Amy Hunt completes sprint double at European Championships and targets four golds in a week
Amy Hunt won the 100m and 200m at the European Championships this weekend and can become the first athlete in the competition’s 92-year history to claim four gold medals in the same week if she completes the relays on Saturday and Sunday.
The 24-year-old Cambridge University graduate, who was described by Vogue as “one of the faces to define the decade” when she was a teenager, combines elite athletics with wider interests; she lives in Padua, visits the Guggenheim monthly and plays puzzle games such as Wordle and Connections to calm herself. Hunt broke the world 200m junior record aged 18 and is currently the second favourite to be the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year.
Hunt has had a disrupted path to this point, balancing an English Literature degree at Corpus Christi College with top-level sport and enduring a sequence of injuries, including a rupture to her rectus femoris in 2022 that left her on crutches and unable to compete at the Commonwealths. A few years ago she ruptured her quadriceps so badly that her mum needed to lift her out of the shower, and this year she has suffered episodes of low blood pressure that have nearly caused her to faint.
On those health concerns Hunt said: “They have no idea what’s causing it,” and added, “If you had that blood pressure on the ward, I’d be really worried about you. I’d be pressing the bell”. She described the worst moment at the London Diamond League in July: “I was on the floor, on the verge of fainting,” and said she has undergone “a lot of scary heart tests and stuff this year.” To manage the problem she is taking salty electrolytes, using cold towels and “I have to take my blood pressure every day at training, like an old lady.”
Adam Gemili, who has known Hunt since her teenage years, emphasised her natural attributes and temperament: “When she was really young you could tell how talented she was,” he said. “She was so unbelievable, she was just so raw. She was just very tall, very uncoordinated, and she didn’t realise how good she actually was. “She’s tall, and when she stands up and opens up her stride length it must be 220cm something like that – and not a lot of girls can do that at the top level,” he added, praising her strength and ability to stay relaxed under pressure.
Sebastian Coe, the World Athletics president and British Olympic great, said Hunt still has more to deliver: “She’s got bags of potential still,” he said. “She doesn’t look to me like the finished product. I am sure she is smart enough to know that there is work to be done which is a good thing. There’s bags more to come.” Coe also remarked on her attitude to big moments: “She looks like she likes the arena. The world at this level breaks down into two groups. Those who would just rather be anywhere else in the big moment. And those who wear it. She seems to enjoy it.”
After her 200m victory Hunt approached television cameras and roared “Are you not entertained” in homage to Russell Crowe’s character in Gladiator, saying the comparison was spontaneous. “I’ve always likened the sprints to being a gladiator in the arena,” she said. “I love the film Gladiator. My dad always quotes it to me. Before races, he always says ‘strength and honour’. It’s definitely something that I keep with me.” She signalled her ambition for four golds by first holding up two fingers and then four, and reflected on the turnaround since 2022: “I came here in 2022 to watch the Commonwealths because I ruptured my rectus femoris [thigh muscle] that year and I was on crutches,” she explained. “Four years ago, I was in the stadium in Munich watching and sad that I couldn’t join in. And now I get to be kind of the main star. It’s an amazing full-circle moment.”
Hunt’s immediate programme includes the mixed relay and the 4x100m relay on Saturday and Sunday respectively, with the mixed and 4x100m events presenting the chance to complete a four-gold haul “provided the baton gets around.”