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When Amy Hunt was a teenager, she was hailed by Vogue as “one of the faces to define the decade”. It has taken a few years, and several painful detours. But the 24-year-old Cambridge University graduate with a passion for the Italian renaissance is set to create an impressive masterpiece of her own.
If all goes as expected this weekend, Hunt will become the first athlete in the 92-year history of the European Championships to win four gold medals over the same week. Already the 100m and 200m crowns are in the bag. And provided the baton gets around, two more will surely follow in the mixed and 4x100m relays on Saturday and Sunday. No wonder she is second favourite to be the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year.
However Hunt’s hinterland is far broader than most sport stars. She lives in Padua and goes to the Guggenheim every month. She prepares for races by playing puzzle games such as Wordle and Connections to calm herself. And when she won a world championship silver medal in Tokyo she said it proved to young girls everywhere that you could be an “academic badass and a track goddess”.
Her journey to the top has also been bumpier than most. Her mental health struggled with the twin demands of an English Literature degree at Corpus Christi College and elite sport, and she also had a series of injuries that left her wondering whether she would ever fill the potential she showed when breaking the world 200m junior record as an 18-year-old.
A few years ago she ruptured her quadriceps so badly that her mum needed to lift her out of the shower. And, as she revealed after winning 200m gold on Thursday, she has also had low blood pressure this year which has caused her to nearly faint several times.
“They have no idea what’s causing it,” Hunt explained. “But my sister’s a nurse, and she said ‘If you had that blood pressure on the ward, I’d be really worried about you. I’d be pressing the bell’. Luckily my mum and my sister are flying back and forth from Italy, and going back and forth from London, taking care of me. So it’s been such a big family effort.”
The worst period, she says, came during the London Diamond League in July when she had to be taken to the medical room after racing the 200m. “I was on the floor, on the verge of fainting,” she says. “And we had to do a lot of medical tests. I’ve had a lot of scary heart tests and stuff this year.”
She is now taking salty electrolytes regularly to help raise her blood pressure, along with using cold towels. “I have to take my blood pressure every day at training, like an old lady,” she says. “So it’s definitely not been the most straightforward journey. I think that’s what makes it the most rewarding.”
So why is Hunt so good? According to the British sprinter Adam Gemili, who has known her since she was a teenager, she always had the tools to succeed. It had just taken time to put everything together.
“When she was really young you could tell how talented she was,” he says. “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 adds. “If you see her train in the gym, she’s a strong girl. And her other great strength is her ability to stay relaxed when those around her tighten up.
“I think she’ll be one of the greatest sprinters in female history with what she’ll run in the 200m.”
That message is reinforced by Sebastian Coe, the World Athletics president and British Olympic great, who believes that Hunt is only scratching the surface of her talents.
“She’s got bags of potential still,” said Coe. “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 makes another pertinent point. “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.”
That is certainly true. After Hunt’s victory in the 200m she walked to the TV cameras and roared, “Are you not entertained” in homage to Russell Crowe’s character in Gladiator. It was, she insists, entirely spontaneous.
“I’ve always likened the sprints to being a gladiator in the arena,” she says. “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.”
Hunt also made clear her intention to win the quadruple by holding two fingers up in her right hand, to signify her 100m and 200m victories, before flipping the hand to show four fingers.
“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.”
