Words by Hannah Shaw
Dina Asher-Smith has emerged as not only one of Britain’s finest athletes, but as an influential force for change, too.
She’s quite possibly the most talked about female sprinter in the world of athletics at the moment, and it’s all for good reason. Breaking records and eating up the track is just a side hustle for Dina Asher-Smith. Our home-grown superstar is not only the fastest woman in British history, she’s also an advocate for women’s rights and an active campaigner for the Black Lives Matter movement. If there was a gold medal for activism, you can bet that she would have that one round her neck, too.
Asher-Smith’s track career began at age 8 when she joined her local athletics club, Blackheath and Bromley Harriers AC. Since then, she has dominated the track. Her career highlights include securing the sprint double gold at the 2018 European Championships and becoming the first British female to win a global sprint title for her stunning 200m performance at the World Championships at Doha in 2019.
Following the murder of George Floyd, Dina took to social media to pledge her support for the Black Lives Matter movement. On an Instagram post, she wrote: “we need justice and real, progressive change.” She continued to use her platform throughout the mourning period to share educational reading lists and promote her collaboration with BBC Bitsesize – to read and discuss the theme of racism in Malorie Blackman’s novel, Noughts and Crosses, with students. The pandemic might have slowed down her medal haul, but Dina’s recent article for The Telegraph, “Think racism hasn’t affected me? It’s there almost every day”, won the International Sports Press Association’s Column of the Year Award. If you haven’t read it yet, you definitely should.
And she doesn’t stop there. For International Woman’s Day 2020, Barbie honoured Dina’s commitment to inspiring young girls in sport by creating a Dina Asher-Smith doll (every girls’ dream – am I right?). The doll was made to inspire the limitless potential in young women as part of the brand’s global initiative to close the ‘Dream Gap’. The only disappointment of the campaign was that it wasn’t for sale… but we’re fairly sure it would have been a sell-out.
She’s the nation’s favourite sprinter, BLM activist, column writer, women’s rights advocate; and now cover girl, too. Featuring in the likes of GQ, Wonderland and Women’s Health (and looking bomb, by the way), Dina Asher-Smith is dominating the magazine industry and we’re not complaining. Her modelling career has taken her to Paris for the Nike x Off White “Athlete in Progress” SS19 collection, cat walking alongside her teammates, including everyone’s fave heptathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson.
So, there we have it. What can’t this girl do? The way things are looking, Asher-Smith is leading the line-up for gold at the long-awaited Olympic games in Tokyo 2021 – and when she’s not on the podium, you can bet she’ll be working to make the world a better place.
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