The response is measured and respectful. And yet, a few minutes after the end of the tape, she agonizes over whether one of her words could be misunderstood. It shows both how hot the controversy has gotten and her own sensitivity to nuance.
Instinctively wary, for the past two years she has attempted to speak up about sociocultural concerns and how they relate to her personal experiences. In June 2020, shortly after the pandemic postponed the Olympics, she wrote a searing article for that newspaper about her reaction to the murder of George Floyd, which affected her so deeply she struggled to sleep.
“When I knew Tokyo wasn’t going to be the Tokyo I imagined, my brain was a little different,” she recalls. “Sometimes when you are a competitor you become very cautious. Say there’s a media storm? This could affect your performance, how your association behaves towards you. If this has been a dream since you were eight, you have a right to protect it. At the time, however, I felt I could be more open and direct. I’m glad I chose this moment to say, ‘You can’t stop people from talking. You can’t stop people from consuming their voice.’”
“So much to do”
Her voice was unmistakable, as she described, for example, being mistaken for an employee rather than an attendee of black tie events simply because of the color of her skin.
Two years later, does she think British society has changed for the better? She shakes her head ruefully. “No. There are a few more buzzwords and hashtags, but things haven’t improved all that much. It’s sad. Many were hoping for a postponement. There’s more awareness, but there’s still so much to do.”
Asher-Smith has little time to slip into fatalism as she finds herself in the midst of what she calls “a summer like no other.” Her original goal was to reach the culmination of an unprecedented string of three major championships between mid-July and late August, although she admits, “It’s really difficult to be ‘locked in’ for six weeks.”
Ultimately, then, it would prove itself: within 48 hours of earning a bronze in the 200m at the World Championships in Eugene, she retired in the sprint relay final with a hamstring strain and ruled her out of the Commonwealths. It was obviously a wrench. “The chance to perform in front of a home crowd doesn’t come that often at our level,” she says. “The fact that it would be held in Birmingham made my whole team put it on the priority list.”
To assuage her dismay, she has the motivation to attempt to defend the first of three European titles in the 100m on Monday in Munich, where her main rivals will be compatriot Daryll Neita and Switzerland’s Mujinga Kambundji. “Mujinga ran the 60m under seven seconds this year – she’s phenomenal,” says Asher-Smith. “I feel like we’ve gotten to a point with the women’s sprint where it’s great to be a part of.”
Today, perhaps for the first time, the women’s 100-meter dash is a more compelling spectacle than the men’s. Take this week’s Diamond League meeting in Monaco, where Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, aged 35, won in 10.62 seconds, the sixth fastest time on record.
The field was so stacked, with Marie-Josee Ta Lou’s 10.72 only good enough for third place, that you questioned Asher-Smith’s prospects of a medal at the Paris Olympics two years from now. After the ordeal of Tokyo, where she limped away injured, an individual Olympic medal is still the only noticeable gap in her tally. Not that she’s still restless at 26.
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