Sporting legend Linford Chrisite was speaking at the unveiling of his first photography exhibition, 'Journey to the Podium', a project with Jessops where Christie took snaps of British athletes he has been coaching as they prepared for this summer's Olympics. The British 100m record holder's photos now form part of an exhibition at the Getty Images Gallery in Westfield, Stratford City that will be open to the public throughout the summer of sport in the capital.

Christie noted that away from the spotlight of the games themselves, there are the unnoticed hours of hard work that each athlete puts in in order to give themselves the best chance of succeeding. "I've tried to show what training is like, how it can be fun, intense and painful at the same time."

Christie said that after witnessing the British athletes training, he realised that photography is an important way of capturing those intense experiences and preserving them after your career is over.

"It's really easy to forget to take pictures and just live in the moment, which is great at the time, but I've realised over the years that it is lovely to look back at experiences that you forget and share these with friends and family. 2012 is such a huge year for the Athletes I coach, I thought it would be fun to record their training in pictures."

Written by Alfred Joyner