Jazmin Sawyers out of Paris

Jazmin Sawyers out of Paris

As an athletics writer, one is supposed to be balanced, neutral, unemotional, and unbiased. Today, I write with a heavy heart.  I am just so sad that Jazmin Sawyers is injured and missing the Olympics.  Jazmin is a great athlete, a lovely person, and the only athlete who has stood me up for an interview because she had to sing at a function!

I have seen her compete in two Olympics, 4 World Championships, 4 Europeans (indoor and out) and 3 Commonwealth Games.  And I was there – and watching – when she jumped seven meters. I say ‘watching’ because often, in this job, one is in the stadium but watching something else! And who will ever forget the look of shock, incredulity, turning to ecstasy she took in 7.00.

Returning to my earlier line about her standing me up because she had been invited to sing at a function in Oslo, she did the interview the following day. I’ve had the privilege of doing three significant interviews and always found her an engaging interviewee. I remember speaking to her in the mixed zone at the Zurich Weltklasse Street meet mixed zone, which, appropriately for an almost professional singer, was in the Opera House!

Jazmin has worked hard to maximize her talent, including taking the courageous step of relocating to the USA.  She explains: “I always thought that my take-off was good and my jumping was good. My weakness was my speed.  Several people said to me ‘if you want someone with a jumps background who will make you faster, Lance Braumann is the man’.  I wanted to do whatever would make me jump better”. She spent 3-4 months a year in the USA, not long enough to feel that she was living there and not long enough to be worth buying a car.  She benefitted from Lance’s coaching and also from the challenge of training day in and day out with athletes like Noah Lyles.

Then, she returned to the UK to work with Aston Moore.  I spoke to her just after that 7-meter jump and was interested in how she talked so much about it as a work in progress: “Aston brings such a level of jumping expertise. He knows and sees so much you think you’ll get away with something, but not if Aston Moore is watching. He could have just glanced over, and he would see exactly what you did wrong….