Zak Skinner: 'I’m one of those weird athletes who loves the grind'
‘I can't see the finish line from the start of the 100m,’ says Zak Skinner. ‘I can’t even see the take-off board from my mark on the long jump runway.’
You certainly wouldn’t call the challenges Skinner faces as an athlete with ocular albinism insignificant. For the sprint distance, the track is reduced to a series of straight lines segueing into a vague smudge of colour backed by, for the big events, a wall of noise. Straying out of lane, colliding with other runners and tripping are just a few of the potential dangers he faces.
The long jump – the 25-year-old’s other, favoured event – is even more testing. All he can do is rely on consistency, painstaking practice and muscle memory. ‘I have 20 strides and I need to make sure that the rhythm and length of those strides are as consistent as possible,’ he says. ‘Unfortunately, when you’re in competition and all fired up, that does deviate.’ It was only recently he discovered that fully sighted long jumpers can see the board throughout their run-up.
‘That’s so unfair – I need to be able to do that!’ he jokes. His condition – he was blind at birth and developed vision only until the age of two – left him facing an uphill challenge to compete at elite level. But he had one significant advantage: his father. Mick ‘The Munch’ Skinner was a flanker for the England rugby team in the 1990s and a ferocious competitor – something he passed on to his son and Zak’s three siblings.
‘Dad instilled in us an underlying cut-throat competitiveness, which has definitely given me an edge,’ he says. Just as valuable has been the sounding board his dad offers when it comes to the viciously fluctuating fortunes of top-flight sport. This was crucial when the Loughborough-based athlete missed out on a long jump medal at the Tokyo Paralympics in 2021 by just two centimetres. ‘The one person who could have taken that bronze from me did so in the last round on his last jump,’ says Skinner. ‘It was brutal.’
His father, who was part of the highly fancied 1991 England World Cup team that lost in the final, knew just what to say – as did Skinner’s hero, 2012 Olympic long jump champion Greg Rutherford. ‘He reached out to me on Instagram and offered some great advice, particularly around perspective and narrow defeats,’ says Skinner.‘This was the guy I grew up watching, the one I looked up to and basically wanted to emulate. I still do. I’d love to have a beer with him at some point. If I do well this year, perhaps he’ll take me up on the offer.’
After a hiatus from the 100m because of injury, he’s planning a twin-fronted attack in Paris – hoping to replicate the double he achieved in June 2021 at the European Para Athletics Championships in Poland. And he’s enjoying the extra pressure, excitement – and self-sacrifice – that comes with a Paralympic year. ‘I’m one of those weird athletes who loves the grind,’ he says. ‘You can’t beat competition, but I actually enjoy the long winter months when you’re just grafting and the self-discipline of sticking to the diet and not giving into temptation.’
‘I do enjoy a drink, but for me that’s not the hardest thing to give up. It’s the desserts; they’re the things that get me. It doesn’t ever feel worth it – until you get there. And I’m starting to get there now; the hard work is beginning to pay off, which is a great feeling.’
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