THE SPORTS SECTION
Faster than a speeding bullet...
Amber Anning is the quickest ever Briton over 400m. Faster even than Skip Kelly, a man whose life is soundtracked by the sound of a sonic boom. Skip caught up with Amber’ s mum Melanie to find out what it’ s like being the parent of a super athlete
Steve Ovett is immortalised in a statue on the seafront but he’ s about to be lapped by Brighton’ s latest Olympic medallist. Amber Anning secured two bronze medals at the summer Olympics in Paris last year, has already won the World indoor championships over 400m and is set to take part in the World Championships in Tokyo later this year. She is also the quickest ever Briton over 400m. I caught up with Amber’ s mother Melanie who gave me advice on how to turn my daughter into an Olympic medalist.
“ That’ s a real milestone,” Melanie replies when I tell her that my daughter has rolled over for the first time the previous night and recounts her experiences of that milestone with her youngest daughter Sophia who has just finished her A-Levels.
“ I wanted all my children to be involved in sport, dance, music and absolutely everything and I think it’ s really important that you don’ t limit it. It’ s about giving them opportunities and a variety of things because you never know what they’ re going to enjoy.
Melanie and I shared our experiences of sport and in particular mine and how I had developed the skill of losing which is something Amber learned at a young age.
“ Amber was always competitive, whether it was board games or card games, she always wanted to do well. She swam a lot when she was younger and swam competitively but she didn’ t train enough to do well so she learned how to lose. She started athletics in Australia and was used to doing well but in swimming she was quite often at the back of the pack which was great for. What I love about sport is that you don’ t win every time and there are a lot of lessons to be learned from that.”
We spoke about a recent race where Amber was disqualified for a lane infringement and how Melanie responded.“ I knew she would be devastated. It was important to me that I could be with her and hold her and to comfort her but I also wanted her to understand this wasn’ t the end of her season.”
“ It was really tough emotionally to know that something she worked so hard for was gone but I think in sport you have to put that behind you. You have to move forward. Something can go wrong, you need to learn from it and move on.”
Melanie is the president of Brighton and Hove Athletics club and has spoken about the lengths she has gone to challenge and eliminate inequalities wherever she sees it so that people are able to access sport.
“ My concern is I’ m assertive, I’ m quite happy to challenge but a lot of people won’ t necessarily do that for fear of upsetting people. I think it’ s really important to challenge things so that they are better for others.”
It’ s also very clear she is a huge athletics fan unsurprisingly and we talk about what Melanie calls“ armchair analysts” or those who comment on her daughter’ s ability or suitability for relay squads.
“ I’ ve always told Amber, let your feet do the talking. They can’ t not put you in a squad if your performances are good enough.”
We talk about the challenges I’ m likely to face raising my Olympian and Melanie shares a reassuring anecdote about Amber’ s GCSE celebrations which clashed with preparation for the commonwealth youth games.
“ She was supposed to do two festivals and Amber decided on her own to miss the second one which I thought was very mature for a 16-year-old at the time.”
Amber achieved three A’ s in her A-levels and athletics never got in the way of her studies and ultimately she went to university in the United States to avail of the superior training programmes that you can find in the UK which Melanie found really difficult.
“ That first term was really tough but I was really happy for her because she was having a really nice time. We missed her, she’ s our eldest daughter and suddenly she’ s gone.
“ But like all parents I want my kids to try their best and make sure that they’ re happy. That’ s all that matters to me.”