My biggest fear was not waking up – Roger Black reflects on heart surgery

Two-time Olympic silver-medallist Roger Black feared he would not wake up after he had open heart surgery in January.

Black, who represented Great Britain in the 400m and 4 x 400m relay at the Atlanta and Barcelona Games, revealed on Instagram earlier this year he required a procedure to replace his aortic valve and repair his aortic root.

The 58-year-old was diagnosed with a heart condition at the age of 11 but kept it hidden throughout his successful athletics career and until his six-hour-long surgery at the start of 2025.

“It is a big shock and a lot of people feel that shock when you talk about it. I was very scared of it, I was very worried about it and my biggest fear was not waking up, so just waking up was fantastic for me,” Black told BBC Breakfast during a feature to raise awareness on heart disease.

“If (people) are out of breath, or tired and not sure, just get checked out because you never know. Valve disease, people like me are born with it, but the majority of people that have this operation are not born with it, the valve just starts to degenerate as you get older.

“I feel very fortunate the surgeons have gone in there and cleaned me up. The reality of my situation is if they hadn’t gone in, my aorta could have burst because of the pressure on the aorta and that’s not worth thinking about.

“I was very fortunate because it got checked up every single year and I was given the go-ahead. The only year I didn’t go by the way and see my cardiologist was 1996 before the Atlanta Olympics because if he had said… I still would have gone! He was not stopping me going to the Olympics.”

Black won multiple gold medals during a lengthy career, including two at the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, but arguably his finest hour was a superb run to claim silver in the 400m at the Atlanta Games in 1996 where he beat Michael Johnson to take second place.

Old rival Johnson messaged Black after his surgery and the former runner continues to recover well.

Black added: “It wasn’t something I ever kept secret but it certainly wasn’t something I ever talked about and the reason for that simple. I didn’t want it to define me and I didn’t want it to be an excuse.

“Sport is tough, to win Olympic medals you don’t want any excuses and you need to control what you can control, I didn’t want it to be that excuse.

“It worried my father every day. He worried every day because he knew what I had but clearly it didn’t affect me.”