British 400m hurdler Jessie Knight at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games (© Getty Images)
As a teacher at Danetree Primary School in the UK, hurdler Jessie Knight is used to leading the lessons. During the 2021 Olympic season, however, it was Miss Knight’s turn to learn from her pupils.
Left heartbroken after a fall in Tokyo ended her Olympic dream, it was the thought of her school that helped Knight to get back on her feet. Now, should her future lesson planning ever require a tale of perseverance, the 27-year-old won’t have to look far for a story to show how life – like sport – is full of ups and downs, but that it’s important to never give up.
The British 400m hurdles No.1 had overcome a series of setbacks to make it to the start line in Tokyo and while her campaign ended with that fall in the heats, she is now – with the help of her pupils – able to positively reflect on just how much she achieved.
“The children were so excited about the Olympics,” Knight says. “They may not know about the World Championships, but most children have heard of the Olympics. I know that they won’t have really cared what happened, just that their teacher got to the Olympics, and in those really low moments when I felt like I had failed and everything I had worked hard towards had quite literally ended within 10 seconds, I was thinking of them. I was in Tokyo, I earnt my spot there. Those children were still really proud and therefore I should be proud as well.
“Those children are following my journey and I think it’s so important that I do fight back and I show them that there will be lows but there are also many highs that come after it. Without even intending to, they inspired me at my lowest points in Tokyo to keep going. If I did just give up, then I’m not teaching them anything, really.”
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First steps
While Knight is now inspiring – and being inspired by – the next generation, it was actually her own primary school teacher, Mr Bezodis, whose encouragement first led her to athletics.
“I was shy and I dreaded anyone talking to me, I could feel my face flush. He just found something that I could do,” Knight explains. “He had such a big impact on me and if it wasn’t him, it could have been another teacher. It’s hard to think of a life without athletics because it has been my life for so long, but I do genuinely believe I would be a whole different person without it.
“I think we do have a big role to play (as teachers). It has given me confidence in all walks of life, not just sport.”
Jessie Knight in training during the pandemic (© Getty Images)
Following that introduction to athletics, Knight continued to combine the sport with her studies until 2017, when she decided to concentrate on her teaching career. But two years later she made a comeback and, despite being a full-time teacher, she achieved a breakthrough 400m win at the 2020 Muller Indoor Grand Prix in Glasgow and claimed her first British title two weeks later.
Then came the coronavirus pandemic and her goal of representing Great Britain on the global stage was put on hold. Determined to do everything she could to make that aim a reality in 2021, Knight took a step back from teaching and switched to working one day a week to help with lesson planning. She will return to the school later this month to help cover a class until December.
“I made the really difficult decision at Easter to leave my class, mainly to help preparations for the Olympics, and the children were just amazing,” Knight explains. “They were obviously so sad, but they were saying: ‘You’re going to follow your dreams; go and do it!’ They were so understanding for eight-year-olds, it was quite unbelievable. They were almost consoling me, because I was crying!
“I’m in a really nice position now where I can go in to see the children, but I’m not the sole person responsible for their education. I love teaching and as much as I’m taking a little bit of a break, I will be going back. It is my career and I love it.”
“I sometimes walk through the hallways at school and I can hear some of the really young ones whispering: ‘There’s Miss Knight!’ I feel like a celebrity, it’s ridiculous, but they are so excited to see me.”
As much as her Tokyo experience was personally tough, Knight is also aware of the potential wider impact of that moment.
“One of the first things I thought once I had calmed down after I had fallen was worrying about the children, because it’s not every day you see your teacher fall over, let alone see your teacher fall over on TV, and they know what I have put into it,” she says.
“So, I will share that story with them. It is just about not giving up; that there will be challenges and you might quite literally fall flat on your face but it’s about getting back up again.
“It has been a bit of a rollercoaster, but I have achieved a lot as well,” adds Knight, who represented GB three times in 2021 and improved to a 400m hurdles PB of 54.23 in Switzerland three weeks after the Olympics. “I’m ranked 11th in the world right now and if you had told me that two years ago, I wouldn't have believed you, so I think you just have to reflect sometimes and be proud of how far you have come.”
The power of teaching
Just as Mr Bezodis helped Knight at the start of her journey to becoming an Olympian, the European indoor 4x400m medallist is determined to have the same impact on her pupils.
“It is important to let them know the things they are good at, but you can also tell the things the children enjoy, and it isn’t always about being really good at it,” Knight says.
“I try to make a big deal out of it because if my teacher hadn’t with me, there’s no way I would have gone to that Monday evening athletics club.”
While her focus now is on a busy 2022 – during which she is targeting the World Championships, European Championships and Commonwealth Games – Knight will continue to stay involved in teaching and may one day also step into coaching.
“I’m not sure I would want to coach at an elite level, but I think I would really like coaching young children that have just started getting into athletics, to do the fun element of getting them to try all the different events,” says the Windsor Slough Eton & Hounslow athlete, whose own current coach is Marina Armstrong.
“I can remember the coaches that were at Epsom & Ewell Harriers when I went. It used to be a Monday evening after school, I was eight years old and those days were so important. They had me trying everything. I think I would enjoy that – building the fire and the love for athletics and then passing them on to someone that can give a little bit more.
"I suppose that combines both of my careers and maybe gives something back to the sport that has given me so much. Who knows what the future holds.”
Jess Whittington for World Athletics
