Lexus UK has released a new film, The Power of Two, in which Seb Coe, President of World Athletics, meets Olympic hopeful Alex Haydock-Wilson, revealing what happens when the wisdom of experience meets the raw potential and promise of a new generation.
The 12-minute film, made before the COVID-19 lockdown, records their first meeting at Alex’s home track and the drive they shared in a Lexus RX F Sport. The result was a remarkable conversation between two very different generations, covering a variety of topics: their inspirations, an addiction to winning, the changing definition of power, social media’s influence and even Seb’s first taste of grime music on the car stereo.
The film will feature in an interactive player on the Lexus UK website: lexus.co.uk/poweroftwo that allows you to explore the many stories and anecdotes in their conversation in more detail.
Ewan Shepherd, Director of Lexus in the UK said: “Taking a drive with one of sport’s most powerful and progressive figures is always going to be interesting. By inviting Seb Coe to share his RX Hybrid with a young athlete who embodies the dynamic power and potential of a brave new generation, we captured something really fascinating. The way we generate and use power today is very different to how it was done in previous generations and this is clearly illustrated in the film and made the chemistry between Seb and Alex all the more captivating. We hope viewers enjoy interacting with the many topics that were discussed with humour and insight.”
Seb’s Soundbites:
- ‘You don’t choose your sport, your sport chooses you’
- On rowing: ‘that’s running, sitting down, going backwards’
- On his father’s training mantra: ‘If you cannot measure it, it doesn’t make a lot of sense
- On what his father told journalists was his biggest regret: ‘…that my son didn’t win the Tour de France’
- On winning: ‘Winning is quite addictive and … there is no feeling in the world like there is when you’ve actually won something’
- On losing: ‘Some of the things that I’ve learnt most about myself have actually been in races I’ve lost. My whole career was based in large part on losing the European Championships in 1978’
- On the power of athletics: ‘It’s one of the most accessible of all our sports. It’s one of the most potent social workers in all our communities..and properly used is an amazing soft power
- On being a technophobe: ‘I don’t type, I’ve never owned a computer and only write long-hand’. This is followed by Alex explaining to Seb how regenerative braking works in hybrid cars like the RX
- On hybrid cars: ‘I like the idea of hybrid cars. In towns I’m certain they’re more eco-friendly. My daughter’s got asthma…so I understand the need to keep clean air’
- On hearing some of Alex’s grime music: ‘I’d have to listen to it a bit more..to really get into it if I’m honest’
- On young people: ‘they get a bad rap….but the vast majority are amazing, amazing young people’
Alex’s soundbites:
- On how he got into athletics: ‘I did a lot at primary school and that’s the point where…fastest gets all the girls’
- On his hero, Usain Bolt: ‘The name Bolt, I though that was a stage name…You can’t be named Usain Bolt and come second’
- On losing: ‘I like to give myself a healthy sulking period before thinking constructively ….just be in the moment, “I hate this”’
- On the Lexus RX: ‘If a car could smoulder!’ and ‘It’s like being on the sofa at home’
- On social media: ‘for me (it) has come with some really great benefits. When people halfway across the world say “I watched your race, I really enjoyed it, I wish you all the best,” you really feel like what you’re doing is more than your immediate environment’
- On his athletics: ‘Everything feels like its going in the right direction and I have faith in the process, I have faith in all the people around me…If it doesn’t happen this time it will happen at some point. I know that for a fact; I’ve visualised it so many times’
The film concludes with Seb’s advice to Alex: ‘Keep doing what you’re doing and there will be setbacks…Try and even out those bumps in the road.’
