by Stuart Weir
Dina-Asher-Smith, 2021, photo by Getty Images/ European Athletics
Dina Asher Smith is the European Champ at 100/200 in 2018, and in 2019 World Athletics Championships, Dina won the 200m.
Stuart Weir wrote this piece on Dina Asher-Smith and her thoughtful writing.
Writing award for Dina-Asher-Smith
Last year we referred to how 200m World Champion, Dina Asher-Smith, used her Daily Telegraph column to comment on racism and the Black Lives Matter issue. The article was headlined: “Think racism hasn’t affected me? It’s there almost every day”. See the post at
www.runblogrun.com/2020/07/dina-asher-smith-on-racism-and-the-black-lives-matter.html
She finished that article: “We know how the power of one action, how one person, has the opportunity to change the world. Please stand up and speak out against racism. Be anti-racist. Even if you think that you can’t affect change, you can. We all hold influence and whether that’s across our dinner tables, in a boardroom, or on a platform that millions listen to, it all counts. We all have the power to bring about positive change. Life as we know it has changed so much recently, and many have had to sit back and think about what really matters. Equality matters. Black Lives Matter.”
We are now delighted to be able to report that Dina’s article has won the AIPS (Internation Sports Press Association) Sports Media Award for Best Column of 2020. Dina described the unexpected award as her “first gold medal for writing”.
In an interview with AIPS Dina said: “I did a History degree at university so I’m quite a confident essay writer. But, yes, it’s my first time ever winning something as a writer and I was so stunned. I didn’t even know there were big prizes like this”.
She explained the background to the column as follows: “it was very difficult to write about something very, very personal. It was last summer, just one month after the murder of George Floyd: it was a very difficult moment, particularly for a lot of black people around the globe. We have the pandemic and all the stresses everybody was feeling. And then it was kind of seeing something play out on camera. Particularly in America, lots of people are aware that happens but there’s not always a camera to record it so when there’s not a camera it’s pretty easy for people to disqualify it, but when there was a camera and the whole world can see it, it’s on the radio, the TV the newspapers, and every single social network, it becomes something that, in that time, particularly as a black person you start reflecting on your own life, your own experiences”.
Dina also revealed Serena Williams, as the person she would most like to meet: “I just think she’s really amazing, she’s so brilliantly talented, she’s one of the greatest tennis players ever. And I think it would be just great to say ‘Well done!’ in person, I don’t think it would be about asking questions, obviously, I would. But, particularly as an up-and-coming young black sportswoman, I would like to thank her because she’s been an icon for so many of us and has been so amazing for the whole career that I just would love to tell her this”.
The full AIPS interview with Maria Pia Beltran can be watched at https://youtu.be/F0-QpYkSZ2E
The full Daily Telegraph article is at https://www.telegraph.co.uk/athletics/2020/06/25/think-racism-hasnt-affected-almost-every-day/
