Porter will mask face but not ambition
Hhurdler aims for European indoor title determined to prove women can ‘do amazing things’ following childbirth
She is a multiple global medallist and an Olympic finalist. She is a mother on the comeback trail and an advocate for those struggling to conceive after overcoming her own battle.
She is a pharmacist, working an average 22 hours a week, a property investor and landlady. She is United States Vice-president Kamala Harris’s sorority sister. And now she could become the first athlete to win an international title in a face mask.
Five years after she last won a medal in a British vest, Tiffany Porter – the second-fastest 60metres hurdler in Europe this year – is eager to show the world she is back. “It’s really easy to write people off in athletics, so it would be nice to remind people not to,” she says.
If she can win gold at this weekend’s European Indoor Championships, the image is likely to spread far thanks to her decision to compete wearing a face mask. It is, she says, purely for protection rather than any motivation to preach. But she appreciates it might have a wider impact.
“Wearing a mask is a bit of a hot topic that has become politicised, polarised and controversial for whatever reason,” she says. “That isn’t why I decided to run in a mask – it’s just an extra precaution for myself to make me feel a little bit more comfortable.
“For me it’s no big deal because this is literally how I train on a dayto-day basis and I have to wear a mask when I’m in the pharmacy. Pretty much any time I’m not in my house, I’m wearing a mask.”
It is through her work as a pharmacist in her home town in Michigan that Porter has already received both doses of her Covid vaccination, and she will be involved in administering it to the public when she returns from these championships in Torun, Poland.
Her true motivation for attempting to rediscover her best at 33 is her daughter Chidera, born in July 2019 after a number of miscarriages. It is a subject she wants to raise because “a lot of people don’t talk about the loss, pain, frustration and sadness” of such experiences. “We can do a better job of talking about it so people feel less alone and isolated.”
Chidera is the reason she continues to juggle the taxing dual careers of pharmacist and international athlete. “Number one on my motivations is showing her that you can come back from childbirth and do really amazing things. Hopefully, my journey is proving that and will continue to prove that,” she says.
“As much as I love athletics, and it’s been such a huge part of my life for so long, I really love being a pharmacist as well.”
Her daughter could have reason to feel proud this weekend. Porter’s season’s-best 7.89 sec is her fastest in seven years and she intends to win the battle with Holland’s gold-medal favourite, Nadine Visser, tomorrow. “All this work and sacrifice, I do not train to come second.”
Her sister and training partner, Cindy Sember, will hope to join Porter in the final after battling back from a ruptured Achilles and being told she would never run again. It could yet prove a remarkable double comeback few thought possible – even Porter herself. “When I was pregnant I kind of accepted I might not ever come back to my full form and I was OK with that,” she says.
“I can’t speak for Cindy, but she has been so resilient and determined to get back to her best form and prove those naysayers wrong.
“It’s definitely been a different and difficult journey for the two of us, but it’s nice when you’re able to come out the other side stronger.”