Olympic gold medalist Greg Rutherford has revealed a ‘scam’ which left him with ‘nothing’ when he tried to sell his old guitar on a second-hand site.
The now-retired long jumper, 39, originally from Milton Keynes, appeared as a guest on the Spent podcast in association with Nationwide to discuss the purchases he has made over the years.
Speaking to podcast presenter Matt Edmonson, Greg revealed he was lured into buying an expensive guitar and amplifier after being influenced by a friend who was in a band.
After spending good money on the kit, he realised almost instantly that he didn’t have the knack for guitar playing and eventually decided to sell on the instrument – but fell foul of a dishonest buyer who claimed the guitar arrived ‘snapped in half’.
After complaining to the online platform on which the guitar was sold, the buyer received a full refund, leaving Greg with ‘nothing’.
Speaking on the podcast, Greg, who famously won his long jump gold medal on ‘Super Saturday’ in the London 2012 Olympics, said: ‘I had a friend who came over, who is from Sweden and he was… in a band, and he played a guitar. So instantly I was like, “that’s really cool”.
‘So I went straight to the music shop, bought a relatively expensive guitar, amp, the whole lot.’
However, when he tried to learn how to play his new instrument, the father-of-three revealed he couldn’t even learn ‘two chords’ and therefore ‘never touched it again’.
Olympic gold medallist Greg Rutherford appeared on the Spent podcast, in association with Nationwide, to discuss his spending habits
He decided to sell the instrument, which had been played for a total of ’10 minutes’, on an online marketplace and quickly found a buyer.
However according to Greg: ‘[The buyer] got it delivered to his house. He then claimed it arrived snapped in half. He then got a full refund for it and I got nothing.
‘So I lost a very expensive guitar and amp and he basically got it for free… then he showed a picture and it was scratched up, beaten up – so clearly, it was his old guitar.’
Elsewhere in the podcast, Greg revealed he had an IAAF-accredited long jump track and sandpit built down the side of his house – but joked he has used ‘less than 10 times’ during his career.
‘I invested quite a lot of money in this,’ he said, noting that, in theory, it was a ‘great investment’.
However, in recounting the story Greg explained he was living predominantly in the US at the time, and so ‘never used it’.
Greg, now a father of three, won his gold medal on ‘Super Saturday’ in the London 2012 Olympics
Matt joked: ‘The rest of the time, is it like a litter tray for stray cats?’
Greg acknowledged that this was often the case – and that foxes also are attracted to the sand pit.
He said: ‘It does have a cover on the sand, but if you leave the cover off for about 30 seconds, a cat will poo in it.’
As Greg and his wife Susie discuss potentially moving home one day, he joked he doesn’t know how he’ll market the track to potential buyers – however during the pandemic he tried to offer it up to athletes who needed to train.
He explained many athletes struggled to get access to tracks during the Covid pandemic, meaning he could offer them somewhere to train and put his runway to good use.
Greg revealed his justification for installing the runway was to make him a better athlete, which would in turn make him more prosperous.
‘I thought, “spend money to make money”,’ he recalled. However Greg’s career ended abruptly shortly after the runway was installed due to injury – after spending what he describes as a ‘silly amount of money’.
