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After having come from nowhere to qualify for the Olympics, Louie Hinchliffe is targeting gold in the prestigious 100 metres at the upcoming Paris Games
After having come from nowhere to qualify for the Olympics, Louie Hinchliffe is targeting gold in the prestigious 100 metres at the upcoming Paris Games
Some 40 years ago on August 4, 1984 at the Los Angeles Olympics, history was made when then 23-year-old Carl Lewis emulated his childhood hero Jesse Owens becoming the first athlete since Owens to win gold in the 100m, 200m, long jump and 4x100m relay.
The Los Angeles Games where Lewis won those four gold medals could not have been more different to the infamous 1936 Games in Berlin.
Owens was the son of a sharecropper and the grandson of slaves. His victories were not just a part of sporting history, but symbolic as well of a defiant blow to Adolf Hitler’s attempts to use the Games as a demonstration of Aryan superiority.
Owens and Lewis, both born in Alabama, are still the only athletes to have won those events at a single Olympic Games.
So in 1984, history had repeated itself, and another star was born. Lewis went on to win five more Olympic gold medals, an Olympic silver medal and 10 World titles.
Exactly 40 years to the day on August 4 2024, the Olympic 100m final will take place in Paris.
And this time, there’s another connection to Lewis. A connection who was born and raised in Sheffield, whose childhood hero was Wayne Rooney and who only started taking the sport – and his talent – seriously a year ago.
Enter, Louie Hinchliffe – a Brit Lewis now coaches…
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Favourite Olympics memory? Proudest achievement? Get to know 100m NCAA and British Champion Louie Hinchliffe ahead of the Paris Olympics…
In May, 21-year-old Hinchliffe took the world of track and field by storm when he qualified for the NCAA finals (the US university athletics championships), crossing the line in a time of 9.84 seconds. It was wind-assisted, so not legal, but the time was the second-fastest all-condition 100m time in British history.
Next up for Hinchliffe was the US collegiate finals.
It’s difficult to explain how competitive and prestigious the NCAA finals are, and how high the standard is for the 100m at the Championships specifically. Past winners include Namibia’s four-time Olympic silver medallist Frankie Fredericks, 2004 Olympic champion Justin Gatlin, as well as the likes of Christian Coleman, Andre De Grasse and Trayvon Bromell in more recent years.
And not forgetting two other US Olympic legends who have won the event – Owens – who won the same year as his Olympic gold in Berlin, and Lewis, who won in 1981, three years before his first Olympic gold.
But since the inaugural NCAA 100m final in 1921, no European man had won the event. That is, until City of Sheffield AC’s Hinchliffe won this year.
Hinchliffe stormed to victory in a time of 9.95 seconds. A sub 10-second run, again – but this time, it was legal. The time placed him sixth on the British all-time list.
Hinchliffe is now coached by legendary American sprinter Carl Lewis
He still had to qualify for the Olympic Games, and replicating the same level of performance on a rainy weekend in Manchester at the end of June would be tricky for anyone used to training in Texas, where Hinchliffe is based, at the University of Houston where he studies.
But that’s exactly what Hinchliffe did when he won the British Championships and Olympic trials by crossing the line in a time of 10.18 seconds to beat 2022 British champion Jeremiah Azu, in a race where 2023 champion and national record-holder Zharnel Hughes was absent.
Earlier this month, Hinchliffe was announced in the official Team GB athletics squad for Paris. A whirlwind few weeks, that are only just the beginning of a promising career backed by one of the sport’s biggest names in its history.
“It’s kind of been crazy. I’m not having much time to kind of look back at it all, so yeah it’s just been a bit of a crazy experience,” he told Sky Sports.
“I think every race I’ve done this season is I’ve given everything, and I’ve not had any regret about it after I finished, even if I didn’t win the race.
“I want to get the win [at the Olympics]. I want to try to get gold.”
Hinchliffe has run under 10 seconds twice in a show of his talent
Thankfully, the person who is coaching him knows a thing or two about the pressure of an Olympic Games. Lewis asked Hinchliffe to return to Texas with him to train before his next race – the London Diamond League, which takes place at the London stadium on July 20.
Standing on the start line of one of the most exciting Diamond League races of the year, after beginning the season with a personal best of 10.17 seconds puts into perspective just how transformative the past few weeks have been for Hinchliffe. And it all started with him sending Lewis a message asking if he could coach him.
“Nine months ago, [Hinchliffe] gave me a text message, and nine months later, he’s winning the Olympic trials in Great Britain,” Lewis told Sky Sports.
“But not only that, he’s winning because he’s running well.
“Tom Tellez, my coach, taught it, and I’m teaching his system. So to see [Hinchliffe] pick it up, have the confidence to do that – because that’s what it is; a lot of kids are scared to change and then to embrace it and realise, ‘hey, I can do this’ – it’s incredible.”
Hinchliffe has a fearless attitude, but is still extremely calm, and crucially, still having fun with it all. He puts his achievements this season down to how much Lewis has helped him mature, “on and off the track.”
“I would say I didn’t really take training too seriously. I didn’t really understand how serious it is. So [Lewis] helped me mature quite a lot as a person.
“My technique was very flawed. I wasn’t really a natural runner, so he helped me a lot with that – understanding my rhythm and how to run the 100 meters.”
Hinchliffe said Lewis only started talking to him about representing Team GB and qualifying for the Olympics after the indoor season.
“I wasn’t running that well,” he said. “I think [Lewis] thought it might take an extra year, but I started running a bit better. And then he had a look at the [British] roster and said it’s a lot of guys who have been on the team now 10 plus years. So it’s time now for a younger guy to step in.”
And step in, a younger guy did. But how much did Hinchliffe, born in 2002, know about Lewis?
“To be honest, I didn’t really know much about him,” he laughed, explaining that it wasn’t until he saw people asking to have their photos taken with Lewis that he realised how famous he was.
Hinchliffe admits he did not know much about Lewis prior to being coached by him, adding his father could not believe it
Hinchliffe said he told his Dad who his new coach was and he couldn’t believe it.
It was also his dad Stuart, a former goalkeeper for Leyton Orient, who always encouraged Hinchliffe to pursue his athletics career rather than other sports.
When he was younger, Hinchliffe was scouted by Manchester City academy and asked to go to trials, but his dad said no – he had to focus on athletics. Golf was also encouraged too – and why wouldn’t you if your son had a handicap of 0.7?
“I was playing with Alex Fitzpatrick and Barclay Brown. Seeing them first-hand, it was kind of like, ‘yeah, I’m not that good, so I’m not going to make it'”, Hinchliffe laughed.
So are there any athletes in track and field that he looks up to now?
“Not really,” he said. “Usain Bolt, back in the day. But no one currently running.”
Lewis has already said that if Hinchliffe runs his best, he believes he will make the Olympic final.
And with one of Lewis’ biggest rivals in the 100m, Linford Christie, being the last British man to win the 100m at the Olympics, it would surely make it an even sweeter win for Lewis if Hinchliffe broke that cycle.
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