Jodie Williams calls time
Jodie Williams left Paris with an Olympic relay medal and then called time on an illustrious career that had seen her compete in championships at 60, 100. 200 and 400. She told me: “I just felt like the right time for me. I’ve been doing this sport for a long time – ever since I can remember. I’m 31 now and for me it just feels like the right time to move on. I know a lot of athletes wait until they physically can’t do it anymore, but I’ve just never been that way inclined. I have lots of other things that I’m passionate about in life that I would like the opportunity to pursue and now just felt like a good time”.
Williams first came to prominence in 2009 when as a 15 year-old she won the World U16 at 100 (11.39) and 200 meters. After the race she said: “Amazing. It’s (the win) very important, it’s such an amazing feeling to have won….I did not come here expecting to win, so it’s a shock”. The following year in the World Juniors she was first in the 100 and second in the 200.
I asked her what her 16 or 17 year-old self would seen herself achieving in her career: “Oh, she had great expectations. Huge expectations, I think at that point. I was very set on winning everything. I’d never really lost anything, so I didn’t know what that meant. And to me, it seemed like a very linear path of just – if we just keep this going, then we’ll be Olympic champion. So for the next four years I couldn’t see that not happening really. Baby me had great expectations and great dreams and big ambitions, and I still carry her with me very much. But the realities of the sport definitely slowly started to take over, but she expected multiple Olympic medals, but that’s not always how things work out. At that age I don’t think anything was ever a surprise. Things felt more like a relief at that point in my career, a relief that I managed to pull it off rather than surprise of being up there”.
From 2005-2010 she was unbeaten, winning about 150* successive races.
She finished up running in three Olympics and gaining medals at Olympic, European (indoor and outdoor) and Commonwealth level – with two World Championship fourth place finishes. It was a very solid career if not matching, at senior level, the youth and junior achievements. There were injuries like the hamstring issue that kept her out of the 2012 Olympics and what she described as “my body throwing a tantrum” later in her career. Of course, injuries are part of the sport but in Jodie’s case they seemed to occur at crucial and maddening times.
Williams agrees but is not filled with regret: “I think injuries have hindered a lot of things that could have happened, but I’m just not really a ‘could have…What if’ person? I’ve learned radical acceptance like my career was my career. It taught me so much. I didn’t love every second of it, but looking back, I’m really grateful for the career that I had. For sure injuries got in the way of some things that potentially could have been much greater and I feel like I could have made many more finals and challenged for many more medals. But at the end of the day, it didn’t happen. And I’m very at peace with that. It doesn’t torture me or anything like that”.
Some athletes fear the end of their career. I remember one telling me that the rest of his life had been an anti-climax. That is not Jodie’s mindset. She is looking forward to new challenges and new opportunities – just not immediately: “Right now I’m taking a bit of a break. Honestly, I’m burnt out beyond belief and I just want a bit of a creative reset, but whatever I do is definitely going to be creative. I’m launching an online journal community type space for women. It will be submission based, so it will always be like an online magazine. I’m a big fan of print media, so I’ll definitely be involved in those kinds of spaces. Something to do with coffee as well, for sure. But I’m just still piecing it together. I’ve got good ideas of the industries that I’ll be involved in, but am just letting things align themselves. But, for the moment I’m just taking a bit of a creative reset and allowing myself – my body and my mind to just rest a little bit. I think it’s rare that we get that opportunity in life, so I’m taking it”.
My final question in the interview was whether, if she was 17, she would do it all again:
“Yes – I would do it all again for sure. It’s been the most incredible experience. Even with all the lowest of the lows, it’s been amazing. I would definitely do it all over again. I would do it slightly differently. But only slightly, I think. I would just take it less seriously at such a young age. I would have just allowed myself to live a little bit more, to be a bit more human and give myself a bit more grace. But, outside of that, I think I would have taken every single opportunity the same way, but, just with a little more grace and just a little more leeway for myself rather than it being… I was very, very, very strict and I was in a very, very structured environment and I would have just loosened that up a little bit”.
In part 2, Jodie reflects on some career highlights.
*I have read 149 and also 151 but I am not paid enough to take the time to count!
