Inspiration Archives -

12th February 2019

Katelyn Ohashi

My inspirational sportswoman is Katelyn Ohashi, the UCLA gymnast whose floor routine to Michael Jackson recently went viral with a perfect score of 10.0! (Would thoroughly recommend a watch – it has had over 34 million views 😊)

What I love about Katelyn is that her enthusiasm and joy for her sport shines through during her routine; she genuinely looks like she’s having the best time ever. She seems to effortlessly perform extremely difficult flips, splits and tricks whilst having fun with her teammates and dancing to music.

Katelyn was once destined for the Olympics and had even beaten Simone Biles in 2013, when she got injured and reached had physical and mental breaking point. She was consistently body shamed and had lost her love for the sport at Elite level.

Therefore, what I find most inspiring about Katelyn Ohashi is that she managed to find her passion again, and is now completely re-defining gymnastics from being a sport of discipline and neatness, to one in which mesmerising choreography and enjoyment are the most important elements!

Millie H,

Gymnastics Rep

25th January 2019

Dina Asher-Smith

Dina Asher-Smith is right now the face of British Athletics. Currently she holds the British record for the 100 metres and 200 metres and in 2018 European Championships in Berlin, Asher-Smith won both the 100 and 200 metres as well as the 4 x 100 m relay. In 2014 she won the World Junior Championships for the 100 metres when she was 19 years old. She became the first British woman to legally run under 11 seconds in July 2015 for the 100 metres. Last October she was named women’s European Athlete of the Year which is, needless to say, no easy task!

Dina Asher-Smith graduated from King’s College London in 2017, which shows just how incredible she can time manage doing a degree and training full time and this gives me inspiration if ever I feel that I am falling behind with work. What separates Dina from other athletes is how down to earth she is. I was fortunate to meet her during the BT Action Woman Awards 2018 (which she won) and she was saying that hard work is the key to all her success and anyone can follow her lead.

If you haven’t watched it, I thoroughly recommend watching a clip of the 4x100m relay in the European Championships. It is amazing watching her run – she is the fourth leg of the British team and she comes from being in fourth to winning it, by in what in sprinting terms is an enormous lead.

https://video.eurosport.co.uk/athletics/european-championships/2018/dina-asher-smith-lands-third-gold-with-brilliant-anchor-leg-in-4x100m-relay_vid1115443/video.shtm

She is a truly inspirational athlete and has managed to overcome many obstacles in her life to be one of the nation’s greatest athletes.

Saskia B

Rowing Rep

18th January 2019

Inspirational Sports Woman

Inspirational sports person: Serena Williams

This week’s inspirational sports person is Serena Williams. I have chosen her because of her journey to become one of the world’s greatest tennis players. She is widely known and has worked immensely hard in order to get where she is today. She has 4 Olympic gold medals and 4 Grand Slams to her name, and won sports-person of the year by the magazine ‘Sports Illustrated’. The reason she is such an inspiration to me is because throughout her journey despite having received racism and sexism from fans and tennis administrators, she is still so strong and it takes a lot of mental strength to overcome these challenges and use them positively in order to make you, and your game stronger.

Additionally, in the recent US Open in September 2018 she called out a double-standard and challenged the way society thinks women should behave when playing sport in comparison to men. During the finals match against Osaka, Williams received a code violation for racquet abuse (hitting her racquet on the floor), but as later summarised in an interview “when a woman is emotional, she’s ‘hysterical’ and she’s penalised for it. When a man does the same, he’s ‘outspoken’ and there are no repercussions”. I think that she is an inspiration, not only to sport players but to all people out there.

Emily Ng,

Swimming rep

15th October 2018

Inspirational Sportswoman of the week

My inspirational sportswoman this week is Natalia Cohen who in a team of four rowed across the Pacific Ocean from America to Australia. They have released a documentary, which is available on Netflix (yay!) so, if you’re looking for an inspiring story about perseverance and the significance of sisterhood, I would thoroughly recommend.