Jemma Reekie – ready for Glasgow

Jemma Reekie is the second preview interview written by Stuart Weir on the athletes of Team GB. Stuart will be covering the World Indoor Champs remotely from Oxford, England, due to a recent surgery that he had.

Jemma Reekie is in one of the most competitive events in the entire World Indoor Champs this weekend, March 1-3, 2024, at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow, Scotland. 

Jemma Reekie – ready for Glasgow

In August 2021, when Jemma Reekie ran 1:56.90 in the Tokyo Olympic 800m final, missing the bronze medal by 0.09 seconds, aged 22, she seemed to have the world at her feet.  Since then, everything seems to have been a struggle, but now she looks to have turned a corner. With 1:58.24 in the GB Indoor Championships earlier this month, she recorded the second-fastest time in the world this year.

Speaking to a group of UK athletics writers last week, she shared what a dark place she had been in a year ago:

“This time last year, I was terrified. I was broken as an athlete. And I had actually written down everything that I was struggling with on my laptop. And one of them was I was never gonna be as good as I used to be. And I was convinced that I would never be the same.  I think I was just frazzled mentally, and after having a glandular fever, I’d never let myself recover from it. And I didn’t appreciate what it would do to my body and things like that. And I think everyone responds so differently to things like that. And I actually had glandular fever* when I was a child, and I’d been bed-bound for weeks and months, and I’ve missed loads of school, and I was so scared that that was the way it was going to be, and I think it took a lot out of me. I know some people who have gone through glandular fever and been back running well in a few months, but I just hadn’t taken account of myself as an individual. I was just like, well, not wanting to make an excuse almost. I was thinking like, ‘Well if these people have gotten over it and been fine, why am I not fine? Is it in my head?’ We all just need to be treated as individuals and, like, give ourselves time. It’s so weird because when I look back, I realize I was so broken mentally as an athlete this time last year. but not one day did I wake up and think I couldn’t do it anymore. I just believed. I’ve always thought I’m like almost born to do it. Never once did I wake up and…