‘People will always hate but my opinion is all that matters’: GB sprinter Amy Hunt on fame, abuse and becoming an icon
The 23-year-old who went viral last year has plenty of targets for 2026, starting with the World Indoor Championships in Poland
Amy Hunt’s mind is flashing back to the moment she unwittingly went viral last September. As untrammelled joy charged through her body, the BBC asked about her unusual journey from an English degree at Cambridge to a shock 200m world championship silver medal. Hunt’s response quickly became a cri du coeur to young girls everywhere: “You can be an academic badass and a track goddess.”
As the 23-year-old prepares for the World Indoor Championships in Poland that starts on Friday, she reveals her remark was entirely spontaneous. “As soon as I said it, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m on the BBC, can I even say that? Are they going to bleep that out?’” she says, smiling. “I was so incredibly high with the adrenaline and endorphins that there wasn’t that connection between my brain and my mouth, necessarily, so I didn’t really know what I was saying.”