Taekwondo's world No1 is aiming high in London next year and in South Korea this weekend at the world championships
Aaron Cook cracks his knuckles and apologises politely for being late. Pale skinned, slight of build and softly spoken, the 20-year-old taekwondo world No1 has nothing about him that suggests he is accomplished at kicking people's heads in ? but that is exactly what Cook has spent the past 15 years perfecting.
From the age of five the Dorset-born fighter has dedicated his life to a sport that he fell in love with ? by accident ? after his parents took him to a taekwondo class to discourage him from performing Power Ranger kicks on his younger brother. Ever since then he has been obsessed. Not in the ordinary way that every British athlete aiming for 2012 is obsessed ? dedicated, focused, blah blah blah ? but, instead, seriously devoted.
Perhaps you have to be, in a sport where a broken nose means a quick ringside nasal manipulation from a doctor before leaping back into action. But it is not just the physical agonies of the sport. Taekwondo has become Cook's entire life ? he left school at 15 with no GCSEs and says he has no time for friends because he is in pursuit of greatness.
On Sunday in Gyeongju, South Korea, Cook will attempt to take the next major step in his career ? having already won world junior and European senior titles ? and become the first British man to win a gold medal at the world championships. On his wrist is a yellow band, worn by everyone in his family, which reads "Cook 2012 Gold". But while most British athletes say that winning a medal in London is their ultimate aim, Cook says he wants "bigger and better things".
Conceivably he could hold a world and Olympic title by the age of 21 ? and then what will there be left to achieve? "I know," he says with a sigh, "but if I want to be the greatest I have to win them all over again. And over and over again. I want to be the greatest fighter that's ever been. To do that I'm going to have to win six world titles and three Olympic golds. I've got a lot of work to do."
Cook's calculations are based on the great American taekwondo competitor Steven Lopez, who holds two Olympic titles and five world titles. Would he like to be the next Lopez, I ask? "I want to be better than Steve Lopez," he says.
Lopez, the defending world champion, is 12 years older than Cook and is considered something of an untouchable in the sport after he went unbeaten for a decade before losing his Olympic title in Beijing. Cook beat him last year and feels confident that he could take him again in Gyeongju ? if he turns up.
"There's a rumour that he's not actually competing. There's a qualification tournament for the Olympics about a month later ? we're lucky that as a host nation we don't have to go to that ? so some of the players are considering maybe not doing this worlds. I'm not really bothered either way. If he's not there, I'll just have to beat whoever is there and, if he is there, then what a way to win a title, beating the greatest player of all time in Korea."
If Cook's route into the sport was a lucky accident, his progression has been anything but. When taekwondo was announced as an Olympic sport, making its debut in Sydney in 2000, the Cook family planned how to proceed.
"I was about seven or eight and my parents sat me down and asked me if I wanted to go to the Olympics one day. I said of course. They said maybe you can go in 2008, you will be 17 then. I had to learn the new discipline [Cook started in ITF (International) but changed to WTF (World) when that code went Olympic] but I started winning in that and quickly moved on to international competitions."
The transition was not easy. Growing up in Dorchester taekwondo was something of a rarity, with the nearest WTF code club a 100-mile round trip away in Southampton ? a journey Cook's father then undertook three times a week ? as well as building a gym in the back garden so that Aaron could train before and after school each day. When the British academy opened in Manchester the family relocated. Even now his career is very much family oriented, his brother travelling abroad to film rivals for Aaron to watch.
There are truly no distractions in Cook's young life, even when it comes to having a girlfriend. "I do have a girlfriend," he says shyly, "it's Bianca [Walkden, British team?mate and girlfriend of five years, also competing at the world championships]. She's quite feisty. We like to have a little fight. Sometimes I kick her in the head. Sometimes she'll kick me in the head and then goes on about it for weeks and weeks.
"We've both got this big dream of getting to London 2012. Now she's world No2 she's got a good chance. It would be pretty cool if we both won gold at the world championships and then made it to London and won gold there."
In South Korea, the homeland of taekwondo, the pair cannot fail to be inspired by a nation fanatical about the sport. "There's something special about it," Cook says with a smile, "you see little kids running around in their taekwondo suits and stuff ? Even normal people working in a shop have done taekwondo. They'll say, 'Oh I'm a black belt', it's amazing." Cook reels off a few Korean words; does he know any swear words? He shoots me a disapproving look. "No. They'd probably beat you up for that."
Cook is probably best known for his appearance in the Beijing Olympics where controversial refereeing decisions prevented him from making the final or even winning bronze against China's Zhu Guo. Many believed he had done more than enough to win but the referees ruled otherwise and the 17-year-old Briton was left in floods of tears. "There were a lot of people in those Olympics that won matches and didn't get the decision," he says bitterly.
In truth it was remarkable that Cook even made it to Beijing. In Olympic qualification, aged 16, he fought men twice his age, seven kilos heavier than his teenage frame. He was an underdog but still believed he could win gold.
Leaving Beijing empty-handed shook the foundations that Cook's life had been built upon. "I went through a bit of a mental breakdown to be honest. Training so hard and believing in myself and then feeling something was robbed of me.
"For two or three weeks I was distraught, thinking what's the point? Why have I trained all this time? It felt like the world was ending." But he says the experience was ultimately a good one. "I think it helped me prepare for London 2012. I knew I had four years to put things right so it became a case of 'So what? I'll get gold in four years.'"
Despite the Beijing episode Cook is so unflinching in his belief that he is destined to become the greatest ever taekwondo player it seems cruel to ask how he might feel if he does not win gold in 2012. He stares, wide-eyed. "I've not really ? I think you're the first person to ask me that. I've not really thought about not winning."
The question is at once regretted, in case it has sown even the tiniest seed of doubt in his mind. He clears his throat. "I've waited four years," he says, defiantly, "it's about time it started paying off for me. It's definitely time for me to start arriving on the scene. Officially."
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