Another Samsung Diamond League 100m victory for Carmelita Jeter, this time in Gateshead (© Mark Shearman)
London, UKTalking to the wonderfully named Carmelita Jeter, whose form this season has established her as the dominant force in women’s 100 metres running, you get an overwhelming sense of a driven athlete.
And this 30-year-old Los Angeles resident, who goes into this weekend’s Aviva London Grand Prix as the clear event leader in the Samsung Diamond League, is swift to identify what she believes was the turning point in her career – her failure to qualify for the 2008 Olympics.
“I really try not to think ahead,” she says with a chuckle. “I’ve done that before, I never count my marbles before I actually get them in case I never actually get them. I’ve counted on things before, and sometimes that makes you not as aggressive, kind of lax, because you are thinking that you are guaranteed something. No one is ever guaranteed anything. You learn from your mistakes.
“I’m pretty excited that the Olympics is going to be in London. God willing I’m praying that I definitely make the team. I failed in that department in 2008 and I definitely want to take the chance in 2012.
“2008 was a horrible feeling. I had just won a gold in the relay and bronze in the 100m at the 07 World Championships. I went into 2008 with a big head, with the idea that I was going to be given a spot on the team without having to earn it and I got a reality check.
“And it enabled me to sit down with my agent Mark Block and think ‘What am I going to do now?’”
What Jeter did next was to put her career in the hands of John Smith, whose coaching charges have included the former World and Olympic 100m champion Maurice Greene.
“A lot of times you hear people say everything happens for a reason,” Jeter says. “Did me missing 2008 get me to go to John Smith? I don’t know. But everything does happen for a reason, and now I can go into 2012 with this man who has developed me into the second fastest woman ever.”
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