Colin Jackson's rise to world hurdling glory will be charted in a new BBC Cymru Wales documentary which airs on Tuesday night.

The 57-year-old - who these days is most familiar to viewers as one of the faces of the BBC's athletics coverage - will look back on his stellar career, which saw him achieve almost everything he possibly could on the track.

In the 110m hurdles, Jackson won world, European and Commonwealth titles with his career medal tally standing at 12 golds, eight silvers and one bronze in all competitions. He held the world record in the event for 13 years, but despite this never managed to achieve his ultimate goal of Olympic gold, suffering heartache in three successive finals as he was forced to settle for a solitary silver.

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However, the Welshman has faced his fair share of challenges off the track too, from keeping his true self hidden from the outside world for 50 years to the agonising health struggle he continues to live with.

Here are some things you may not know about the much-respected pundit.

'Choker' accusation

Despite being such a sporting legend, tonight's documentary will also cover the painful accusation that followed him for months after suffering Olympic heartbreak. The utter disappointment is something he admits he struggled to deal with.

Having won silver at his first Games in Seoul in 1988, and added the world indoor, Commonwealth and European titles to his collection over the next two years, Jackson arrived at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992 as a hot favourite to win gold.

He got off to a blistering start, winning his heat with a jog in 13.10 seconds - which just happened to be the fastest time recorded anywhere in the world that year. After cruising to victory in the first round, however, Jackson then did "no preparation at all" for the second, a decision that would prove incredibly costly.

"It was just the second round," Jackson says in the BBC programme. "They've all seen what I can do so I can't be bothered. Let me do a bit of stretching and just race."

But while he finished second in that race, he hit a hurdle on the way to the finish line and tore a muscle on his left side, making it hard for him to lift his leg.

As a result, he could only finish seventh in the final, leaving him heartbroken. It also led to accusations of him being a "choker", with an advert at the time also poking fun at him, showing a bottle on a set of hurdles.

"You accept it if somebody's better than you," the Olympian admits now. "You cannot fathom the depth of depression you go into. It's everything in your life - everything. You realise you will never have this time again.

"You go from hero to zero in the blink of an eye," he added. "It took a whole year for that to vanish."

Coming out at 50

In 2017, at the age of 50, Jackson publicly announced he was gay during an appearance on Swedish television.

He had previously denied he was gay on two occasions, both in his 2004 autobiography, and in a 2008 interview with The Voice newspaper. However, in an interview for Swedish documentary Rainbow Heroes, the former hurdler revealed he had previously held back from disclosing his sexuality to avoid it being "sensationalised" in the media.

In the interview, the Cardiff-born star recalled the moment he came out to his supportive parents over a decade earlier, after a former partner had sold a "kiss and tell" story to a newspaper.

"I was waiting for them in the kitchen," he said. "They walked in and they sat down. My mother could see my face and I was quite distraught. It didn’t faze them at all. My mum went: 'First of all, is the story true?'

"And I said it's true, so it's not like I can deny it. And then she went: 'Well, why are people so disgraceful?' I just realised, I've got the best parents."

Appearing on the LifeTimes podcast in 2019, Jackson said he was taken aback by the huge public reaction to him coming out.

"All of a sudden my friends were ringing me from LA, Las Vegas, Canada and it made news all over the world. I was like 'Wow! Okay, I didn't think I was that relevant'," he said. "I can understand now why an active footballer wouldn't necessarily want to come out in that sense. If you just want to concentrate on your sport and focus on your teamwork, you shouldn't have to deal with all of this.

"If I was a competing athlete I would have found it very distracting for me. When you don't see many major footballers in that sense (coming out as gay), I totally understand how they would feel."

Hidden health struggles

Jackson also revealed that he has a degenerative condition, which has made it difficult for the former champion hurdler to even get out of bed in the morning.

The condition left the Olympian "in constant pain" for years but, after undergoing stem cell treatment, said he felt "amazing" and "pain-free in the mornings".

In an interview with the Mirror before undergoing the treatment, Jackson said he feared he would end up in a wheelchair as he explained: "I’m in constant pain but you learn to live it with it.

“I’ve got the body of a man in his mid-30s but the knees of a man in his mid-80s. I’ve had seven operations on my knees already – four on the right knee and three on the left knee.

"I just can’t face any more. My knees lock up after long car journeys, and getting in and out of the bath is awkward. I knew my knees were going to be a problem but I hadn’t started to feel it until I got into my 50s.

"When you are young, you don’t worry about it. But when you get older, you realise the grief you have caused yourself. On a good day, the pain level is three out of 10 but on a bad day it’s a 10.

"But I still work out, I still go to the gym and do yoga and Pilates because I don’t want to give in to it," he added. "Before I train I will take ibuprofen so I don’t exacerbate the problem. I’m praying for a miracle because I really don’t want knee replacements and I don’t want to be in a wheelchair."

However, after undergoing the treatment later that year, Jackson said: "I’m pain-free in the mornings. I live in quite a hilly place just outside Cardiff and what a difference it has made to walking up and down those hills. It reminds me of what life was like 20 or 30 years ago when I didn’t have these issues. It’s amazing."

The degenerative condition was not the first health battle that the BBC star had disclosed, having revealed in 2019 that he had battled an eating disorder while training for the Olympics.

"I suffered with bulimia and anorexia when I was training for the Olympics - I felt like I was overweight and eating too much," he said. "I had a job to do - and it was to run as fast as I could and I convinced myself that I had to be lighter to do it.

"Most days, I was on 800-900 calories and training flat out, I would drink a coffee but go for days without a meal. I wanted to be the best, and being lighter was what I thought was the way to be that."

Infamous TV moment

Jackson ventured into reality TV in 2005 as he took part in Strictly Come Dancing and quickly emerged as a serious contender to win the BBC series and lift the coveted glitterball trophy.

Alongside professional partner Erin Boag, the Olympian made it all the way to the grand final and was the favourite to be crowned champion as he found himself up against presenter Zoe Ball and cricketer Darren Gough.

However, Jackson fell at the final hurdle as their showdance was widely panned as one of the worst performances in the show's history. In a bid to show the hurdler's technical ability, Boag settled on a bold routine with the couple taking to the floor with stuffed dummies attached to their feet before dancing separately.

The routine left viewers baffled while judges compared it to an "end-of-pier" show. Even Colin's father, Ossie, expressed his doubts, remarking: "Personally, I don't think it was the dance to do. His choreographer suggested that because it was a bit of fun but it was like a variety act."

However, Jackson defended the "brave decision", explaining: "It was a risk that I certainly think Erin was willing to take. She wanted to show I could dance on my own. It was a brave decision and I enjoyed it."

Nevertheless, the setback was seen to ultimately cost him victory, with Gough and his partner Lilia Kopylova being crowned champions instead - a shock result that was said to cost the bookies a whopping £1 million.

Legends of Welsh Sport is on BBC One Wales at 10.40pm on Tuesday.