by Stuart Weir
Dina Asher-Smith, Karlsruhe, WIT gold, presser, 28 Jan 2021, photo by Stuart Weir
Dina Asher-Smith, Karlsruhe, WIT gold, presser, 28 Jan 2021, a gaggle o media, photo by Stuart Weir
Stuart Weir, our man in Europe (no matter what Boris Johnson says), did this two part interview today on Dina Asher-Smith.
Lockdown, 2020 and the journey to Tokyo
Speaking at the official press conference for the Indoor Meeting Karlsruhe, the first World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold, Dina Asher-Smith reflected on lockdown and why she had decided to sacrifice her 2020 season in her quest for Tokyo success.
Dina Asher-Smith, photo by Getty Images / British Athletics
“Lockdown has been alright for me”, she said. “Obviously everyone is going through this very different and frankly traumatic situation and the whole world has been life changing, worrying if your loved ones are going to be OK, if your friends and their friends are going to be OK. At that level for me and everyone else it’s been a very interesting time. I am fortunate that under the elite sport exemption in UK, I have been able to train on the track since June. So I have been training the whole time. I had a little break in September October which is normal but apart from that just hard work”.
When the Olympics were postponed and the track she trained on was closed during UK’s first lockdown, she “sat down with my team and said ‘we’ve got an “extra year” to the Olympics, what is the wisest and best way to use it?’ We came to a unanimous decision that it was best to build and get stronger – to take more time to work on things that normally I wouldn’t have time to work on in a normal quickly-turning Olympic cycle. So we thought it was best to build, get a strong foundation and use the time to train and just do some races at home but over different distances and work on a few things so that when 2021 came, I was going to be in a good place physically and also, very importantly, mentally. The mental aspect was important because there was no point pretending that what we’re going through is normal. So it was about being wise with our time and making the best long term decisions for Dina the athlete and Dina the person.
Dina Asher-Smith, photo by Getty Images / British Athletics
“I just thought that it was best for me just to compete domestically last season, and over different distances, mainly because I had eyes on Tokyo. 2020 was different and I decided I was not going to pretend that it was the same. I was not going to pretend that I’d had the same training opportunities. March, April, May, we had not been on the track and I wasn’t going to pretend that everything was normal”. Three low-key 150m races in Late August and early September constituted her season”.
Asked how she would compare her January 2021 fitness with where she had been at the same time last year, she gave a thoughtful, reflective answer and highlighted the uncertainty that many athletes feel about how a strange year has affected things: “I don’t really know how to answer that question because I think every year is different. I feel good and I’m really excited to compete. But talking about it comparatively, I don’t really know. The 2019 World Championship was in October and I came back to training in late November so last year I wouldn’t have been quite in the same place as now when I wasn’t planning on doing indoors [in 2020] but was in heavy training. This year I’ve had a year of training. And now I’m ready to race, so everything has been tapered. So it’s difficult to compare but overall I feel good and I’m excited to kick my season off”.
Dina Asher-Smith, photo by Getty Images / World Athletics
Everyone knows what an outstanding athlete Dina is. She is also an engaging person. We have highlighted previously her excellent Daily Telegraph column on aspects of women’s sport and beyond. She is a thoughtful athlete who represents her sport well. Don’t miss her race on Friday.
