Dina Asher-Smith

Asher-Smith came in seventh in the 200 m final at the World Junior Championships in 2012 in a personal best time of 23.50 seconds. In 2013, she won two gold medals at the European Junior Championships in Rieti, first in the 200 m in 23.29 seconds and then in the 4 X 100 m relay, breaking the UK junior record with Yasmin Miller, Steffi Wilson, and Desiree Henry. The British team finished fourth in the final but were upgraded to third after the French team was disqualified. At the World Junior Championships in 2014, Asher-Smith won the 100 meters in 11.23 seconds.

Asher-Smith was the youngest athlete chosen for the Great Britain and Northern Ireland squad for the 2013 World Championships in Moscow. She was a part of the Great Britain team, alongside Annabelle Lewis, Ashleigh Nelson, and Hayley Jones, that won the bronze medal in 4 x 100 m relay at the London Grand Prix meet.  She qualified for the 200 m final at the European Athletics Championships in 2014, but withdrew due to a hamstring injury.

At the 2015 European Indoor Championships, she won the silver medal in the 60 m. For the first time in 30 years, a British woman took home a medal in the competition. Asher-Smith tied Jeanette Kwakye’s British record of 7.08 seconds and, at 19 years old, became the fastest teenager ever at 60 meters.   She first broke the British 100-meter record with 11.02 seconds on May 24 in Hengelo. She then became the first British woman to run a legal time under 11 seconds on July 25 at the London Anniversary Games with 10.99 seconds.

Asher-Smith won the 4 x 100 m relay at the Rio Olympics 2016 with her teammates Asha Philip, Desiree Henry, and Daryll Neita in a time of 41.77 secs that set a new British record. Prior to the Commonwealth Games in 2018,  she travelled there early to train and adapt to the conditions.  Her timing of 22.29 seconds earned her a Commonwealth bronze medal in the final. The English women, including Asher-Smith, stunned everyone in the 4X100 m relay final by defeating top favorite Jamaica by clocking 42.46 seconds.

Asher-Smith was a major medal contender for the short sprints at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo in 2021. Her season got off to a promising start in May when she defeated top competitors like Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Blessing Okagbare, and Sha’Carri Richardson to win the women’s 100 m final in the Gateshead Diamond League. However, during the Olympics, s he finished third in her semifinal, clocking 11.05 seconds and was unable to advance to the 100 m final. She had a hamstring injury during the finals of the British championships and did not race in the 200m. Nevertheless, she and her teammates in the 4X100m relay were able to bring home the bronze medal for the nation.

Asher-Smith’s biggest rival is compatriot Daryll Neita. Neita was also a part of the bronze winning Great Britain side (4X100m relay) alongside Dina at the Summer Olympics 2016 and 2020. Her personal best timing of 10.90 secs is the second best UK all-time, behind Asher-Smith.

Dina Asher-Smith was born in Orpington, Greater London, on December 4, 1995. Julie, her mother, was born in London, and Winston, her father, was born in Jamaica but migrated to England as a child. She is of Trinidadian and Jamaican descent. She was a student at Perry Hall Elementary. She attended Orpington’s Newstead Wood School from 2008 to 2014. In her GCSEs, she received nine A grades. She received three As for her A-Level test results in August 2014, allowing her admission to King’s College London to study history.

In 2017, Asher-Smith graduated with honors, earning a first-class BA. Asher-Smith, a history major, authored an award-winning column in which she discussed personal experiences with racism. Asher is coached by John Blackie. Blackie also won the Coach of the year award at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year show in 2019 after guiding Dina Asher-Smith to a gold medal win in the World Championship 2019 Doha in 200m.