by Stuart Weir
Dina Asher-Smith
Dina Asher-Smith made a big decision last summer to leave the only coach she had ever had, John Blackie, to relocate to Austin, Texas, to work with Edrick Floreal. It was an amicable split, with Blackie telling her he would not be able to be in Paris and that she needed a coach who could accompany her.
In 2019, Dina won the World Championship 200 and came second behind Shelly in the 100, but the pathway has been less smooth since then. 2021 Olympic semi-final, 2022 Worlds third and fourth, to be fair, behind Shelly, Shericka, and Elaine! Then, in Budapest 2023, Worlds 7th in 22.34 in the 200 and 8th in the 100 in 11.00.
When she met the GB press last month, she was very optimistic about the move to the USA, saying: “Everything has been very different. Obviously, I moved halfway across the world to a new training group, new coach, and new setup – in the sun, doing a lot of a different kinds of training, different kinds of work technical work. But I think the best thing is that in my time with John, we’ve been so successful. I’ve learned much, particularly how to be a competitor and put it together under pressure. When it counts, I’m excited to draw lots of the new things I’ve learned together with the experience and everything that John has instilled in me from a very young age. A lot of changes. If I were to list them all, we’d be here, all day that would be your whole article”.
Asked about her new training group, she talked about “American positivity,” explaining that the athletes in her group were “relentlessly optimistic, and that’s a great thing. I’m very British. So that was a change. But if you were to say, ‘I want to go to the moon,’ they would be like, ‘How can I help you do that?’ You know, that’s mind-blowing. I’ve flourished in that environment because I’m like, you know what – I mean, not talking about the moon – but yeah, let’s chase this goal. Let’s go. And even if we don’t quite make it, if we are shooting for the moon, we will, even if we don’t, we will be in a perfect position anyway because we were on this path. And I think I’ve really flourished”.
The problem is that so far, the results have not shown themselves. The 10.83 that she ran in Doha 2019 seems a long way off, with a season’s best of 10.96 in the European Championship semi-final. She won the final in 10.99. I saw her in Monaco running 10.99 into a headwind and telling me that she was pleased with the time in the conditions—but Julien Alfred had run 10.85 in the same race.
Straight after the disappointment of failing to make the Olympic 100m final, she was out again this morning in the 200 heats, moving smoothly into the semi-finals in 22.28 and speaking honestly about last night: “No, I’m not feeling better at all! Emotionally, I’m not, but my body is fine. I ran 11.1, but my body is fine – I’m thrilled with the 200, though; it was straightforward – a good 22.2, probably the easiest 22.2 I have ever run, and that is just a testament to the shape my coach and I have worked really hard to get me in. I ran angry. I’m just angry from yesterday. It is not difficult. I just ran. I just wanted to qualify. Coach and I are taking each round at a time. I know I am in great shape. I am distraught”.
It is easy to write about athletes as objects or machines, but it is important to realize that they are people with emotions and feelings. It is the nature of sport that it gives you superlative highs but also desperately disappointing lows. The absence of Fraser-Pryce, Thompson, and Jackson leaves the 200 strangely bereft—and also wide open.
