Legendary athletics commentator Stuart Storey, recognised as a community hero in the King’s Birthday Honours List, is prioritising Wodson Park over Paris
With a track record of broadcasting on 10 Summer Olympics and four Winters, former international hurdler Stuart Storey is happy to sit the next one out.
After 44 years as a commentator, Stuart won’t be drawn out of retirement again for the 2024 Games in the French capital.
He’ll be tuning in from his Ware home for some of the top athletics events from the Stade de France, but his focus will be falling much closer to home.
Stuart, who turns 82 in September, was awarded an MBE in the recent King’s Birthday Honours List for his services to sport and community. His years commentating on some of history’s greatest sporting achievements contributed in no small part to that recognition.
But, just as significant as the work Stuart has done over the past 35 years in leading the creation of a top-level sporting and community facility at Wodson Park, Ware, is his dedication to training the next generation of athletes.
A Deputy Lieutenant of Hertfordshire for a number of years, Stuart said “it was rather nice to be recognised”, by the monarch, but admitted keeping it quiet had been a challenge.
“I was at a Deputy Lieutenants’ lunch at Grove Golf Club after receiving the letter and everybody was there. The Lord Lieutenant knew, of course, as did my wife Shirley, but no-one else did, so it was quite difficult.
“When it was announced, I received messages from people saying “you keep a good secret, don’t you?’.”
Stuart first joined the BBC as a commentator after he retired from athletics in 1973. He worked for much of his career alongside the equally legendary commentators Ron Pickering and David Coleman. Stuart always regarded David as his mentor.
“I learned a lot from David. He taught me about television. I remember him saying to me ‘there’s too much waffle on television. The commentator should say what the picture does not’. And that was good advice.
“We used to work well together as a team.”
From his first Olympics in Montreal in 1976 to London in 2012, Stuart has seen and enjoyed commentating on the greatest athletes from around the world and some outstanding world record-breaking performances.
“There’s only one man who has ever won the 400 and 800 metres at the Olympics and that’s Alberto Juantorena of Cuba. And I remember Ron Pickering saying ‘… and as they get towards 200m, Juantorena opens wide his legs and shows his class’. It was one of the great Coleman-balls.
“Of course, Usain Bolt is absolutely superb and commentating on him in the London Olympics was very special. He was just something else. I also commentated on the Diamond League 110m hurdles final in Brussels where Aries Merritt, the American who I got to know well, broke the world record for my Olympic event.
I even criticised his last couple of hurdles by saying despite the record they were a bit untidy, to which he replied, ‘I was going so fast I couldn’t get out of the way of the hurdles’.”
While he has travelled across the world to bring these moments into our living rooms, Stuart is equally proud of his achievements closer to home.
He was involved from the beginning in the creation of what is now Wodson Park, using his recognition to call in favours as the land, bequeathed to the town by Norman Wodson for sport and recreation, was developed. He remains the chairman of the Wodson Park Trust.
“Because of the, how can I put it, the media status that I had through being on television all the time covering all the major athletics championships, people would do things for me and with me. I considered it a great responsibility.
“We had lots of help from individuals, groups such as Rotary, businesses the professionals, the architects and the accountants and solicitors… they did lots of work for nothing.”
With everyone’s support, Wodson Park officially opened in 1989 and set up as a Trust. It now boasts an eight-lane athletics track, two grass football pitches, two large multi-purpose sports halls, tennis and netball courts and a 3G floodlit artificial football pitch. It also includes a recently refurbished gym. The Park has extensive facilities for events and celebrations in the Wadesmill Suite.
“I was so lucky to be in a position where I was able to get people to give their time, as I was giving mine freely to develop a project that was so big.”
Stuart has dedicated the award of his MBE to all those who played their part in the Wodson Park project.
“When I look at it now, I think how on earth did we do that? Because we had such a fabulous team of people on the committees. Our current management team is talented, having guided us through the dreadful pandemic, and it continues to work towards full recovery. It also continues to develop the Park, keeping up with all the latest trends in sport and recreation just as management teams in the past have done.”
Lord Coe opened the athletics track where Stuart still coaches some of the young local athletes coming through the ranks.
“I’m there a lot of the time. I’m a qualified England coach, giving back to the sport I love. I’ve got about 11 athletes who I’m training on Tuesday and Thursday evenings and sometimes Saturday mornings as an extra session for hurdles.
“As for me now, I’ve come to terms with retirement. I’m quite good at it really!”
