Nick Grantham is smart on fitness

Jan 30 2010 by Hannah Davies, The Journal

HE’S trained Olympic medal winners and national football teams, but Nick Grantham is happy to now call Newcastle home. HANNAH DAVIES speaks to him.

NICK Grantham smiles ruefully as he confesses how much he loves living in Newcastle.

"I couldn’t confess it to my family down south, but it’s a brilliant city.

"You’re close to the coast, the mountains and forests as well."

With his southern accent, Nick is originally from Crawley in Sussex, his voice does stick out in his adopted city.

Nick, 38, is married to Kate, 35, they have one daughter, Erin, five. He is also forthcoming on the friendliness of people from Tyneside.

"They’re great, really welcoming.

"I love it in the North East, I don’t want to tell anyone else about it though, they’ll all come up here." Nick became interested in sport as a youngster.

"My family were always active," he recalls.

"My mum had done quite a bit of track and field in the past and my dad had been in gymnastics in the navy.

"Although," he laughs, "he never actually learnt to swim."

The youngest of three boys, Nick pursued a number of sports, but it wasn’t until he was 12 and began Taekwondo that he was particularly dedicated.

"My mum didn’t want me to do it at all at first," he says, "I think she just thought it was about fighting.

"But she came around."

Nick’s dedication to the sport saw him compete from 1990 to 1997 in national and international tournaments, but he never reached the top level.

"I made it to the world championships, which I was delighted with," he says, "but I didn’t have the ability to go further than that."

While he was competing in Taekwondo, Nick had worked as an estate agent for two years after finishing his GCSEs and then gone into insurance.

He explains: "I didn’t actually realise you could make a job out of doing sport.