Amy Hunt – a busy athlete!
What is there that is not to like about Amy Hunt? While some athletes regard talking to the media as a bore and appear to be reading a statement prepared by their lawyer, Amy is always open and friendly. On Saturday evening in Brussels, Amy seemed happy to spend more time in the mixed zone than any other athlete, answering questions.
What a remarkable 12 months it has been for the Italy-based British athlete. Her World Championship silver medal last year was not one that many people saw coming. She took a silver medal in the 2026 Commonwealth Games and then pulled off that remarkable quadruple gold at the European Champs (100, 200 and two relays). She was the only female sprinter to double up at the Diamond League and came second in the 100 and third in the 200.
After finishing behind Julien Alfred in the 200 on Friday, Amy had commented to me – not an excuse, just as a fact – that she had run a lot more than Julien this year. I looked it up. Friday was Amy’s 41st race of the year and Julien’s 17th. After the 100m on Saturday, Sean Ingle of the Guardian and I put that figure to her, and she explained more of her strategy for the year and how racing a lot was no accident.
She told us: “I’ve been racing since early February, probably one of the only people out here who has. I’ve done a ridiculous amount of races, but it’s about knowing which races you want to target and which races are purely on a training basis. So sometimes when we’re on the start line with a mindset that it’s nice to come out here and do a 200 rep instead of doing a 150 rep on my home track. Instead of doing three 150s on a Saturday, let’s just fly and do a 200 somewhere around the world. Sometimes coach might say, ‘Why don’t we just race?’ It’s a much more fun way to do it, and I’m lucky that I train as hard as I do, and the training is set up in a way that allows me to pursue this and to really show up and show off and be in front of the crowd and soak it all in. This life is very short, but this job is incredibly short, and I think when you can, it’s good to get out there, and while I’m 24, it’s great to say yes to as many things as possible”
She explained further how her training set-up was geared towards that kind of approach:“So much is down to my training. We work so hard in winter, and a lot of the reps are to support going out and getting yourself on the line every single week. So when we’re kind of ‘in the trenches’, having 45 seconds of recovery, that’s so that I can turn it around week after week after week. And also I’m in such a privileged and unique position that my coach is also my physio. So he knows my body so well. I know his mind so well and it enables us to kind of get everything aligned, everything in flow and we can turn the recovery around quickly and smartly”.
Amy also made an interesting comment about always seeing the bigger picture and being willing “to put the ego aside” to run a race without worrying where you finish because you have your sights on the bigger picture.
She also talked about “just trying to have fun. I think there are times when you need that, and that’s throughout the whole season, just to be able to turn around and show up. It’s part of my job to turn up and run fast, so once we get to these kinds of more important competitions, it’s targeting the podium every single time. I’ve shown the last few 200s I am getting a lot stronger. She suggested after the Friday night 200 that she was probably one of the closest athletes to her PR in that race, even “on a freezing cold night in northern Europe in September at 10 p.m. I think therefore that’s probably one of the best 200s I’ve ever done”. I looked it up, and she and Kayla White were both 0.08 off their PR; no one else was close.
She was the only athlete to double up in the sprints and came away with two podium places. Even so, it was not enough for her. Talking about the 200, she said that “was the closest I’ve ever been to Julien Alfred on the bend and I thought ‘oh my gosh if I had completely fresh legs I could really take you on right now’”. Remember that was Amy’s 41st race, Julien’s 17th this year, and the comment was made ruefully, not arrogantly.
A good example of how focused and down-to-earth Amy is came up when a journalist asked her about the “reasonable amount of prize money” she had won this year. She politely dismissed the comment with a “I have a very incredibly supportive family, a very grounded family who kind of keep track of all that stuff for me so I can just live La Dolce Vita in Italy and just enjoy myself and I don’t have to stress”.
She did reveal another side of her character, though; asked about motivation, she admitted: “I am such a competitive person, and I know that everyone would say that I’m an absolute beast on family game nights. I’m so incredibly competitive, and I love to win, and I love to take people head-to-head. I’m someone who can stand on that starting line and not be afraid of anyone. Although I have so much love and so much respect for the girls, I’ve grown up watching, and they all have such incredibly inspiring stories, but I’m never afraid to take any of them on. I’ve said many times I think I have the best job in the world, so why would I not do it as many times as possible? Every race isn’t always the same. As you said, some of my 40+ races were relays, some were heats, and some were 60 meters, which functions as a training exercise for us rather than a very deadly serious race. Some of those races we were using as training sessions.
Amy also made an interesting comment about how at next week’s Ultimate, the 200 semi and final are in the same evening, and in the LA Olympics there will be three rounds of the 100 in a day, adding, “It will be interesting to see how some of the girls handle two 200s in one day because I know I’m gonna be okay. I think it’s a really good kind of fact-finding mission for us ahead of the LA Olympics, where obviously all the rounds of the 100 are in one day, so it’s a really good, fun way to cap off the season with a fun race but still one that’s very serious and very incredibly competitive and one that means something to all of us”.
You could sit down for an hour with some athletes and get less content than Amy gave us in two five-minute chats in the mixed zone.
