‘I don’t just want to be an Olympian, I want to be a successful one’

Of Scottish and Jamaican heritage, Torrie Lewis came to Australia when she was six years old. This year she broke the national 100-metre sprint record, with an 11.1 second run. She is about to compete in her first Olympic Games, but not in the 100m.

Fitz: Torrie, they tell me you’re so fast you can turn off the lights and be in bed before it gets dark?

TL: [Laughing gaily.] I’ve never been afraid enough of the dark to find out, but, yes, I’m pretty fast.

Torrie Lewis competing, and winning, the 200m Chemist Warehouse Adelaide Invitational this year.Credit: Getty Images

Fitz: Tell me a little of your childhood, and first coming to Australia?

TL: I came with my Mum – she’s a scientist in molecular genetics and got a job here from England – and we got here in the winter actually, but to us it felt warm, so we went for a swim on a Sydney beach and everyone looked at us like we were crazy, but we thought it was great. I remember thinking I am going to love this place, and I was right.

Fitz: Were you into running and winning races in primary school?

TL: Yes, I was. Other sports, team sports like netball, never did it for me and I much preferred individual things like running. I used to win all my running races, and when I was eight years old, there were three rounds to go through to get the NSW state championships. And after I won each one, my mother said, “Now you might not win the next one, because there’s girls from farther away so, just, you know, be prepared to lose.”

Fitz: And ... ?

TL: I lost. When I made it to the final, I was the only girl on the start line in joggers while everyone else had spikes. I came seventh in that final ...

Torrie Lewis was competing, and winning, from a young age.

Fitz: So that was the first time you saw what other girls’ heels looked like in a race?

TL: Yes, and I didn’t like it. I told my Mum, “I’m quitting and I’m never running again”.

Fitz: She must have been a very good mum to encourage you back to it? What did she say when you said that?

TL: She knew I was having a moment and so she just said, “OK.” That’s all she said. And then by the time we got to Newcastle she was, “So, you still throwing out your joggers?” And I was, “No, I am still running. I changed my mind.”

Fitz: I know that beside your running, you were so good at gymnastics you got up to national level. Did that teach you things that helped your running, how to be light on your feet, perhaps? Something like that?

TL: I think what gymnastics most taught me was discipline. Yes, gymnastics gave me a really good base, taught me to be aware of my body and understand just what it could do. But I think the fact that I was naturally fast and then came to gymnastics gave me some extra strength to go with it, which helped me a lot. But what gymnastics training taught me was how to train hard. It taught me that I can get through really hard sessions and still come back from them and train even harder the next day.

Fitz: When you say you were “working hard as a gymnast”, how hard?

TL: Well, I was nine years old and I was training 20 hours a week. So pretty hard for a nine-year-old!

Fitz: I would say that’s extraordinary. Running training must have seemed like a breeze.

Gymnastics taught Torrie Lewis the importance of discipline.

TL: By comparison, yes. And I was very lucky to have a great sprint coach, early. Gerrard Keating saw me running in a race when I was maybe 11 years old, and he asked my Mum if he could coach me when I turned 12. He saw I had natural talent, but wanted to shape it and guide it. I didn’t have a coach so she said yes, and after a year of working together he said, “You’re going to be in the Olympics. You can run in the Paris Olympics in 2024 when you’re just 19.” He fully and wholeheartedly believed that if I worked hard I could do that, and get the records for the women’s 100 metres. And yeah, basically everything he said I could do, I have done, or am doing.

Fitz: And yet, as young as you were when he made those sage predictions, your complete flourishing as world-class has only been relatively recent?

TL: Well, yes, I’ve made it to Nationals ever since I was 10 years old, but I never really fully got into track and field until I was about like 14 or 15. And even when I was around 16 or 17 years old, I wasn’t winning, but I was always pretty close, like fourth or fifth. So that gave me a lot of confidence that I was on the right track, and I could feel I was getting faster.

Fitz: And then the breakthrough.

TL: And then the breakthrough. When I was 18 I won the 100m and 200m double at Nationals, and from then on, I have had my eyes set on the international season. So last year I had my first season overseas and was able to go to World Championships and even though it wasn’t necessarily the result I hoped for – I didn’t get out of the heats – I got so much good experience from it. So, I’m really grateful I had that year of just trying things out. And now I feel like I am really ready to go.

Fitz: What does it feel like when you are running at your absolute best, running like the wind, absolutely flying? Is there a particular rhythm that you recognise, a natural nirvana?

TL: [Thoughtfully, though her line breaking up, as she in the bowels of Heathrow, looking for a bag for the last five hours that has been lost for eight days.] It’s ... it’s just ... really a moment of freedom like you can’t get from anything else. It’s like your mind is not really saying anything, but you’re just ... free. It’s hard to describe, but you just feel so fit and strong, like your mind isn’t really doing anything, it’s just blank and what’s left is this feeling of just being so super strong.

Fitz: So now that you’ve made it, broken the Australian record for the 100m and been selected, can you believe it, and believe that you’re an Olympian? Does it feel like you are living the dream?

TL: Yeah, yeah. I knew I could make it and I knew I was gonna make it. So yeah, it wasn’t unbelievable to me. Other people have been surprised, but this is precisely what I was going after and as my times kept coming down, I was more and more confident that I would get there. So I don’t have that sort of “pinch-me” thing. It is what I have worked towards, and I felt I was going to get there. But I don’t just want to be an Olympian, I want to be a successful one.

Torrie Lewis reacts after her record-breaking win in the Diamond League.Credit: Luke Howard/Diamond League

Fitz: So having set the 100m record, was it a hard decision for you to only be competing individually in the 200m and 4 X 100m relay, not the 100m individual?

TL: Well, it wasn’t my decision to make but yeah ... I guess it was a bit annoying having to pick just one of my individual races, and not do both.

Fitz: Who made the decision?

TL: Athletics Australia.

Fitz: Why? Why did they make that decision?

TL: I won’t get into that – that’s probably more of a “them” thing. But it was their decision that I could only compete in just one of the individual sprint races, and I felt the 200m was my best chance to make an impact. But I just know that we’re a really good team, and we’re working hard, and looking forward to the Olympics.

Fitz: In terms of the extraordinary progress you’ve made in the last 18 months, with your times coming down so far, do you feel like you’re now levelling off or are you still getting faster and faster and faster?

TL: Yeah, I certainly hope I haven’t levelled off and feel I can still go a lot faster.

Fitz: Could you be the fastest woman that ever lived?

TL: [Laughing.] Oh, that would be hard, but why not?

Fitz: Do you worry about competing against drug cheats?

TL: I guess there’s always like a notion that other people are doing it but you’re just supposed to trust the world athletics and the WADA people are doing their jobs, and hopefully making it a safe and fair sport for all of the athletes.

Fitz: What are your ambitions now, as you approach these Olympic Games?

TH: To at least make a semi-final for my 200 and the final for my relay. Right now, I’m in London with the relay team, working hard, before we head into the pre-Olympics camp at Montpellier. I am looking forward to the whole thing.

Fitz: So are we. Good luck, and run like the wind!

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