Craig (34), from Lancashire, works as an athlete mentor as part of a team of champion sportspeople from the Sky Living For Sport initiative.

He helps engage young people aged 11 to 16 - most recently the Lanark Grammar kids on Thursday - with more areas of school life and to help them reach personal goals.

"My job is extremely rewarding," he said.
"It is a great responsibility to be having such an impact on young people's lives."

Last Thursday was Craig's third visit to Lanark Grammar, his latest attempt to inspire a group of selected youngsters to enrich their lives by taking up sport.

And they certainly appeared to have taken his advice on board!

For the youngsters had organised the 'Lano 2008' five-a-side football tournament to be contested by seven teams, which was played in the games hall on the day of Craig's latest visit.

Craig himself got directly involved in the festivities - he played in goal for one of the teams!

"I had a great day," he added.
"The kids taking part in the programme are rewarded by a points system so they feel special.

"This gives them some confidence and a bit of responsibility.

"The kids are trying to learn all the time and it was great fun."

Craig believes there are six key concepts in achieving sporting greatness - mental toughness, people skills, sports and life knowledge, planning, hunger to achieve and teamwork.

He added: "I can tell that they're all thinking about these six keys, even when I'm not there."

The Lanark lads certainly put their people skills and planning expertise to good use by organising the football tournament.

Craig, a double Commonwealth Games team gold medallist, hopes his medal winning achievements can act as further inspiration to people of all shapes and sizes.

For despite only standing 5ft 5'' tall, Craig led Great Briatin to two Commonwealth Games team golds. The Brits triumphed in Kuala Lumpur in 1998 and Manchester in 2002.

"I was part of a team of four," he added.
"Disciplines we did were floor, pommel horse, rings, vault, parallel bars and high bar.

"My favourite event was the high bar.

"It is a real crowd pleaser. The adrenalin rush doing it is unbelievable.

"Being quite short, I used to hate training it because I was 8ft 6 off the ground! It's quite scary up there."

Despite the Commonwealth golds, Craig doesn't rate these medal winning exploits as the highlight of his gymnastics career.

He considers his number one achievement to be his personal best performance at the Sydney Olympics of 2000.

"I finished 32nd there," Craig said.
"It is not about winning. It is about doing your best."

Craig retired from gymnastics at the age of 29 after the Manchester Games, when his dad said it was about time he got a proper job!

He soon set up his own company, going into primary school workshops and setting up gymnastic displays.

Last year Craig became a mentor at the UK School Games, before landing the Sky Living For Sport job in November.

Sky Living For Sport is now in its fifth year, and has involved some 17,000 young people in over 600 schools across Scotland, England and Northern Ireland.