Dina Asher-Smith on her new life in Texas, leaving London and her ‘mistake’ at the Paris Olympics

AAfter a year of living her new life in Austin, Texas, Dina Asher-Smith is back in London to make up for lost time. She has spent the weeks since the rollercoaster of the Paris Olympics racing around the city seeing family and friends, going out for coffee and dinners and even going to the club.

She calls it her “normal life,” as if athletics is another world, and maybe this is the part of leaving we never think about: coming back. It made her realize how much she missed her home.

“I’m definitely a London girl,” she says from a new home in the capital. She will soon be called back to her training base in Texas. “The warm weather there is obviously very attractive, but I like the crowds, I like getting into a black taxi and chatting with the driver, I like my restaurants, I like seeing my friends. I have built a community here.”

She managed to squeeze her school friend’s week-long Indian wedding in between two impressive performances on the European Diamond League circuit.

“There was no way the wedding would go ahead and I wouldn’t be there. After I came back from Paris we spent the whole day shopping for wedding dresses. It was a really good way to end a season that brought a lot of change for me.”

Asher-Smith made the bold move to the US last winter, amicably parting ways with her long-time coach John Blackie. She joined the stable of highly regarded American trainer Edrick ‘Flo’ Floreal to work with a host of leading sprinters, including new Olympic 100m champion Julien Alfred.

The decision has been upheld. While her tearful elimination in the 100m semifinals may have been a lasting image of her Olympics, it was hardly a fair representation of her season. She recovered to finish an agonizing fourth in the 200m final and won silver in the 4x100m, in a summer that started with 100m gold at the European Championships and ended with fast times in the Diamond League.

open image in gallery

open image in gallery

After a year of immersing herself in fresh ideas surrounded by impossibly high standards, Asher-Smith has revived her career by staying fit and running as fast as ever.

“I’m really excited about track and field running at the moment, which I think is down to the buzz in the area,” she says. “There was absolutely nothing wrong with where I was in London – I absolutely love my previous coach, John, he is like a second father. Sometimes change is mentally good and stimulating. It has brought a new perspective and it has made everything exciting again.

“It has new reference points and people with a new eye look at you and say, ‘Oh, you can do that, crazy,’ and I just took it for granted and said, that’s normal for me.”

It’s the first time in her life that Asher-Smith has lived somewhere else for an extended period of time and she admits she’s a fish out of water in Austin.

“It’s really hot. I wake up every day and the first thing on my mind is making sure I hydrate. I know that if I don’t plan my day around drinking water and drinking my electrolytes from the moment I get up, the workout won’t go well…

“Just experiencing a different way of life is really stimulating. They love their barbecues, their tacos. The biggest change is what they do to relax, which is chilling by the pool with their friends,” she laughs, “which is also nice for me.”

She has expressed interest in the upcoming US elections, but has managed to avoid difficult conversations. “Austin is a liberal city anyway,” she smiles. “I find it interesting because I studied history, so that’s the kind of thing I look at, but people don’t talk about it at all. It’s not like Britain where everyone has an opinion. Maybe it would be different if I was in New York or LA, but you wouldn’t know it, trust me. It’s wild.”

open image in gallery

open image in gallery

Asher-Smith is speaking two months after the Olympics and life has been busy since – she has just finished filming a short film on Amazon with fellow British record holder Zharnel Hughes in which “we had so much fun, it was just a big laugh”. She has done her best to pass quickly and learn from the Olympic 100 meters, an event with which she has a tortured relationship. Twice it ended in tears in the semi-finals: in Tokyo due to a nagging injury, and in Paris after what she calls a mistake in her mental approach.

“I made a mistake, then corrected it, and I’ve done very well in the last three Diamond Leagues. Sometimes it’s just about the attitude and energy you bring to the starting line. Different emotional moods work for different people. When you’re in a new coaching setup, these are things you figure out as you go.

“No one in this life, including athletes, is perfect. But all you can do when that happens is just learn from it and not make the same mistake and keep things moving.”

open image in gallery

Those Diamond League performances (10.88, 10.89 and 10.92) proved Paris had her back as she knocked on the door of her British record of 10.83. In those races she competed with the new sprint queen Alfred, as well as with the American Sha’Carri Richardson.

Ahead of the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo next year, there is a feeling that a fully fit Asher-Smith can challenge for individual world titles, six years after becoming world 200m champion in Doha. Ultimately, this is why she left her London comfort zone. And in 2025, her new surroundings may feel a little more comfortable.

“I’m very excited to attack Worlds, to get back into a training cycle with a program that I know works for me, and for my body, and that’s the biggest thing you fear when you make a change applies . I’m looking forward to attacking that in year two, when I just understand it and what’s coming, and when everything isn’t new.”

Dina Asher-Smith and fellow Team GB teammate Zharnel Hughes have helped Amazon achieve even faster deliveries ahead of Prime Big Deal Days, a two-day deals event on October 8 and 9. Visit to see them in action www.instagram.com/amazonuk/