Simone Biles
United States artistic gymnast
In dreams, but that’s about it.
Death & what remains
How close have you come to dying?
209 answers answered between 1930 and 2026 one of 25 in The Q&A
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A recurring Guardian Q&A prompt asked directly across respondents and years.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
On the record
Public figures who have answered a question like this elsewhere. Quoted from the source shown, not written for FLAPSS.
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Seventy and beyond 25
Jonnie Peacock
British athlete
When I was five and the doctors walked in and said to my mum: “I am not sure if you will be taking him home.”
Chris Hoy
British track cyclist, 1994–2013
The London terror attack on 7/7 in 2005. I was in London the day before for the Olympic bid. When we won I thought, “I should stay over – it will be a great party tonight.” But I decided to go back to Manchester for training. Bombs went off on what would have been my route to the station.
Mo Farah
British track and field athlete
When I was a kid, travelling from Ethiopia to the UK, the plane door opened, the oxygen masks came down and the plane did an emergency landing in Egypt.
Harry Redknapp
English football player and manager
A car accident in Italy in 1990. Four people got killed. I was lucky, I got thrown out.
Kevin Pietersen
English cricketer
Being charged by a white rhino on a walking safari. It came running towards us and I froze, which is the right thing to do. If it had hit us, it would have been goodnight.
Bradley Wiggins
British former professional road and track racing cyclist
I had quite a chequered childhood. I had a knife put to my throat once when I was a kid, which was very scary.
Judy Murray
Scottish tennis coach
On a flight, last February, from Atlanta to Rio. We went through a storm and I was convinced that the plane was going down. The overhead cabins were opening, everything was falling out, people were screaming and I was hanging on to my seat.
Adam Peaty
British swimmer; Olympic champion 2016 and 2021
I was on a cliff in Dartmoor, doing a Royal Marine abseil. I fell upside down and thought, “I’m going to die here.”
There are so many instances when I’ve come very close to death that it’s difficult to pick one.
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- What would you most want to leave your children? 44 answers
- What kind of death would you consider a good one? 43 answers