f you follow trail running you’ ll most likely have seen the effortless-looking masterclass delivered by Jazmine Lowther at last year’ s Ultra-Trail Cape Town, where she won the 100K women’ s race by over 45 minutes and came 7th overall. Only Courtney Dauwalter has recorded a faster woman’ s time. Meeting her pre-race we couldn’ t help feeling that, despite her relatively low profile in the lead-up, she was our overwhelming favourite, and how right she proved us.
Much of Jazmine’ s active early life was spent playing hockey, dancing and climbing real Canadian mountains. She’ s a biology graduate dedicated to creating a sustainable environment, and a coach who has co-authored a training guide.
Her first notable race was the 2022 100K race at the Canyons Endurance Run by UTMB, where she broke the course record. She’ s also won the Speedgoat 50K, placed 2nd at Transgrancanaria and was 4th at the 2022 UTMB CCC on debut. This kind of heritage, plus thoroughbred genetics and a bright, inquisitive mind make for an athlete with that special x-factor that could see her become one of the world’ s greats. We fully expect to see her win the UTMB 100 miler and world championships in the near future.
Jazmine, you grew up in a classic Canadian mountain village, Nelson in British Columbia, where your parents still live. You couldn’ t script a trail career setting much better. Tell us more about your hometown. Nelson is a humble yet colourful and free-spirited mountain town. It’ s in a region of lakes with mountains rising above, dotted with alpine meadows and glaciers. Time slows to a relaxed pace called“ Kootenay time”. It’ s grounded in a“ No stress, just love. Come when you can” mentality. Kootenay, a term for the region, has its roots in the local Ktunaxa First Nations people who live in this area and to this day still protect its pristine natural beauty. If you walk down Baker Street( the main street), you are guaranteed to see a few wizards, a handful of crystal shops and medicinal marijuana outlets among the coffee shops, as well as people from all kinds of diverse backgrounds.
In the summer, it’ s vibrant. There’ s an audible buzz of backyard garden pot-lucks, beautiful natural glowing skin, and kids with names like Arya, Indigo, Boden and Archer playing barefoot on the sandy beaches. It’ s carefree, it’ s safe, it’ s grounded.
It took me some time to realise the wider world was not quite so picturesque. Sometimes it takes leaving paradise and returning to appreciate how special a place truly is.
Tell us more about your school years, where we believe you were very active – training dance, playing soccer, climbing rocks – until a little too much experimentation saw you drop it all and land in quite serious trouble. During my high-school years I was on four soccer teams, two of which competed internationally. And somehow at the same time I went to four separate dance academies. Typically I trained for about four hours during school hours, and then after school until about 8pm. Weekends
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