Dina Asher-Smith: ‘I Like Seeing The Profile Of Women’s Sport Grow’

Dina Asher-Smithsays she's normal. She does normal things like taking a long time to get out of bed in the mornings. She goes to sleep at around 10.30pm and wakes at around 7am - 'Very normal on that front,' she re-iterates. In fact, she says, she travels around on the Tube, and explains, 'In many respects I have the life of a normal 23-year-old because I go to the cinema, chill with my friends...’ It’s rather modest, considering she’s the fastest British woman in history.

The reality is that since she won triple gold in last summer’s European Championships in Berlin – a first for any British athlete – schoolchildren dress up as her for International Women's Day. No wonder, given she’s tipped as an Olympic Gold hopeful for 2020 (she took bronze home from Rio in 2016) and can run 100m in 10.85 seconds. Then there are the glamorous photoshoots, an ambassadorial role with luxury Swiss watch brand Hublot (apt, perhaps, for someone who knows how to maximise time), her place on Forbes’ 30 under 30 list, and walking the Off-White catwalk at Paris Fashion Week while being watched by Cara Delevingne last year. Starting to sound less normal now, right?

However, we mortals can seek solace in one juicy nugget of information about Dina. Something I, at least, can relate to: the world-class sprinter claims she couldn’t do a Parkrun. ‘I don’t jog very far and I can’t jog far quickly,’ she says. ‘If you asked me to run a Parkrun I’d be exhausted – obviously, I’d try my best if I had to, but I’m definitely a short, sharp kinda girl.’

Her energetic personality is immediately obvious on the Grazia photoshoot. She exudes star appeal as she twirls, laughs and poses in front of the camera. Traits like these have no doubt helped propel her from sports star to household name. The limelight doesn’t seem to have fazed her – she says she’s finding it all ‘loads of fun’. As for all the perks of the job, they’re ‘unexpected. Honestly, when I wake up every day I just want to be the best athlete I can be and achieve the goals I set out when I was a young girl.’

Being an athlete was always part of Dina’s plan. She was only eight when she joined her local athletics club in south London and fell in love with sprinting. She competed all through her teens, before completing a history degree at King’s College London in 2017. ‘I remember watching Kelly Holmes get double gold in the Olympics in 2004 and I was like, “That’s amazing – I really want to do that,”’ she says. She is, however, very aware of the shelf-life that comes with being a pro in a sport like athletics. At 23, it’s likely she’ll have to retire in about 10 years’ time. Has she thought about life a er the track? ‘That’s why I did a degree – so I had options to go into if I wanted to. You never know what’s going to happen in your career, so if I run and then never want to think about track again, I’ve got my degree. Or maybe I could go into commentary or writing.’

Another of Dina’s great loves has always been fashion, but she is someone who appreciates style from afar, rather than being an avid shopper. ‘I’ve got millions of screenshots of clothes saved on my phone of things I think are really cool. I like the artistic side of it, and I like seeing how brands with a heritage and history carry their brand identity into their shows. I’m a proper boring academic-y one,’ she laughs. Despite Dina’s rigorous training schedule – which has her pounding the gym or track six days a week – she manages to squeeze a lot in: her Instagram is packed with pictures of her on red carpets, glossy photo shoots, the Jonathan Ross sofa and various awards she’s won.

Indeed, with so much going on, it’s imperative that she doesn’t feel rundown or ill, meaning hand-sanitiser, vitamin C chewables and water are always among her handbag essentials. Her astonishing achievements haven’t dented her sense of humility, though. She still hangs around with her old group of friends, who she nicknames her ‘post-natals’ as they’ve known each other since they were a few months old. At the World Championships in London in 2017 (where she won silver; she’s aiming for gold at the event this September) her schoolfriends surprised her by sneaking on to the frow.

‘On my relay change I heard someone shouting “Dina!” and they were there. They’d bought tickets in the front row and had a little poster. I was waving and saying, “I can’t look – I’m gonna get really emotional. Let me just focus and then I’ll come back!” They always cracked a joke in school that they’d watch me at the Olympics one day. It’s in Tokyo next year and a couple of months ago, they were like, “We’ve gotta find the money [to be there], guys!”’

While her personal profile continues to grow, there is still a way to go when it comes to the attention given to women’s sport. Dina has previously spoken out about the male-dominated sports media, describing the experience of sitting through a press conference ‘overwhelmingly full of men asking me questions’, and has commented that: ‘If you’ve only got one section of the population doing that reporting, there is only ever going to be one vision or one voice overall that comes through.’

Today, she wouldn’t go as far as to say the sporting world has achieved equality, but thinks things are improving, particularly in terms of women’s teams going professional. ‘Women’s England rugby team just got a salary, and Man U have recently reformed a women’s football team and I think they were the last [major club] to do it. I like seeing the profile of women’s sport grow around the world, simply because we’ve got so many incredible sportswomen,’ she says.

It can be hard to compare something like male and female salaries or sponsorships deals, she adds, as ‘we don’t get paid a salary. For races, it’s prize money, so it’s not the same.’ She’s in no doubt though that the profile of women’s sports must continue to rise. 'The more visible [sportswomen] are, the more they are seen as aspirational and inspirational,’ she says. ‘Everything comes with that.’

For more information, visit hublot.com; @hublot