work that turned him into a world champion. The tests throw up some interesting ideas: there's evidence that the month you are born can affect your chances of becoming a top athlete; and ethnicity may play a part, too. But it's the results of a muscle biopsy that really astound him.