nick willis god’s runner god’s runner nick willis

Nick Willis is the best chance we’ve had for

Olympic 1500m glory in more than 30 years.
Think of the history. Lovelock. Snell. Walker.

When, in August, he reaches the Beijing start

line, he will ask just one thing of us. Have a
little faith.

by ROBERT TIGHE
pictures:ANDREW CORNAGA/photosport

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 nick willis god’s runner god’s runner nick willis

spread what I believe in, which is my faith
in Jesus Christ. This is what my whole life
has been geared to. It is a scary thought in
some ways because this is what I have been
working towards for so many years and
after Beijing it could be like ‘now what’?”
“But I believe there are different tasks
in life and this is just one of mine. The
amount it means to New Zealanders is one
thing but there is a much greater purpose.
It is also about the platform it will provide
to see a confident young Christian man on
the world stage.
“Teenagers who grow up in the church
are often too scared to be associated
with Christians because of the negative
perception. It is not seen as the cool thing
to do. I was one of those kids and I would
like to be a role model for those kids.”
Some might see it as added pressure, a
burden that he can do without going into
the biggest race of his life, but not Willis.
He has been running since he was four
years old and while he has always raced
anything I did. I think I used sport as a
means to make myself feel significant. All
my classmates and teachers will remember
Nick Willis as having to be the best at
everything he did.”
It soon became obvious Willis was one
of the best young middle distance runners,
not only in New Zealand but on the world
stage. In 2002, he finished fourth in the
1500m at the World Junior Championships
in Jamaica. That same year he started an
information technology course at Victoria
University in Wellington but commuting by
train and trying to find time for his studies,
social life and running proved impossible
so Willis followed the example of older
brother Steve and accepted a running
scholarship at the University of Michigan
in the US.
Ron Warhurst, his coach at Michigan
and a former Vietnam veteran - a real “hard
“I love to race and I love to compete. And I’ve
been that way since I was three or four years
put his shoes on and started jogging and I
soon realised he was the real deal.
“He had a really natural stride pattern
and he used to tell me he had such strong
calves because he ran around barefoot
when he was a little one. Everybody who
saw him race in college realised he was
a very special talent. I think it took him
longer to realise it.”
It also took Willis a little longer than he
would have liked to accept God into his life.
He is from a born-again Christian family
but Willis rebelled against religion in his
teenage years. Again his mother’s death
was a factor.
“It was something that kept me from
wanting to accept the truth. I used it
as a way of being angry at God, ‘how
could he take away my mother?’ At the
end of my first year in university I was
contemplating some greater truths in my

picture: hannah johnstone/photosport

to win, recently he has been racing for a
higher purpose.
“I’ve really grown up a lot in the past 18 old. My family has told me it was something I
months and realised this gift of running
I have is a very unique privilege. Before I
was born with.”
always thought about the sacrifices I had to
make for my running but now I realise it is
a joy. I love to race and I love to compete.
And I’ve been that way since I was three
or four years old. My family has told me

I
it was something I was born with. It must

t was taken little more than two years ago,
but the photograph has already become one
of the iconic images in New Zealand sport.
Nick Willis, wearing the black singlet and
running shorts made famous by Jack
Lovelock and Murray Halberg, by Peter Snell
and Dick Quax, by John Walker and Rod
Dixon, crossing the finish line in the final of
the 1500 metres at the 2006 Commonwealth
Games with his arms raised to the heavens,
his mouth contorted into what looks like a
primal scream of pure joy and relief.
The picture captures Willis’ golden
moment on that glorious evening but it
doesn’t tell the full story.
He may have shared the moment with
the photographers, with more than 80,000
spectators in the famous Melbourne Cricket
Ground that night and with the millions
watching on televisions across New Zealand
and the rest of the world but as he crossed
the finish line Willis was all on his own;
alone with God.
“That was a definite God and me moment.
I said ‘Thank you God’ as I crossed the
line and it was probably the most genuine
celebration I’ve ever had,” recalls Willis. “I
wish I was more direct with God straight
after I win a race but you are so caught
up with everyone congratulating you. But
that was very much a Him and I experience
right then.”
Willis and the rest of New Zealand will
be hoping for another spiritual celebration
at the Olympic Games in Beijing in August.
Despite a relatively disappointing 2007 - he
finished 10th in the final of the 1500m at the
be something to do with the way God has
made me.”
world championships and his fastest time
of the year of 3:35.85 gave him an unofficial Willis was your archetypal ‘Sport Billy’
ranking of just 38th in the world – Willis growing up in Lower Hutt, one of those
is feeling confident about his chances annoying kids who excelled at every
in Beijing. sport he played. Hurricanes loose forward
“If I don’t win I’ll be very, very Thomas Waldrom was a rival at high school
disappointed. There are a lot of other people track and field meets and on the rugby field,
who are capable of medalling and while I “I was the only player who could tackle him
would be very proud to win a medal I will and he was the only player who could tackle
be gunning for number one in Beijing.” me,” says Willis.
The countdown to Beijing has been He also played tennis and basketball,
dominated by the politics of Tibet and was an accomplished skateboarder and
Darfur but like most Olympians Willis is snowboarder and played golf off a 12
wary of getting dragged into the debate. handicap. And while he was obviously
“I don’t believe athletes should stop blessed with natural sporting talent, losing case” according to Willis - recalls his first life in terms of where God fitted into the
competing,” is about as much as he is his mother Rosalie to cancer at the age of encounter with the freshman athlete. whole picture.
willing to say on the record. He is much four provided him with an added incentive “I thought he looked a little soft when “That summer I came back to New
more effusive on the subject of sport to make the most of his abilities. I first saw him get off the plane,” says Zealand and did a lot of soul searching. I
and religion. “I was oblivious to it for many years but Warhurst. “He didn’t have much muscle realised how many people I had hurt along
“This is my calling, to be an Olympic I think it (losing my mother) was a driving development. He just looked like an average the way and I asked myself ‘did I want to
1500m runner, and to use this platform to factor for me to try to excel or succeed in bloke from Down Under. The next day he keep living my life that way’?”

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nick willis god’s runner
“It is about keeping your life in
balance because when your life is
in balance you are going to perform
to the best of your ability.”
god’s runner nick willis
I am intrigued. The mild-mannered,
softly spoken Willis is the last person you
would expect to leave a trail of pain behind
him. Who did he hurt? How did he hurt
them? Not surprisingly, Willis doesn’t go
into too much detail about his sinful past
but he does admit to being a bit of a smart
arse in school, always looking for a cheap
laugh at the expense of his classmates.
If playing the class clown played on
his conscience, the temptations that go
along with being a high profile athlete in
an American university prompted some
serious introspection.
“There was the sex, drugs and rock and
roll side of it and there was the temptation
to succumb to that pressure. All teenagers
want to be promiscuous and do all that
kind of stuff but it causes so much pain
and confusion and you don’t think of
the consequences when you are young.
The other temptation is to become overly
prideful of your success.
“People get to a point in their lives that
they think will bring them happiness but if
it doesn’t fill the void they were yearning for
they keep striving for more and more money
or success or whatever. That is why you see so
many lives ruined by drugs and depression.
“There is so much money in sport now
and in America you see people such as
Kobe Bryant and Michael Vick and other
sporting superstars and there is so much
sadness and emptiness in their lives.
“That shouldn’t happen if people think
about why they are doing things. It is about
keeping your life in balance because when
your life is in balance you are going to
perform to the best of your ability.”
To help him achieve that balance Willis
became involved with Athletes in Action
in his second year at Michigan. Athletes
in Action is part of a larger organisation
called Campus Crusade for Christ and it
brings together Christian athletes from
different sports in the university to spread
the gospel. It also provides a social outlet
so athletes feel they are part of something
greater and not doing it on their own.
“Usually sportspeople stick to their own
groups but this was a whole mixture of
people who weren’t competitive with each
other. There is a lot of staunchness in sport
but this was free of all of that. Through
Athletes in Action I saw what it was like to
be a man who had a relationship with God,
a man who was proud of who he was and
was also a serious athlete.”
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 nick willis god’s runner
Willis feels it is no coincidence that his
running improved dramatically after he
joined Athletes in Action and became a
born-again Christian.
“It is hard to put it in tangible terms but
I did improve my time by four seconds that
year. I don’t want to say it was a good luck
charm but it helped me as a person.”
As well as finding God in Michigan he
also found his wife Sierra Boucher who he
met through mutual friends in Campus
Crusade for Christ. Like most things in his
life, Willis didn’t go into the relationship
half-heartedly.
“I went in 100 per cent and didn’t hold
anything back. We weren’t going to date
for the sake of dating. Right from the start
we wanted to see if we were compatible for
marriage. We really felt that was where the
Lord was leading us.
“Before a race he (john walker) used to walk
around the call room in his black singlet to
show them who he was. I do something similar.
I go around and shake the other athlete’s
hands before the race and look them in the
eye. It exudes a certain confidence.”
“We ended up getting engaged after six
months and getting married five months
after that. She is working with me to help
me win the Olympic gold medal. I am the
one who gets the accolades but we are doing
this Beijing campaign together.”
Willis and his wife spent a couple of
weeks back in New Zealand in March.
As well as an impressive showing at the
national championships, Willis also found
time to do several speaking engagements
and relive his Commonwealth Games
win again.
“I’ve probably watched it 500 times or
something like that. I’ll always be grateful
for my whole career but that will be a
moment I’ll never forget. This short stint
at home has also been important in that it
has reestablished the sense that I am being
sent from here for my final preparations
for Beijing with the whole Hutt Valley
community and the whole of New Zealand
behind me.”
Willis is very conscious of the great
tradition of middle distance running in
New Zealand and of the exploits of Lovelock
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and Snell and Walker. And he has learned
a thing or two from those who have gone
before him, including a trick he picked up
from John Walker.
“Before a race he used to walk around
the call room in his black singlet to show
them who he was. The call room is where
they bring the athletes before they take you
out on the track.
“Most people just sit and stare at
the ground but John Walker didn’t. I do
something similar. I go around and shake
the other athlete’s hands before the race
and look them in the eye. It exudes a
certain confidence.”
And Willis is feeling confident ahead
of his second Olympics. Four years ago as
a raw 21-year-old college student he just
missed out on a place in the final of the
1500m by 0.19 of a second. He has grown
up a lot since Athens.
“The biggest thing I learned in Athens
was how to cope with the excitement
between races. You have two nights between
races and I got overly excited after doing
well in the first race. I started getting ahead
of myself and really struggled to sleep for
the next two nights. I am going to be more
mature and relaxed in Beijing.”
He is also relaxed about the fact that
many people have written him off after a
less than impressive 2007.
“I am happy for them to say that. I
didn’t race in Europe last year because I
had suffered two stress fractures earlier in
the year.
“I did some heavy base training not just
for the world championships but for this
year which is more important. I was looking
at the big picture and I still managed to
finish 10th in the world championships
despite not being in a very confident frame
of mind.”
Bernard Lagat won the 1500m and 5000m
titles at the world championships last year
and while the Kenyan-born American will
go into Beijing as the warm favourite to win
god’s runner nick willis
the 1500m, Willis believes the race is wide
open, “I could name eight or 10 other guys
who are as good as him,” he says.
That might be stretching it a little bit.
Lagat has the third fastest 1500m time
in history; his 3:26.34 in 2001 has been
bettered only by the great Hicham El
Guerrouj. In contrast, Willis’ personal best
is 3:32.17 set in 2006.
And while Willis thinks 3:34 will be good
enough to win gold in Beijing, Warhurst
who shares the coaching duties with Willis’
older brother Steve, reckons his protégé
will have to come close to his personal best
to win a medal.
“I think it might take a 3:32 to win a
medal,” says Warhurst. “Nick’s goal is to run
3:30 or under before or after the Olympics
and I think that is well within his capability.
He needs to stay near the front and stay out
of trouble and use his natural speed.
“There are no rabbits in the Olympics so
to win a medal he will have to be very smart
and very patient and run a tactical race. But
he can race. He loves racing and tactics will
become very important in the run-up to
the Olympics.”
The countdown to Beijing starts in Rome
at the Golden Gala meeting on July 11 where
Willis hopes to run a fast 1500m. After
that he will compete in two 800m races
in Monaco and Finland at the end of July
before flying to Beijing. Warhurst didn’t
travel to Melbourne for the Commonwealth
Games final but he is excited about seeing
Willis run in Beijing.
“I believe if the training goes properly
and he doesn’t get any serious injuries
he has a great opportunity to get on
the podium. The key is to stay healthy,”
says Warhurst.
Healthy or not, Willis has already
proven he has the temperament for the big
occasion. Leading up to the Commonwealth
Games, Willis picked up two viruses and
his training was severely restricted.
“I’d train for a day and then have to take
three days off so I had to rely on the huge
training I had put in up to that rather than
the training in the last four weeks before
the Games. I was very nervous before the
race and I was stressed that it wasn’t going
to be the true Nick Willis lining up. But I
had a real sense of peace and confidence
on the start line in Melbourne that I wasn’t
going to let anyone take it away from me. I’d
love to rekindle that feeling in Beijing.”
God willing, Nick Willis, God willing.