Triple Olympic medallist Roger Black has revealed that his heart problem was much worse than first thought.

Black won the bronze in the 4x400metre relay at the Barcelona Games in 1992, before picking up silver medals in the 4x400m and the 400m in Atlanta four years later. The Team GB hero was first diagnosed with a heart condition at the age of 11.

The condition means that his aortic valve did not shut properly. It , with the extent of the problem becoming clear in his annual check-up in September.

The results showed that his valve had degenerated significantly, putting pressure on the aortic root, which meant that the whole of the aortic vein was beginning to swell dangerously. That sent him into open-heart surgery.

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The operation is one which some do not wake up from, but doing nothing would have been worse for Black. The procedure saw a new heart valve put in and a part of Black’s aorta – the main vessel that transports blood from the heart – removed.

Black had to be put on life support, with the Olympic hero put to sleep for 12 hours. An 11-inch incision was made down the middle of his chest, with Black now opening up on his view of the operation.

“I have no conscious recollection of them taking it out. I then woke up five hours later. The biggest shock, the thing that gave me the most humility, was when I spoke to the surgeon not long after I’d woken up," he told .

"He is a very quiet guy and said, ‘It went well … [but] it was a lot worse than we thought; a lot worse than what we saw on the MRI scan and the CT scanner’. The main reason they got me in quickly is because of my aorta because if your aorta swells and then your aorta bursts, you’re gone.

"This amazing feeling of gratefulness and humility came over me. I’m really genuinely very, very lucky. It’s incredible what they do. There’s a two per cent chance of you not getting through it. I handed it over to the surgeon and focused on the recovery. You have to let people do what they do."

It is now five weeks since the operation, with Black now fit enough to walk twice a day. The recovery began with walking for a five-minute period before steadily building up.

On his walks, the 58-year-old takes on inclines that include St Martha’s Hill near his home in Guildford. A fortnight ago, he posted a message on social media to publicly reveal that he was recovering from open heart surgery.

The first person to reply on was actually Michael Johnson, the American four-time Olympic gold medallist, who famously finished ahead of Black at the Atlanta Games in 1996.