Amy Hunt, the 23-year-old sprinter, caught the public’s attention with her reaction to winning a 200m silver medal. Hunt brilliantly summarised the demanding path she had taken to get there after sprinting to world 200m silver in Tokyo.
The University of Cambridge graduate proclaimed to all young girls watching on BBC TV: “You can be an academic badass and a track goddess.”
Hunt’s Unexpected Words Resonated
Hunt worried that her words might be bleeped out by the BBC at the time. “As soon as I said it, I was like, ‘oh my gosh, I’m on the BBC’. I was like, ‘are they going to bleep that out?’ I feel so bad,” says Hunt.
Hunt says, “I was so incredibly high with adrenaline and endorphins that there wasn’t a connection between my brain and my mouth. All I remembered was that I had this T-shirt that said ‘Goddess’ on it, so that flashed into my mind.”
She adds, “I feel like I can’t wear that T-shirt because it’s too corny to wear now.”
Corny or not, her words resonated.
Balancing Athletics and Academia
Fast forward six months and Hunt, will compete for further global honours over 60m at this weekend’s World Indoor Championships in Poland, is offering as much guidance to those inspired by her achievements as her busy schedule will allow.
It is no easy task, amid the exciting opportunities which followed her Tokyo breakthrough. She has had to decline invites to movie premieres and fashion weeks, while working towards her next major goals of breaking three British records and winning three European titles this year.
Hunt, who graduated from her English Literature degree in 2023, says, “There’s so many girls that message me every single day. I reply to as many as I can, especially those trying to go through the Oxbridge system, but it’s quite hard.”
“I’m trying to open more doors for people coming up behind me. I’ve helped a couple of girls get into Cambridge and some of them I’m now close friends with.”
“It’s lovely to see more girls be emboldened and empowered to do that. It’s just having those conversations, or reaching out with a message saying ‘you can do it’. That goes a long way.”
Hunt’s Journey to the Top
Hunt’s stunning run for world silver came six years after she alerted the world to her potential as a record-breaking junior.
But, between those headline moments, injuries disrupted the start of her senior career, including a ruptured quadriceps in 2022, while attempting to manage an often frictional relationship between her sporting ambition and studies.
Hunt would not improve on the 22.42-second run, which smashed the under-18 200m world record in 2019, until last summer, before going faster still by running 22.08 in Japan at the end of a season where she also recorded 60m and 100m personal bests.