Meet Olympic medallist Goldie Sayers, who grew up in Newmarket
Olympian. Eleven-times national javelin champion. British record holder. Businesswoman. Motivational speaker. And now Goldie Sayers has a thrilling new role ... motherhood.
The Newmarket-born Olympic bronze medallist, who will be back on her Suffolk home turf next month to host the Bury Free Press Business Awards, is revelling in being a mum.
Her partner Liz Drake gave birth to baby Eadie in the summer. Speaking earlier this month Goldie said: “She’s just over six weeks old now, and she is quite calm.
“She seems seriously independent already. I’m just so excited for when she can talk.”
Goldie won bronze at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. She was originally in fourth place but eight years later the silver medallist was disqualified after failing a retrospective drugs test.
The Olympic medal was a highpoint of a sporting career that saw her win gold and silver more than 25 times in national and international competitions.
Her British record, set in 2012 with a throw of of 66.17m, still stands.
Goldie spent her childhood and teenage years in Newmarket. Her father was Pete Sayers, the country music star who founded the town’s popular Grand Ole Opry.
He was also the alter ego of Dennis of Grunty Fen – the none-too hygienic son of the fens who became a local celebrity through a weekly spot on Radio Cambridgeshire.
But many fans had no idea Pete Sayers and the fenman with the tombstone teeth and grubby mac were one and the same – which gave young Goldie the upper hand at events where he was performing as Dennis.
“I could get money out of Dad when he was Dennis not to blow his cover,” she confessed.
Her mother Liz, who now lives in Ely, had a long career in journalism and is a former editor of the Newmarket Journal.
“Both my parents did what they loved,” said Goldie. “I used to help out in Mum’s office occasionally when I was a teenager,”
Her talent for all kinds of sport soon became obvious. She attended Fairstead House School before winning a sports scholarship to King’s School in Ely.
A national under-11 schools table tennis champion, she also played hockey, tennis and netball at county level.
But it was when she took up the javelin that she truly excelled and found her niche.
“I first found sport through playing in the garden. My older brother John made me play every ball game going, and a local man used to let us play tennis on his court. We’d also be riding round on bikes.
“At school I did all sports to a reasonable level including running and jumping events.
“I could always throw a ball a long way and never thought anything of it.
“At 13 I was handed a javelin to take home for the holidays. We were transfixed by how far I could get it to go.
“Luckily we had a longish garden. Then it went over the fence and into a field ... and I realised it was going over the backs of £1 million racehorses.
“I was entered into a schools competition which I won. A local club coach happened to be passing by the clubhouse, and my PE teacher knew he was a good javelin coach and invited him to see me throw.”
With expert coaching her distance improved 10 metres within a few weeks and she went on to win the English schools championship.
“Within a year I had my first England schools international. Then my first Great Britain juniors championships, and a European juniors silver medal five years later.”
By the time of the Sydney Olympics in 2000 she was already a national under-20 champion, and among the top young throwers in the world.
“I didn’t quite qualify for the Sydney games. I remember doing a holiday job in Newmarket Waitrose and reading about it in the sports pages. Denise Lewis was a big star.”
When Goldie made the Olympic team for Athens in 2004 she found herself alongside her sporting heroes, including Denise, who had won heptathlon gold in Sydney.
“I would chat to her for ages about being an Olympic champion, and her career,” she recalled.
“The Olympics is something you don’t imagine you will ever go to – it feels quite surreal.
“I always grew up dreaming of representing my country but never dreamed I would be there.”
Goldie remained in the international top flight and set a new British record for the javelin, becoming the first British woman to throw over 65m since javelins were redesigned in 1999.
She had a string of national gold medals under her belt by the time of the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
“I was fourth, I missed out on a medal on the day by 38cms. But then, with all the retrospective testing, the Russian athlete who had won silver was disqualified.
“That was in 2016 – eight years later – and I was finally presented with the medal in 2019, by which time I had completely retired,” said Goldie, who keeps the medal in a box in her office.
In 2012, having battled through injuries, she was on top form at the London Grand Prix Diamond League meeting where she smashed her own record with a throw of 66.17m, beating both the world number one and the reigning Olympic champion.
Soon afterwards, she walked out in front of her home crowd at the London Olympics determined to compete despite the pain of a torn ligament in her elbow.
But disaster struck right at the start when a tendon in her arm snapped, putting her out of the competition.
After a long recovery she was able to once again take part in events around the world, but finally announced her retirement from the sport in 2017.
“You’re quite hard on yourself as an athlete, but then I take a step back and think, I went to three Olympic Games.
“I fulfilled a dream in what I wanted to do as a child. I’m really grateful to have lived that kind of life.
“It becomes normal to travel round and compete around the world. It’s challenging but wonderful.
“I made a career out of it pretty much from when I left university, where I studied sports science and got a first class honours degree.
“I was a professional sportswoman for about 10 years. Lottery funding made it possible to train but I was usually top 10 in the world so there was prize money and sponsorship.
“I made a living out of that and did quite a lot of speaking work in schools and businesses.”
She was, however, always aware that a professional athlete’s career will one day end.
“My primary business now is property investment. I bought my first house when I was quite young then rented rooms to fellow athletes. Every time I moved I remortgaged the house and bought another one.
“When I retired I decided to learn how to do it properly, and set up Athlete Property Investment in 2017.
“I buy to let, and rent to some refugees, and also social housing, I quite like renting to people who may be over from the EU working. My properties are spread all around the country.”
She is also in demand as a motivational speaker. “Often businesses get you to come and talk about motivation, using the lessons learned in sport and applying them to business.
“I’m big on personal leadership and helping people get the best out of themselves.
“Whenever I get asked to do anything I tend to say ‘yes’, that tends to be a thing of mine as well.”
People often speculate where the name Goldie came from and actress Goldie Hawn, a major Hollywood star when she was born in 1982, is a popular guess.
In fact her parents called her Katherine, but thanks to her brother, who is three years older, neither she nor anyone else has ever used it.
“He was being asked what I was going to be called, and he would say Goldilocks. I’ve never written Katherine on anything, and changed my name by deed poll aged about 16.”
She now lives in Torbay, in Devon. “We moved from London in 2020. In lockdown we were walking a lot and thought it would be good to live by the sea.”
Keeping fit is still very important to her. “I knew when I retired I would never pick up a javelin again.
“It’s quite damaging on the body if you don’t train, but I do mentor some athletes.
“Now I do a lot of circuit training and the odd run, and a bit of yoga. I do like feeling fit. I’m not nice to be around if I haven’t exercised.
“I’ve also started playing golf. You have the odd hole or shot that goes really well. It’s a bit like upside down javelin. I also like being in nature.
“I think I’ve got the golf bug a little bit. I can hit the ball quite a long way, but older club members are quite good at the short game. You can play with people of any age. Golf is a bit of a leveller.”
