British sprinter Dina Asher-Smith was fighting back tears after qualifying for the 200m semi-finals in Paris. She was upset about her failure to qualify for the 100m final a day earlier and said she ran the 200m heat “angry,” cutting short her BBC interview. However, she would leave the Olympics without an individual medal after finishing fourth in the 200m women’s final. So what went wrong?

Going into the Paris Olympics, Asher-Smith was eyeing history, aiming to become the first British woman to claim Olympic sprint gold in either the 100m or 200m. She had good reason to believe she could achieve the feat, having won the 100m gold in the European Championships in Rome in June, running a time of 10.99 seconds. While many wondered what led to her disappointing show in Paris, the 28-year-old only recently opened up about her mistakes in a tête-à-tête.

The track and field community saw Asher-Smith experience a series of hiccups at the Paris Olympics. In the semifinals of the women’s 100m event, she finished in fifth place, which meant she did not qualify for the final. Later, she returned for the 200m and successfully earned her spot in the final.

However, the athlete’s rough patch continued as she narrowly missed the podium in the final, finishing in fourth place. This did upset the sprinter to a great extent and now in an interview with BBC, she has revealed what went wrong for her. Talking to Nihal Arthanayake of BBC Sport on September 29 she simply said, “I just made mistakes. That’s literally it.” Arthanayake asked whether it was before the gun went off, but she replied, “No, before in the warm-up area. Again, you run angry. You run with too much tension and you don’t run fast. I need to race relaxed. Racing angry and racing, ‘I want this, I want this,’ does not work for me. That’s basically what I did.”

Notably, in Paris as well, Asher-Smith had sat down with the BBC after her 200m heat event. But she left the conversation midway, teary-eyed, still upset with defeat in the 100m event. She said, “I ran angry. It is not difficult. I just ran. I just wanted to qualify. The coach and I are taking each round at a time. I know I am in great shape. I’m just angry from yesterday. That’s all I can say. I am not feeling better, emotionally.”

The next day, after her 200m semi-event, she appeared to snub Gabby Thomas after the latter had wished her for her results. In her recent BBC interview, Asher-Smith also revealed that she was fine physically but her approach to the race cost her.

“I was healthy, I was running fast. I did all these things. Yeah, it was nothing to do with my capacity or what I was capable of. I just went around that in the wrong way. I made a mistake,” she added.

Asher-Smith’s exit from the semifinals of the 100m, was the second time she had failed to reach the finals of the event following the same result in Tokyo. Her time of 11.01 seconds was only good enough for a fifth-place finish. At that time, she was at a loss when it came to explaining why she couldn’t make it. She had shared that she was in great shape and that she “fully expected to make that final, the race wasn’t even fast.”

Nevertheless, her candid admission of making mistakes in the lead-up to the race has divided opinion. While some have praised her for her honesty, some fans thought she needed to be more specific about what went down.

Honesty or oversimplification? Fans dissect Dina Asher-Smith’s comments

Notably, nine months before the Olympics, Asher-Smith parted ways with John Blackie, her coach of 19 years. She decided to link up with Edrick Floreal at the University of Texas in hopes of a first individual medal at the Games. But this move didn’t pay off. Still, the Brit sounded optimistic after finishing fourth in the 200m final.

She said, “Overall I’m happy because I’ve known I’ve been in a great place for this whole season. But for the first year with a new coach, I think this is a great platform to build from.” Following her recent admission of mistakes, some fans on Reddit lauded her honesty and were hopeful of a comeback from her.

One such fan noted, “An athlete taking accountability for a poor performance, that’s refreshing. She’ll bounce back, no doubt.” Meanwhile, another fan emerged to support, by writing, “I’m sure this will only motivate her even more throughout 2025 and beyond.”

Since winning the gold and silver in the World Championships 200m and 100m respectively, setting a national record and personal best in both, her career has not progressed in the manner she would have liked. Disappointing results in Tokyo and Paris, mean she could be running out for her to make a mark at the Olympics. She will be 31 by the time LA 2028 comes around.

Her casual revelation of her errors in Paris also led to some criticism from fans, who blamed Dina for not addressing the details of why she couldn’t deliver.

One fan pointed out, “It would be nice if she elaborated a bit more…like did she do a drill wrong and fall over? Strained something when practicing a block start etc…”. That lack of fluidity in the confession led to another sharp argument. 

This time, a track and field sports connoisseur put in “You have to admit not making the 100m final (especially in a slow championships) is very uncharacteristic for her. “I just got beat” is an overly simplistic explanation, especially given her post-season success in the 100. That was her best chance to get an Olympic medal in the 100 and she completely fumbled it.”

Was there something else that hampered Dina Asher-Smith we won’t know. She suffered a hamstring tear weeks before Tokyo, which left her struggling in the Games. However, after the individual results in Paris, she returned for the  4x100m relay and helped Team GB to a silver medal finish.

The Paris Olympics proved to be a steep learning curve for Asher-Smith and she is already putting those lessons into practice. At the recently concluded Diamond League, she took second place behind Julein Alfred in the 100m finals, clocking 10.92s. The question now is can she maintain this form and improve her efforts in a bid to go again in four years time at the Olympics.