Phillips Idowu: Athletics helped me to get out of Hackney... but now I'm back for gold

The 33-year-old, who was brought up in the Olympic borough, said that if it had not been for athletics he could have been sucked into a life of crime.

The British champion spent time in foster care - his father was in and out of prison - and had friends involved in drugs and gangs.

He said of his troubled upbringing: "You saw things: drugs, crime, which were just normal."

Asked by ES Magazine if he ever became involved, he replied: "I'm not going to sit here and say I did any of that, but yeah, I had friends who were."

Now Idowu, who won the world title in Berlin in 2009 and took silver in Daegu, South Korea, last year, said he saw the London Games as the place to get the Olympic gold medal that has so far eluded him.

"To have the Olympics not only in your home town, but in your manor ... that doesn't happen for many athletes."

The 6ft 5in Idowu said he initially wanted to be an NBA basketball player but a PE teacher saw his potential and pushed him towards athletics.

"Athletics was a chance to get out of Hackney," he said. Literally so. "I was going to Mile End to train and then later to Crystal Palace," he added.

Idowu also revealed how he rose to the top of his sport without the support of his family.

"My parents never watched me compete. Like a lot of African families they wanted me to concentrate on my schoolwork. They saw athletics as a distraction from that. My sister probably only watched me compete for the first time two years ago. I don't know if my brother has ever watched me," he said.

Now with his own family, Idowu has asked his partner Carlita and their two children, D'Karma, four, and Prince, two next month, to stay away from the Olympic stadium when he competes this summer, but only so he can "switch out of being daddy" and stay focused.

"It's easier when they're watching me on the TV, when they can jump and down and shout 'Go Daddy!'"

The full interview can be read in tomorrow's ESMagazine