Dina Asher-Smith

Geraldina "Dina" Rachel Asher-Smith, OLY (born 4 December 1995) is a British sprinter.

Dina Asher-Smith was born on 4 December 1995 in Orpington, London.

Her parents are Julie, who was born in London, and Winston, who was born in Jamaica but moved to England when he was a child.

She has Jamaican and Trinidadian ancestry.

She attended Perry Hall Primary School.

From 2008 to 2014, she attended Newstead Wood School in Orpington.

Asher-Smith achieved 9 A stars and 2 As in her GCSEs.

In 2009, she ran the 300 metres in 39.16 seconds to set the current world age 13 best.

She has won the English Schools Championships 200 m title as an Under 15 (2010), U17 (2011) and U20 (2013).

Asher-Smith worked as a kit-bag carrier during the 2012 London Olympics, including on "Super Saturday".

At the 2012 World Junior Championships, Asher-Smith finished seventh in the 200 m final in a then personal best time of 23.50 seconds.

She said afterwards that "I am elated to have made the final and achieve a PB in the process, and I'm looking ahead to next year in Italy."

Asher-Smith won the 2013 European Junior 200 m title and the 2014 World Junior 100 m title.

She won the 2013 event in a time of 23.63 s into a strong headwind.

In 2013, she earned two gold medals at the European Junior Championships in Rieti, winning the 200 m in 23.29 s, before joining Yasmin Miller, Steffi Wilson and Desiree Henry to win the 4 × 100 m relay and break the UK junior record.

The British squad originally finished fourth in the final but were promoted to the bronze medal after the disqualification of the French team.

Asher-Smith was shortlisted for the 2013 BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year.

Asher-Smith was part of the winning Great Britain team for the 4 × 100 m relay at the London Grand Prix meet and was the youngest athlete selected for the Great Britain and Northern Ireland Squad for the 2013 World Championships in Moscow.

Along with teammates Annabelle Lewis, Ashleigh Nelson and Hayley Jones, she won a bronze medal in the 4 × 100 m relay.

In August 2014, she got 3 A-Levels which allowed her entry into King's College London to study history.

Upon receiving the results, she called it "the best morning" of her life.

At the 2014 World Junior Championships in Eugene, Asher-Smith won the 100 metres running 11.23 seconds.

At the 2014 European Athletics Championships in Zurich, she qualified for the 200 m final but pulled out with a hamstring injury on the bend.

In July 2015, she became the first British woman to run under 11 seconds for the 100 m. She then broke Kathy Cook's 31-year-old British 200 m record when finishing fifth at the 2015 World Championships.

She took the silver medal for the 60 m at the 2015 European Indoor Championships.

It was the first time in 30 years that a British female won a medal in the event.

In doing so, Asher-Smith equalled Jeanette Kwakye's British record of 7.08 s and, being 19 years old, became the fastest ever teenager at 60 m. She first broke the British 100 metres record with 11.02 s on 24 May in Hengelo, before becoming the first British woman to run a legal time under 11 seconds, with 10.99 s on 25 July at the London Anniversary Games.

As part of 4×100 m relay teams, she won medals at the 2016 Rio Olympics and 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and also at the 2013 and 2017 World Championships.

In this distance, she placed fifth at the 2016 Olympics and fourth at the 2017 World Championships.

Asher-Smith is also a three-time individual European champion, including the 200 m title in 2016 and the 100 m/200 m double in 2018, and earned a silver for the 200 m in 2022.

Asher-Smith graduated with BA in 2017.

She is a supporter of Manchester United F.C.

Asher-Smith was coached by John Blackie.

The fastest British woman on record, she won a gold medal in the 200 metres, silver in the 100 metres and another silver in the 4×100 m relay at the 2019 World Championships, breaking her own British records with further records which still stand.

Aged 24, Asher-Smith was the first Briton to win three medals at a World Championships, and the first British woman to win a World title in a sprint event.

She earned a bronze in the 200 m at the 2022 World Championships.

She was 100 m 2019 Diamond League champion.

Domestically, Asher-Smith has won eight national titles, indoors and out, over 60 metres, 100 metres and 200 metres as of 2023.

She is the British record holder for the 100 m and 200 m and the British indoor record holder for the 60 m.

Asher-Smith has been listed in the Powerlist as one of the UK's most influential people of African-Caribbean descent, most recently in the 2021 edition.