Jodie Williams calls time – runblogrun

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…