James Ellington: Seriously injured Team GB sprinter 'rebuilding life' after horror Tenerife crash
A former Team GB sprinter who suffered life-changing injuries seven years ago in a motorbike crash in Tenerife described the "crazy rollercoaster" of his path to recovery.
James Ellington, now 38, represented Great Britain at the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games. He was the passenger on a motorbike involved in a collision with a car in 2017 and suffered multiple broken bonesas well as fractures to his eye socket, pelvis and ankle. His lawyers secured a six-figure settlement to help pay for Ellington’s ongoing rehabilitation and compensate for his athletics career being brought to a premature end.
Speaking to ITV News London he said: "This is closure. It's been seven years now since I had my accident.
"It's been a mixture of trying to get back to my feet, trying to become an athlete again and trying to deal with the accident psychologically.
"So to finally have some closure in the case it brings relief and it allows me to move on and continue with the rest of my life."
Ellington attempted to make a comeback to track and field but was forced to officially retire last year.
He suffered a broken leg, broken ankle and broken pelvis as well as multiple other injuries and flew back to England after five days in intensive care.
The athlete said adjusting to life with so many injuries was tough, adding: It was shock because one minute I'm on the training track and then the second minute I'm in a hospital bed.
"Going from being super-able to function to not being able to move was a very tough pill to swallow.
"But I think with with high level sports, you have to build up a resilience and perseverance to be able to compete at high levels."
Ellington said he applied his athlete's mindset to his rehabilitation and took every day as it came.
And while he's managed to do some more running he's focusing on coaching and giving motivational speeches.
"For me it's all about sharing my sprint expertise with other high level athletes in other sports.
"Before the crash I started coaching other athletes about speed. It's very niche and specialized and not many people in the world really it yet.
"So that was on the back burner once I crashed but now I'm back on my feet.
"That's why I'm going to continue to pursue it and become a motivational speaker and end up doing a lot of speaking events which which I enjoy."
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