Phillips Idowu has been world and European triple jump champion, as well as an Olympic silver medallist in Beijing.

Before he goes for gold in London, you can see him take part in CBBC’s new sports show, Ultimate Sports Day, which sees kids take part in a range of wacky sports, from bungee basketball to the push-o’-war.

Read our exclusive interview with Phillips below, then scroll to the bottom to see him in some cool clips from the show.

At the boot camp where the kids were selected, what did you think the standard was like?

Oh man, it was good. The kids were really, really competitive. They were pretty talented anyway, because a lot of them were county and national standard in their events, whether it was archery, gymnastics, football or whatever.

Did they adapt to the different sports?

Yes, they did. And I think it’s important at that age just to try new sports and new events. A lot of the basics you learn in any sport, you’ll use in others. Whatever you do, you’re going to need agility, strength and endurance.

And you held a masterclass on basketball. How good would you say you are?

I’m not too shabby! That was my first sport, so I’ve got the basics down, and the fact that I jump for a living makes it quite easy when it comes to doing all the dunks and the flashy stuff.

So you have a lot of flair moves then?

I’ve got some!

I would have hoped so. My PE teacher didn’t think so, which is why he pushed me towards track and field. But then, at that time, I was still quite short. I didn’t grow until I was about 16 or 17 but, by that time, I was heavily involved in athletics. It might be something I do after I finish my athletics career.

Back to the show, how was the archery session?

That was tough. I made sure I was behind the kids when they were firing! I wasn’t about to get myself impaled. It was good fun, but it’s really not as easy as it looks.

Did you get close to the target?

Nowhere near!

Did any of the kids pick it up quite easily?

Yes, they were really good. I was quite surprised. They gave me a bit of grief, because I wasn’t too good at it!

You form a dream team with some other athletes at the end of the series to take on the best kids. How good were they?

They were really good. You can tell they really wanted it, really wanted to win.

Did you have a favourite event?

I only competed in the bungee basketball. There were lots of good events there, though, and I would have liked to try a few more.

Was it quite difficult to get used to?

I had a little test beforehand, a two-minute warm-up so that I could get used to the event. But it was really hard, nowhere near as easy as it looked.

One of the mentors is Barry McGuigan, the former world champion boxer. Even though he’s 50, he still looks like he keeps himself in shape.

Yeah, I wouldn’t mess with him at all! He is still in good shape, because he does some workouts with the young boxers that he coaches. I think once you’ve involved with sport, it’s kind of hard to stop. You always want to keep yourself in reasonable shape and it becomes a lifestyle. I’m always gonna want to do something, I’m always gonna want to keep in shape. My diet might go to pot, but I’ll still try and work out now and again! I’ve always been active, so I can’t see it changing.

I just felt sorry for him. I thought it was a shame. I couldn’t imagine sitting at home and watching someone take away my Olympic title without even having a chance to defend it.

Yes, I have to be confident whenever I go out and face anybody. I always want to feel and believe that I’m the best athlete out there. My distances have been good over the last six years. They’ve been improving and I aim to keep doing that.

Who do you think will be your main competitors this time? Christian Taylor and Teddy Tamgho?

You know what, you never know on the day, that’s the thing. I try not to focus on one opponent when I’m competing. You have 12 people in a final and any one of them could pull out the jump of their life. It only takes one jump out of the six we’ve got, so I don’t want to focus my attention too much on one person. The only person I need to concentrate on is myself. If I focus on myself and execute my jumps the way I know I can, then I’ll always be the one who comes out on top.

Will the crowds in London spur you on or make you more nervous?

It depends on how you are as a person. I think I’ve been doing it so long now that I’m able to keep composed, and I can keep my composure when I go out into the arena. There will be a lot of pressure, but a lot of that will come before you step into your event. Before you step on the track, it’s the pressure you get from external forces, pressure from people wanting you to do a lot more media work, press interviews and so on. Plus the general public’s expectations of you going out and getting a medal. Once I’m on the track in my competition, I’m able to shut everything off that’s going on within the stadium and just focus on the job at hand. The crowd and the stadium and the occasion itself won’t be something that gets to me.

When people stop you in the street now, what do they say?

Everyone’s expecting a gold medal, that’s pretty much it! They all know the Olympics is coming, so they’re like: “Yeah, you’re gonna get to that final and win the gold.” So no-one’s thinking anything other than a gold medal for me. Which is nice that people have that kind of faith, so hopefully I’ll do them proud.

If you win an Olympic gold, will you be able to retire happy?

I’d feel like I’ve achieved a lot of what I want to achieve in the sport, so that’d be great, but I’m not sure it’d be the start of my retirement. There will be nothing left for me to win in the sport, I’ll have picked up every medal at every championships available. Which is nice!

Everyone always asks you about the colour you dye your hair, and a while back you said that red was your winning colour. Is that what you’ll be going for at the Olympics?

We haven’t made that final decision yet, we’re still six months away.

What, you don’t plan your haircuts six months ahead?!
No, not that far in advance!

Ultimate Sports Day starts on CBBC at 9am on Saturday 28 January. Watch the video below to see some clips of Phillips on the show.