From the Olympic Podium to the Artist’s Studio: Neil Eckersley’s Relentless Pursuit of Excellence

Photography: David Finch

Olympic medallist Neil Eckersley OLY transformed the discipline, resilience and competitive drive that took him to the highest level of Judo into a remarkable second career as a contemporary artist. He speaks to Relentless Magazine about dyslexia, rejection, creativity, the Olympic spirit and why he is still determined to keep pushing boundaries.

There is a line that perfectly captures Neil Eckersley’s story: “The arena has changed. The mindset hasn’t.”

It is difficult to imagine a better description of a man whose life has taken him from the intensity of elite international sport to the creative freedom of an artist’s studio.

Eckersley represented Great Britain in judo at the highest level, winning an Olympic bronze medal at the Los Angeles Games in 1984. Today, the physical contests of his sporting career have been replaced by canvases, colour, movement and abstraction yet the mentality behind them remains remarkably familiar.

For Eckersley, art is not an entirely separate second act. It is another expression of the same relentless drive that once took him onto the Olympic podium.

The Arena Has Changed

“There’s a massive connection between the two worlds,” Eckersley says. “I don’t really see them as separate chapters at all.”

Judo and art, he believes, require many of the same qualities: dedication, commitment, time and a willingness to continually challenge yourself.

“There’s also a competitive element to both particularly the competition you have with yourself, always wanting to push a little further and get better.”

Growing up with dyslexia, Eckersley sometimes found it difficult to express himself through conventional means. Sport offered an alternative language.

“Judo became my outlet. It allowed me to express emotions physically and gave me somewhere to channel all that energy, determination and frustration.”

Decades later, painting has taken on a similar role.

“Art does something very similar for me today. In many ways, it has replaced the competitive side of Judo, but it’s also enhanced it. I still have that same drive, that same focus and that desire to challenge myself.”

There are even moments in the studio that transport him back to the psychological state required for elite competition.

“When I’m completely absorbed in the studio, I recognise the same feeling I had when I was competing at the highest level being totally in the zone.”

“I’m Going to the Olympics”

Eckersley’s Olympic achievement becomes even more powerful when you understand the expectations placed upon him as a young man.

Shortly before leaving school, his careers teacher examined his grades and delivered a bleak assessment of his future.

His options, Eckersley recalls, were essentially “a factory or the coal mines”.

His response was rather different.

“I told him, ‘I’m going to the Olympics.’”

The teacher laughed and moved on to the next student.

A few years later, Eckersley was standing on the Olympic podium in Los Angeles with a bronze medal around his neck.

It is an experience that still informs the way he approaches challenges today.

“Elite sport taught me everything about discipline, resilience and the pursuit of excellence. Competing at that level doesn’t just shape you as an athlete it shapes the way you approach life.”

The art world, he discovered, requires its own form of resilience.

“You take the knock backs, learn from them and keep moving forward.”

His philosophy is uncomplicated but powerful: “Set the bar high, put the work in and never let someone else define your limitations.”

Learning to Embrace the Unexpected

Eckersley is a self-taught artist, something he believes has given him a certain freedom.

“I don’t have the constraints of a formal art education,” he explains.

A new work will generally begin with an idea, a simple sketch and the intimidating possibility of a blank canvas.

“Nine times out of ten, the finished work resembles the image I had in my head but not always.”

Rather than seeing those deviations as failures, Eckersley has learned to embrace them.

“Sometimes the painting takes you somewhere completely unexpected, and I’ve learned not to fight that. In fact, some of my best discoveries have come from mistakes.”

It is another philosophy that could easily have come from the world of elite sport: failure becomes information, setbacks become opportunities, and progress comes from continuing regardless.

“When you’re in a creative rut, sometimes getting it wrong is exactly what you need to move forward.”

Art as Another Language

There is, however, a deeply personal dimension to Eckersley’s work that goes beyond competition.

His paintings have provided a means of communicating emotions that can be difficult to articulate verbally.

“Nine times out of ten, I feel the artwork communicates what I’m trying to say far better than I could with words.”

Some of those subjects are intensely personal.

“Sometimes those messages can be quite hard depression, anxiety, loss, or coming to terms with losing my father to dementia.”

Rather than attempting to encapsulate such complex emotions within a single work, Eckersley often paints in a series, allowing the narrative to develop gradually.

“Rather than putting everything in your face with one painting, I can allow the story and emotion to slowly unfold from one piece to the next.”

For him, the canvas has become a form of communication in its own right.

“Art has become another language and sometimes it says things I simply couldn’t put into words.”

From Lancaster to the World

Travel is another significant influence.

Tokyo. Paris. Beijing. Hong Kong. Each provides Eckersley with something different to the quieter surroundings of his studio in Lancaster.

His fascination with cities began long before his international sporting and artistic careers.

“At secondary school, I used to sit at the back of the classroom doodling sketches of New York. It was my way of escaping an education system that didn’t really meet my needs.”

Today, he has the opportunity to experience some of the world’s great cities first-hand, but it is rarely the obvious landmarks that interest him.

“I’m looking for the essence of the place the feeling, the vibe, the people and that raw energy and chaos that a city can give you.”

The contrast with home could hardly be greater.

“At home I’m literally five minutes from open countryside and quiet spaces.”

That juxtaposition has become part of his creative process.

“Maybe I need both the calm to create and the chaos to inspire me.”

The Olympics Come Full Circle

Perhaps the most fitting development in Eckersley’s artistic career has been its reconnection with the Olympic world.

His work has been exhibited around major sporting events, including the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, while his relationship with the International Judo Federation and wider Olympic movement has opened opportunities around the world.

“It’s amazing a real pinch-me experience.”

For someone who remains enormously proud of his judo heritage, the convergence of those two lives carries particular significance.

“When I first stepped away from coaching and high-performance sport, some people were sceptical. Now they completely get it.”

The uniform may have changed, but Eckersley still feels a sense of responsibility when representing his roots internationally.

“In many ways, I feel like I’m representing my sport and my country all over again just this time with a paintbrush rather than a Judo suit.”

“That gives me an enormous sense of pride.”

Taking Art Beyond the Gallery

Eckersley is equally enthusiastic about taking his work beyond conventional art spaces.

He has displayed art in locations ranging from a church in Lancaster to beneath a motorway flyover and has collaborated with figures from entirely different creative disciplines, including Michelin-starred chef Roger Asakil Joya.

“I love collaborations because they take art outside the traditional gallery environment, which can sometimes feel intimidating or inaccessible to people.”

His philosophy is to bring art to people rather than insist that people enter a particular environment to experience it.

“It takes the art to the audience rather than always expecting the audience to come to the art.”

Collaboration also gives him the opportunity to work alongside people who share his obsession with excellence, regardless of their profession.

“Working with Michelin-starred chef Roger Asakil Joya was an amazing experience because we came from different creative worlds, but shared that same passion and attention to detail.”

For Eckersley, the most interesting results often emerge when apparently unrelated disciplines collide.

“That’s what makes collaboration exciting different worlds coming together and creating something neither could have achieved alone.”

Success Is Earned

Having already accomplished what millions dream of becoming an Olympian and standing on an Olympic podium — Eckersley could perhaps be forgiven for approaching his artistic career with nothing left to prove.

That is not how he operates.

“I’ve never really seen success as something that was given to me. It was earned.”

His beginnings continue to inform that perspective.

“Growing up as a working-class kid in Salford with dyslexia, I learned very early that opportunities weren’t necessarily going to come looking for me. When they did come, I had to be ready to perform.”

Even after everything he achieved in sport, the Olympic Games remain deeply embedded in his subconscious.

“Strangely, I still have a recurring dream that I wasn’t selected for the Olympics. Can you imagine that after all these years?”

There are still goals to pursue in the art world, too. Gallery representation remains one of them.

It is notoriously difficult to secure, but Eckersley has heard the word “no” before.

“I’ll get there. I was told many times that I would never make it to the Olympics — and I did, twice!”

Still Relentless

Neil Eckersley’s story is ultimately about far more than the transition from sport to art.

It is about identity, reinvention and the extraordinary distance that determination can take someone when they refuse to allow other people’s expectations to become their own limitations.

The schoolboy from Salford who was told to consider a factory or the coal mines became an Olympian. The Olympic Judoka then became an artist whose work has taken him back into the international sporting world he once inhabited as a competitor.

Different disciplines. Different stages. The same mentality.

There is something unmistakably Relentless about that.

Eckersley may no longer be fighting for Olympic medals, but the competitive instinct remains. Now the opponent is the blank canvas, the next opportunity, the next exhibition and the next closed door.

And if that door does close?

Eckersley already knows exactly what he will do.

“Rejection doesn’t frighten me. If one door closes, I’ll keep knocking until another one opens.”

For Neil Eckersley OLY, the arena may have changed but the pursuit of excellence continues.

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