Britains fittest PE teacher?

She may have performed on some of the world's most awe-inspiring athletics tracks and against some of the world's toughest competitors, but World Indoor champion triple-jumper Ashia Hansen is most nervous when she stands in front of a class of children.

Her career has seen her break world records and win World Indoor titles and European and Commonwealth gold medals. But the 32-year-old British athlete still finds time to visit primary, secondary and special schools to answer questions and  encourage pupils to get involved in sport. During a visit, she'll also take a PE lesson.

"Speaking in front of a class is much more nerve-racking than being in a stadium about to do a jump," she says. "In a school, all eyes are on you, even the teachers and everything. But in a stadium, I just tend to switch off and just do the job I am there to do.

"But even though I get nervous about talking in front of people, I do little question-and-answer sessions where I talk about my sport. Then I take them through a PE lesson, which is always brilliant. I enjoy taking them through the sort of warm-up I would normally do in preparation for jumping or sprinting. I challenge them to try and do some of the exercises and drills I do, like a standing triple jump or long jump."

As a key member of the Norwich Union GB athletics team, Ashia works as an ambassador for a grassroots scheme to inspire children to be more active and to help fight obesity.

This is part of a £20-million sponsorship of UK Athletics (the body that runs the sport in this country) by the Norwich Union, of which £4 million goes towards the development of the sport at a grassroots level. It has so far encouraged more than one million children to do more physical exercise.

"There is evidence that we are becoming a nation of couch potatoes," she says. "It is the junk-food era. By going to schools, I hope to get more children involved in sport, rather than them going home and playing on the computer or watching TV." 

Early years

As a child, Ashia was naturally sporty but found school difficult. She was born in the United States but spent the first few years of her life in Ghana after being adopted by an English woman and a Ghanaian man. At the age of six, she came to London where, despite speaking perfect English, she found it hard to understand the accents of her teachers, as they did hers.

Sport was a great release for her. She played girls' football, cricket with the boys, netball and rounders, and joined her local athletics club, where she discovered she had the ability to run fast. It was only in her 20s that she took up the triple jump.

Ashia was a natural competitor, which gave her the motivation to become one of the best. She still has this attitude and thinks that more schools should encourage it.

"I've been to schools that try not to promote competition and don't encourage winners. I think that is wrong. It is a competitive world. I know it sounds harsh to parents and teachers, but if children do not learn to compete early, they will get a shock in the real world."

However, to become an elite athlete takes something more. "The people that make it to the top level have an 'x factor'. We don't know what it is, what makes the athlete who they are; they just seem to have it. It could be attitude or motivation. I don't need anybody to motivate me, it is the desire to achieve.

"But everybody is suited to a sport, I believe — not necessarily athletics, but everybody has a shape suited to a particular sport."

Ashia's route to the top has involved hard work, self-motivation, a focused attitude, learning from both good and bad experiences and a healthy competitiveness. These are all attributes, she believes, that can be applied to any walk of life, including teaching and learning.

Ashia loves her sport and is prepared to practise and work hard to ensure she is the best, especially during the physically demanding training she does on most days. The sport is dubbed by some as 'cripple jump' because of the strain it puts on the body.

But she says it is her mental strength and desire to succeed in these situations that will give her the edge in this summer's Olympic Games in Athens. 

"About 80 per cent of it is mental and the rest physical," she explains. "You can be as physically prepared as possible, but if you aren't as mentally strong and prepared as you can be in a situation where you are under a huge amount of pressure, then you aren't going to win."

When she is in the final of a competition, her ability to stay calm and focused on all the things she has practised day in, day out in the triple jump means that when she makes a demand on herself to go that extra bit further in a major competition, it happens. Even though she is warm, friendly and bubbly, Ashia has a ruthless streak that makes her a winner.

In both the Commonwealth Games and European Championship finals, she was behind before the last round. But she drew on this mental strength and everything she had practised in training to clinch gold at the end.

Despite these successes, and holding the World Indoor record for triple jump with 15.16 metres, Ashia has yet to win an Olympic medal in the triple jump. Last time, in Sydney, she was hampered by injury.

Now, Ashia is mentally and physically preparing to add the athlete's ultimate reward to her collection of Commonwealth, European and World Indoor titles.

"You can't go to the Olympics for anything less than gold," she says. "There's a real chance I'll get a medal. I've proven myself to be a good competitor in major championships and I've got experience. I know what I'm capable of, realistically. But if I went out there and didn't do the things that I had trained myself to do and have been trained to do, I wouldn't be happy at all."

Ashia's CV

1971
Born in USA; moves to UK six years later

1997
Wins first major triple-jump medal by getting silver in World Indoor Championships; breaks World Indoor record with jump of 15.15m this year

1998
Breaks own indoor record with jump of 15.16m to win gold at European Championships

1999
Wins gold at World Indoor Championships

2002
Wins gold medals in both the European Championships and the Commonwealth Games

2003
Retains World Indoor championship; awarded an MBE

Further information

Visit www.ukathletics.net

This content was published in May 2004 and may not reflect current policy