Interview with JJ Chalmers

What’s so special about the Invictus Games?
I think what’s exciting, from a viewer’s point of view in particular, is that it’s something so much more than just a sporting event. It is excellent sport and everyone will be entertained by what they see because of the great rivalries and high level of sporting competition, but it’s also the stories that sit behind it - and that’s why you are really rooting for everybody at the starting line, not just the person that’s going to win.

What Invictus event in Sydney are you most looking forward to?
I’ve always enjoyed the team sports, they are just fantastic and there’s always a great atmosphere around them, so I think this year it will be the Wheelchair Rugby. The Wheelchair Rugby final from 2014 which I got to sit and watch in the flesh is still the best piece of live sport I’ve ever seen, it was just amazing. And I just get this feeling that the Australians are going to bring a really good rugby team. I’m hoping that everything is building towards a UK and Australia final and that would just be incredible to watch.

What is your favourite part of presenting the Games?
It’s the fact that for many of the competitors it will be the first time they have done sport, certainly on this level. This competition has all the bells and whistles of any major sporting event, whether it’s the Olympics, Paralympics or Commonwealth Games, and these individuals will feel like absolute rock stars.

I still remember those feelings from when I started competing, I couldn’t believe what had been put on for us. But when I looked at my friends around me, I realised that they deserved this and they deserved to be treated like rock stars. So the idea that I get this opportunity to just be merely the vessel of the event, to share with viewers the moments they will love, should watch and enjoy, because they will be inspired and entertained - is fantastic.

Has there been an Invictus story that has inspired you the most?
Every story it's just so inspiring for so many reasons. There are obvious inspirations from guys such as David Henson, who is genuinely one of my best friends and the godfather of my daughter. A guy who went from being an Invictus gold medallist and now a bronze medal Paralympic winner at the world championships and athletics, that's an incredible story in itself but in some ways that's an obvious story.

There have been just as many great moments that have come from individuals who might never picked up a bow and arrow until three months before, and individuals who never really left the house and had no confidence whatsoever - and then I see them now and they are incredible.

Michelle Turner is a perfect example of that. The first time I met her at the trials for the last Games she barely had any confidence in her sporting ability. And now she is now she is the bubbly character who everyone knew before her condition affected her, and she's now the Vice Captain of the UK team. I mean, what a growth! That is just everything as far as I'm concerned.

Can you tell us a little bit more about your experience as a competitor at the Invictus Games?
The Invictus Games 2014 is still the best week of my life.  Everyone goes, well surely your wedding was, but the wedding was the best day of my life and the birth of my daughter - but as a cumulative week, Invictus was that.

In the month leading up to it, we arrived and it was going to be a little sports day. We all knew everyone that was going to be there because we were all already been in rehab together but we didn’t get an idea of the scale of things. I was quite lucky as I'd been involved in the promotion of the games so I probably had a better idea than anybody about how big it was going to be, but it still exceeded my expectations in every single way.

As soldiers we've always been told to stay away from the media, and then all of a sudden you turn up and it's on the BBC and there are cameras everywhere. People are cheering your name, and we'd been given the Olympic park, it was just world-class across the board and it was with the blokes that I had been in rehab or served in Afghanistan with, we were all just in it together so it was just this incredible atmosphere. It will long be one of the proudest moments of my life, winning my medal and standing on a podium with two of my closest friends and looking up to my family above me.

Have you visited Sydney before? If not, will you have time to explore the city?
I’ve never visited Sydney before, but I was lucky enough to have been part of the BBC’s presenting team at the Commonwealth Games in the Gold Coast - that was my first time in Australia and I’ve got to say, it was fantastic. Organisation-wise, the Australians put on an incredible show and it ran like clockwork. Everything was fantastic, the weather was perfect, and the place was just paradise. Also, the Aussies love sport, they completely embrace it and live for it.

I’m very lucky that I will be flying out early and my family are coming with me, which is the whole point of Invictus, to just have this incredible experience and share it with your families. So we are going out a few days before and we have some friends that live out that there, so we will try to get some time to spend around Sydney and then we move out to the Olympic Park.

Can you give us a little overview of what will happen in the Preview Show?
It would be very easy to cover this just as a sporting event and say, all right here’s the competition and here’s your favourites, but Invictus is so much more than that, and you have to be involved in the stories and get to know the characters. So the launch show is an opportunity to do that and meet some of the UK team, for example, and find out what they been through to make it to the start line. The finish line is a long way off, so we will be figuring out what they’ve gone through already.

Are you looking forward to presenting with Alex Jones this year?
Absolutely, Alex is just the most wonderful person and I obviously know her from The One Show from being in on the sofa, so the opportunity to switch sofas and sit next to her is excellent. I think she is the perfect choice for presenting the Invictus Games, her catalogue of work shows that. Also with the energy and excitement that she brings to any topic, to put her on something as exciting and wonderful such as this, I think she’s going to absolutely nail it.

Sunday 21 October 4.50pm-5.35pm

Alex Jones and JJ Chalmers bring highlights from the first day of action at the 2018 Invictus Games. The centrepiece of the sporting schedule is the road cycling which takes place in a tight circuit around the city’s Royal Botanic Garden. Commentary comes from Rob Walker and former Invictus Games double gold medallist Steve Arnold. In the studio Alex and JJ are joined by special guests and explore the stories of recovery and rehabilitation.

Highlights of the cycling event will also be available to watch on BBC iPlayer and the Red Button from 5.35pm.