Amy Hunt celebrated four European golds with ‘a glass of champagne and a KFC’ before Lausanne race

Amy Hunt celebrated winning four gold medals at the European Championships in Birmingham on Sunday, marking the end of her final golden night with “a glass of champagne and a KFC” and a 2am massage to keep her legs fresh for her next race in Lausanne on Friday.

Hunt had openly declared her ambition to complete a quadruple in Birmingham and achieved that target, telling reporters she prefers to voice big goals. “Sometimes people are a bit afraid of voicing their ambitions,” Hunt says. “But life is short. Why not be ambitious? We’re all thinking these things, so why not just say them out loud?” Despite going to bed at 4am and having only four hours’ sleep on Monday morning, she spoke with composure about the role of boldness in her approach.

Describing the celebrations, Hunt said: “I had a glass of champagne and a KFC and it was amazing,” adding: “It was one of the best tasting KFCs I’ve had in my life. Then we went and had a massage at 2am, and then I got into bed finally at 4am with a not-packed suitcase.” She also posted a video on Instagram of herself twirling with her four gold medals to Abba’s Winner Takes It All.

Hunt outlined the psychological demands of sprinting, saying the start line requires near-total self-belief. “Especially in the sprints, you have to be so utterly confident on that start line. It’s like nothing else on this planet. I’m trying to get from A to B as fast as humanly possible, and it’s so simple yet complex,” she said, adding: “I have to be so utterly convinced of myself, my own power, my own strength, my own speed, and my own methodology, in a sense, to be able to make that all kind of come together as one.”

Television audiences and social metrics underlined her rising profile: two million viewers watched her first gold over 100m last Monday, while 4.2 million tuned in when she completed the quadruple on Sunday, and she said her number of social media followers doubled in a week.

Hunt praised teammates after the women’s 4x100m win, applauding Dina Asher-Smith for breaking the record for European Championships medals, singling out Success Eduan’s dual role as a midwife and sprinter, and noting Imani-Lara Lansiquot’s play Armour of Gaza. She also spoke about managing increased fame from her base in Padua: “I am probably going to give Keely Hodgkinson a little text to see how she manages it, but it’s definitely not something I shy away from.”

Hunt addressed past struggles and current targets, saying she had faced mental-health issues at Cambridge, injuries after breaking through as an 18-year-old, and low blood pressure this year that had nearly caused fainting. “Obviously, this year I’ve struggled with my health and there’s been races that have felt like failures,” she said. She is currently ranked fifth in the world over 200m and eighth in the 100m, and she named the Americans Gabby Thomas and Melissa Jefferson-Wooden and the St Lucian Julien Alfred as rivals to beat at next year’s world championships.

She said improving her 60m speed is part of a plan to be quicker around the bend in the 200m and to contend at the Olympics, and she was cited as the overwhelming favourite for sports personality of the year, ahead of Josh Kerr, Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham. “I think it just speaks to the resurgence and reignition of track and field in 2026,” she says, word-perfect to the last.

Hunt’s immediate confirmed engagement is her next race in Lausanne on Friday, for which she booked a late-night massage in Birmingham to prepare her legs.