With three gold medals from the European Championships under her belt, sprinter Dina Asher-Smith is at the top of her game

The last time I saw Dina Asher-Smith she was collapsed in a heap after winning the 4x100m relay at the European Championships in Berlin, 24 hours after winning the 200m, five days after winning the 100m.

Not only did she return to the UK with three gold medals, her times — 10.85 seconds for the 100m, 21.89 seconds for the 200m — smashed British records. It takes a moment to register that the woman standing in front of me in a blush pink Tibi dress is the same record-breaking 22-year-old athlete. Oh, God. In less than two years’ time she will be representing Great Britain at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. Does she even have time to be dressing up and twirling around in front of the camera?

"It’s been absolutely lovely," she says, once the shoot is finished and we have sat down to talk. "Outside of track and field, I’m a window-shopper. Clothes, shoes and make-up; I’m very much into all of that. That is a world I feel very comfortable in. It’s important that people — young girls, everybody — see female sports people outside of their cropped tops and shorts. Obviously when doing our jobs, we’re focused and we want to win, but that’s not our only dimension. One of my friends has just become a vet, as you do. She graduated this year and won the European 1,500m. There are so many incredible stories, and it shows that, yes, you can do this on track but that’s not all that defines you." She smiles. "Renaissance women."

Everyone’s a slashie these days, but ‘elite athlete/undergraduate’ is one hell of a slash. Yet somehow, in between all the medal-winning and the training (typically three to four hours a day, six days a week, 48 weeks a year), Asher-Smith found the time to complete a history degree, graduating from King’s College London last year. "It was phenomenal," she says. "But a lot of hard work." She did her dissertation on the history of jazz, focusing on race relations, media and racial representation throughout history. "I love learning," she beams. "I always wanted to do a degree. If you want to go into certain fields, it helps keep doors open rather than closed. It’s important as a woman, especially in a male-dominated environment, to have something in your arsenal. With what’s happening right now in America and China, it’s good to understand where you come from, where other people come from. It helps you negotiate life better."

While she describes her parents as active ("My dad’s always going for long bike rides, my mum played hockey for 30 years") she says neither is sporty. An only child, Asher-Smith was brought up in Orpington, on London’s south-eastern edge (she recently moved into a new flat nearby) by her engineer father and HR director mother, and was always active, too. "I played trumpet and euphonium, I went to Brownies, I did board diving, swimming, dancing… my parents just kind of shoved me into activities to dull some of my energy."

When her primary school started a new running club, however, her eight-year-old self really wasn’t keen. "I already did so much. But my friend said if I came with her, she’d buy me an ice cream." She smiles. "That’s the way you do it — incentivise. When it was my GCSEs, my mum said she’d give me money per A*. I wanted a MacBook, so I knew I had to get 10 A*s." And did she? "Yes."

Fast-forward to the women’s 100m in Berlin and Mrs Asher-Smith had upped the ante. "My mum said if I ran 10.85 [seconds], she would get me... you know the Chloé bag, the black one with the round thing?" I do, I say. So basically, she was running for the Chloé bag? "No, I wasn’t," she says, laughing. "The thing is, in our heads 10.85 was such a crazy time. My physio actually said that he would take me to a Michelin-starred patisserie with his missus if I ran 10.85, because everybody thought, 'She’s not going to run 10.85; we can promise these crazy things.' So I was like, 'Okay.' I didn’t think I was going to run 10.85 either. Then I crossed the line and I saw 10.85. I was like, 'Food and a Chloé bag! Yes!'"

Let’s hear it for good old-fashioned bribery.

"Let’s not call it that. Incentivisation. Carrot and stick. That’s how I got into track as well."

After that first visit to the school running club, she says eight-year-old Dina "somehow signed myself up to represent the school. I was looking at my friend, like, 'One ice cream wasn’t worth it, mate.' I didn’t want to do it and I remember telling my mum, 'Look, I’m really not in the mood for this.' But I had a Nintendo GameCube and there was a Bratz game I wanted. She was like, 'If you do it, I’ll get you the Bratz game.' So I was like, 'Okay.' There were 300 kids in Crystal Palace park going running, and I was thinking, 'This is the worst day of my life.' I thought I was dying, so I stopped and said to the marshal, 'Look, I’m dying,' and he was just like, 'Keep going,' so I ran and I finished. I didn’t know what was happening. My mum comes up to me, she’s hugging and kissing me, like, 'Well done!' It turned out that I’d come fifth. Then obviously by doing well I roped myself into doing it again and again, but it still wasn’t my cup of tea. Then I got to my local running club and met my coach, John Blackie, who’s still my coach today. He worked out that I was a better sprinter than I was a long-distance runner, thank God."

Asher-Smith talks almost as fast as she runs, with such enthusiasm that it’s enrapturing. From the start, she loved sprinting. "You know when something suddenly clicks? That was me. When the gun goes, run as fast as you can? That is definitely right up my street. No pacing it, no patiently waiting."

And the rest is history. Or rather, history in the making. After her triple-gold, as well as last week’s performance at Zurich’s Diamond League finals in which she finished second in the 100m and delivered a win in the 4x100 relay, Asher-Smith is undoubtedly one of Team GB’s brightest hopes for Tokyo 2020. But she’s also something more. I’m no huge sports fan, but I fell in love with her when she was interviewed in Berlin, post race, alongside her three relay teammates. They spoke so warmly about each other, their friendship and camaraderie was a joy to see. "We’re a team — we need everybody to be confident and functioning, but it’s even more fun if you enjoy who you’re doing it with," she smiles. "They really pick me up. Like, 'Come on, Dina, you can do it. I love your make-up today; you look fabulous. Let’s go.’"

This weekend she will be part of the European team at the IAAF Continental Cup in Ostrava, Czech Republic. She must be knackered. What about those days when she doesn’t feel like training? "Trust me, athletes moan about training all the time, especially winter training. It’s hard, but I don’t ever feel a drop in motivation. When you do the stuff that’s hard, that’s what makes you run fast. That’s part of what makes you win." That, and lucky underwear. "I wear the same ones!" she shouts, adding "obviously, I wash them."

Are they branded?

"No. Just normal. But shiny. They’re comfy, but with glitter and sparkle and bows and stuff, so I feel like royalty in them. I’m not that fixed on them, though. They’re a preference. If I see them, I’m like, 'You’re going with me to the race'."