00:00Hi HelloFashion, I'm Jasmine Sawyers and this is my Olympic journey.
00:06I started in athletics when I was 11 years old but like a lot of people I tried it before
00:10that
00:10at school. You know your school's got a sandpit somewhere in fields and I tried long jump for
00:15the first time there. I was already a gymnast but I was desperate to go to the Olympics and
00:18I knew I wasn't going to be good enough in gymnastics so when I tried athletics
00:22and I had a little bit more talent at that I made the switch.
00:31When I ruptured my achilles, I knew it in an instant. I thought I took over a hurdle,
00:37I thought the hurdle hit me in the back of the leg. Once I realised that I'd cleared the hurdle,
00:41I knew exactly what happened and in that moment my 2024 Olympic dreams vanished. So many things
00:46ran through my head. It was, okay my year is over. Is my career over? Will I ever make it
00:51back from
00:51this? If I make it back will I ever be the same? I was in the best shape of my
00:55life coming into this
00:55year and now it's gone. What happens there? And it's a million thoughts all at once knowing that
01:02something you've worked for for your whole life is over. But in the same stretch it's so bad that
01:08it's easy to accept because what else can you do? It happened. So pretty soon within 24 hours I was
01:15already thinking okay let's put a plan together to make sure I can come back and how can I make
01:20this
01:20year great anyway. I get to do the Olympics in a different way this year. Normally I'd be gearing
01:28up to compete but this time I'm going to be part of the broadcasting team so I get to talk
01:33about,
01:33talk to and share with the world what these amazing athletes can do and so many of them are
01:39friends so for me this time around is about celebrating the other athletes.
01:46My advice for anyone else that's experiencing major setbacks is try and invest in the other areas
01:54of your identity, your life and your personality because if something in your work or your hobby
02:01goes so wrong then you can't do it anymore and that's all you have that can destroy you as a
02:06person
02:06so for me my advice is to lean into the other things that make you you.
02:12The moment in my career where I really felt unstoppable was March 2023 in Istanbul in round
02:20six of the European Championships. In round five I just jumped to personal best seven meters British
02:25record and I was leading the competition and in round six I already knew that I'd won. I'm standing
02:31on the runway it's the last jump of the whole competition the crowd are cheering me on and I know
02:37that I've got this in the bag and I just get to tear down the runway and enjoy it so
02:41that I really felt unstoppable.
