DINA ASHER-SMITH
IN RACE FOR SPORTS PERSONALITY CROWN
DINA ASHER-SMITH has been reading Michelle Obama’s memoirs to prepare for the pressures that will follow her into the pivotal second half of this Olympic cycle.
It is a measure of what she achieved in 2018 that her lap of honour hasn’t even finished, with tomorrow’s Sports Personality of the Year bash next up on the procession of redcarpet events that — at the last count — had yielded a gong for each of the five major medals she won.
It was a remarkable campaign that peaked with three European Championship gold medals and with it there has been a sudden elevation in profile for the 23-year-old, who is now ranked among the biggest names in British sport.
The potential complication, of course, is that even in an athlete as notoriously focused as Asher-Smith, it is hard to predict the impact level of such great expectations as she heads towards the 2019 Worlds and Tokyo 2020 thereafter.
Those have always been the truer targets on her agenda and the depth of her planning for them has gone as far as her reading list.
‘I’ve done lots of reading,’ she said. ‘I bought a book about the NHS which I thought was so good. I’m trying to be chilled and not get caught up in stress which I need to do if I want to get faster. I need to be relaxed and happy.
‘I also got Becoming by Michelle Obama. You have to admire anyone like her. I can maybe take a parallel in her experience from Jess EnnisEnnis, who was the poster girl of the Olympics. She managed to keep her poise and cool. And you look at Michelle Obama, being in the White House for eight years, but coming out with her head held high and a strong sense of who she is.
‘I still find it strange that people see me as a role model. I think, “Why me? I’m just normal”. So I look up to people like Michelle Obama and all these fantastic women. That people might think of me like that is strange, but you can only learn from people who have been there and done it.
‘That’s why I’ve talked to Jess Ennis, Christine Ohuruogu, all these fantastic people who tell you how to handle yourself, how to remain cool and not get stressed. I have to take inspiration and advice from people who have done that. There’s no point in trying to find your own way.’
Asher- Smith has typically been the loudest to play down her 2018 achievements based on the logic that many of the world’s leading sprinters reside outside of Europe and the Commonwealth.
But her world-leading times in both the 100m and 200m would make her a contender in any year, so there is genuine excitement within British Athletics that they may have a successor to Mo Farah, Ennis-Hill and Greg Rutherford — serial winners that precious few among the current crop have ever looked like replicating.
‘Tokyo is two years away,’ said Asher-Smith. ‘You never know what’s going to happen. It’s good I’ve had a good year but you never know what the next 12 months are going to hold.
‘You have to keep your feet on the ground. People might talk about one person being the best in the world one week and then the next it’s someone else. I’m sure four years ago no one was talking about Christian Coleman.’
Questions were asked of British Athletics performance director Neil Black recently if there was a risk to Asher-Smith overly enjoying the trappings of her success, which has ranged from a variety of cover shoots to appearing on the catwalk at Paris Fashion Week.
Those who know the sprinter best find laughable any notion of her priorities shifting and Asher-Smith has insisted she has not rearranged a single training session in the three months since her last race.
‘I get invited to nice things because I run fast and I run fast by training,’ she said. ‘I know which side my bread is buttered on.’
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