British track star Amy Hunt has joked that her priority is ‘medals before men’.
The 23-year-old delivered a stunning finish to the 200 metres final at the World Championships in Tokyo last month to come second.
Hunt sprinted to the silver medal behind the United States’ Melissa Jefferson-Wooden in the Japanese capital and has captured the nation’s attention, who are fascinated by the lightning-fast, literature-obsessed Cambridge graduate.
The night after her brilliant silver medal, she made sure to celebrate in style with Karaoke. The song of her choice was Maneater by Nelly Furtado.
She admitted: ‘That’s really boring, but I feel like that was the vibe tonight, just sexy and aggressive.’
So is Maneater an apt tune for Hunt’s love life away from the track?
In an interview with the Times, she said: ‘Obviously, as a female athlete, you also have to plan when you think motherhood is a feasible thing for you.
‘But the world is very open to me and I will get a sense of what I want to do when the moment is right.
‘I actually always joke to my coach, “medals before men”, (laughing), that’s the quote of the day!’
Hunt was labelled as one of the ‘faces to define the decade’ by Vogue magazine after smashing the Under 18s world record in 2019.
But difficulty in juggling her studies and training, combined with difficult injuries, combined for a testing time and drop in performance.
She ruptured her quadriceps in 2022. Suddenly, she had gone from being the next big thing to almost forgotten about – life was incredibly tough.
The 22.42 seconds she ran as a 17-year-old before the COVID-19 lockdown was a distant memory. Six years passed before she would run a personal best once again.
A move to Italy made all the difference, and in her own words – after winning silver at worlds – ‘I knew I would make it’.
‘I really have that radical utter insane belief in myself,’ she continued. ‘And my family really helped me through that and supported me, with lifting me out of the shower and redressing my wounds.
‘Failure was never an option for me. I knew I would make it, and even before this race I visualised it so many times and to actually finally do it is so incredibly surreal.’
Now Hunt is back in the limelight and could be set to become Britain’s next Olympic superstar.
The 23-year-old is must-see TV and admitted an X-rated message had helped her prepare for the ‘aggressive’ run to the silver medal in Tokyo.
‘Throughout the 50 minutes I am playing songs in my head, the one I was really listening to was Alter Ego by JT and Doechii, that was a big one for me in the call room,’ Hunt said.
‘By the time we are on the track, I am just thinking about the plan as such and trying to get in the most aggressive mindset.
‘There is a lot of swearing going on in my head, I am speaking out loud.
‘Because I wasn’t one of the medal contenders at that point, the cameras weren’t really on me.
‘I’m just stood there mouthing like “go and f***ing kill them, like to myself, all the time.
‘I am thinking “thank god the cameras aren’t on me”, I look so intense.
‘I knew the cameras weren’t going to be on me so it was fine, but I was thinking “god, I look like a right crazy girl right now”.
‘I am just trying to get into the mindset to think pure aggression, absolutely no fear, no fear, get out and be as powerful and aggressive as possible.’
Hunt was one of five British medallists at the World Championships with Georgia Hunter Bell and Keely Hodgkinson winning silver and bronze in the women’s 800m.
