Torrie Lewis at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games (© Dan Vernon)
For Torrie Lewis, this has been a long, exhausting but exhilarating season. It’s one in which the Australian teenager won her first Wanda Diamond League meeting, competed at her first Olympics and this week, at the World Athletics U20 Championships Lima 24, she has the chance to crown it with her first global medal.
Perhaps even two. The 19-year-old will line up in the 200m and 4x100m relay this week and her goals are simple. “I want to medal in the 200m, preferably gold, but I’d be happy with a personal best,” she says. “I hope we can break the national record again (in the relay) and hopefully get a medal in that.”
Lewis opted out of the 100m due to her “very long season” which has seen her race in every month from January to August. But Lima was always high on her agenda, especially given she faced heartbreak two years ago ahead of the last edition in Cali, Colombia, tearing her hamstring just nine days before she was due to travel.
“I was so ready and then it was over so quickly,” she said. “It was definitely hard, but also another part of my journey that helps me grow as an athlete. I’ve been motivated for this for two years now.”
Torrie Lewis wins the 200m in Xiamen (© Matthew Quine / Diamond League AG)
Despite her youth, the journey to this point has been over a decade in the making. Lewis was born in Nottingham, England, and moved to Australia at the age of six, doing a wide variety of sports through her childhood, from horse riding to gymnastics to volleyball. But one trait was ever-present.
“I was just always fast,” she says. “You do things you’re good at when you’re young, and it led me here.”
She made her first state championships in New South Wales at the age of eight, and started with her first proper coach when she was 11. In 2020 she moved to Brisbane, where she trains under coach Andrew Iselin and alongside Caleb Law.
Lewis is 19 now. She’ll be 27 in 2032 and potentially in her prime when the Olympics will be staged in Brisbane. Being in Paris recently, she couldn’t help imagining what it’ll be like when that giant spectacle comes to her home city. “Seeing the scale Paris was, we’re going to have to make room, that’s for sure,” she laughs. “I’m thinking: how are they going to make it as nice as Paris was?”
Her Olympic year began with a bang, Lewis breaking the Australian senior 100m record with 11.10 in Canberra in January. That announced her talent to those in Australia, but at the Xiamen Diamond League in April Lewis introduced herself to the world, flashing home from the outside lane to defeat Sha’Carri Richardson, clocking 22.96.
“It was definitely a big confidence boost for me,” she says. “I definitely felt a little out of place but being on the outside, I surprised everyone, including myself.”
How has she handled the increased attention this year? “It’s definitely weird, I feel like it almost happened overnight. It’s been a lot to adjust to but being out of Australia (in recent months) there’s a lot less media obligations.”
Lewis had competed at the World Championships in Budapest last year, but the Olympics proved a very different experience. “It’s been so fun, I love the village, I don’t want to leave it,” she said in Paris, where she clocked a PB in the 200m heats of 22.89 and finished seventh in the semifinal before competing for Australia in the heats of the 4x100m.
“It takes a lot of experience (to run well on that stage) and even though I don’t have it, I feel like my time at World Champs taught me a lot,” she says. “I was so nervous before that race but I’ve got a lot more experience this year at Diamond Leagues and I’m a lot more relaxed going into these races.”
After a string of hamstring issues in recent years, being healthy this year has also made a big difference. “I’ve been able to see a lot of the work I put in in training come through,” she says.
When Lewis walks out on track, she also now feels like she belongs – no matter who she’s racing. “I feel like every comp I’ve been to this year I’ve seen one or two of those faces, the big dogs, and I feel a lot more confident than I did last year.”
Torrie Lewis celebrates her performance at the Paris Olympics (© Dan Vernon)
After the Olympics, she spent five days in Italy, recharging and relaxing after the high of Paris but continuing to train as the clock counted down to Lima. This championship feels a lot different to Paris. There she was the novice, keen to soak it all up and gather crucial experience. Here she’s among the most experienced members on the Australian team, and one of its top medal hopes.
“I feel like I know more what to expect,” she says. “I have higher expectations here and in the team I’m one of the older ones, so it’s (about) setting a good example for the younger ones.”
But Lewis, like all athletes in Lima, is only really starting out on her journey. Still, in her short time on the international scene, she’s soaked up a lot and has always been keen to learn from the best. It’s why, following the event in Lima, she will travel to the United States for two weeks to train with Olympic champion Gabby Thomas before competing at the Athlos NYC track event for women on 26 September. The link came about at the London Diamond League where Lewis got chatting to Tonja Buford-Bailey, the coach of Thomas.
“I was like, ‘Hey, can I come train with you guys?’”
The answer was yes, but before she embarks on that adventure she’s got business to do in Lima, starting with the women’s 200m heats on Thursday morning (29). The semifinals follow that evening, ahead of a potential final on Friday.
“I know anything can happen at championships and there’s a great, competitive field of girls running,” she says. “If I got a medal, I think it’d be a lot more worthwhile because I have that expectation on me.
“World U20s means a lot to Australia, and it’d mean a lot to them.”
Cathal Dennehy for World Athletics
