Jazmin Sawyers, a 32-year-old from Stoke-on-Trent, won gold in the women's long jump at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow on Saturday with a distance of 6.93m.
She finished ahead of Nigeria's Ruth Usoro and Brooke Buschkuehl of Australia. This was Sawyers' first Commonwealth Games gold medal, upgrading from the silver medal she won in Glasgow during the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
Career setbacks overcome
Sawyers' success came after multiple setbacks in her career. She finished just outside the medals at the previous Commonwealth Games in Birmingham and failed to qualify for the final of the 2023 World Championships.
She ruptured her Achilles tendon on her take-off leg and required surgery. Rather than competing in the Paris Olympics, she commentated for the BBC instead.
Praise for home city support
Sawyers told BBC Radio Stoke that she felt "incredibly lucky" to have had the support of her home city throughout her career.
"I've always felt it… some athletes talk about how you have to go it alone but it was never all me. I never had to do all this alone," she said.
"I always felt like I had the support of thousands and thousands of people because I felt like everyone in the area has been backing me the entire time."
She described what she valued about Stoke-on-Trent: "One of the beautiful things about Stoke is that when somebody says 'I'm going after something' everyone goes 'go on then, we all reckon you can have a good go at that'."
On winning the gold medal, Sawyers said: "It's just pure joy. What I find so amazing is it was as good as I was hoping it to be. It's the thing I've been working for – the idea I can win gold medals and top podiums."
Sawyers reflected on overcoming disappointment: "The hardest time to believe [in yourself] is in the moments after you have failed again. The failure comes thick and fast in sport. Every single time it happens, you have to pick yourself up and go 'despite this new evidence I have that says I can't do it, I still choose to believe that I can'."
