Times have changed for sprinter Zoe Hobbs.
Gone are the days when the 26-year-old saw herself only as a participant - replaced by the belief she is good enough to contend.
The first-time Olympian will get a chance to prove just that in Paris, starting when the women’s 100m heats get underway at the Stade de France on Friday night (NZT).
“That’s my biggest goal, to make an Olympic final,” Hobbs made clear even before she completed a training camp in Montpelier and joined the New Zealand team in the athletes’ village this week.
A century-long drought would be snapped if the James Mortimer-coached sprinter pulls it off.
Already set to become the first Kiwi woman since Sue Jowett (Montreal 1976) to compete in the Olympics 100m, she would be the first New Zealander in a century to reach the event’s medal race since Sir Arthur Porritt did at Paris 1924.
She’ll likely have to go under her personal-best 10.96sec, clocked in Switzerland a little more than a year ago, but Hobbs has no doubt the quality of athletes set to blaze down the straight alongside her will lift her.
“I think the reality is I’m bound to be next to one of the stars. We have so many talented women in the 100 metres at the moment. So just letting them pull me through,’’ she said a couple of days before her and 1500m runner Sam Tanner kick start the track and field programme for Kiwi athletes.
Hobbs, who barely missed out on the 100m final at last year’s world championships, isn’t considered a medal contender, but making the final in the pinnacle event would be some achievement for the athlete who took up the sport when she was a 5-year-old.
“It’s pretty surreal to reflect on the journey and super rewarding to finally be in this position,” she said.
And now that she’s made it, Hobbs isn’t allowing anything to distract her from what’s ahead - not even the temptation to explore the athletes’ village and get a taste of Olympic fever.
As she said, there’s time for that when she’s done.
“I’m kind of dialled in and focussed for comp,” Hobbs said.
Hobbs certainly hasn’t set the track on fire with her clocked times thus far in 2024, although she’s confident the platform is there to make history after completing an intense training block.
“The times have been consistent, which is a good sign. I would have liked them to be down a little, but some of the conditions haven’t been great,” Hobbs said.
“Monaco’s 11.15sec was into a 1-metre headwind, so wind normalised was similar to last year going into the world champs. That gives me a little bit of confidence, and training has been going really well, the body is feeling good. It’s just about putting together a clean race with all of the components I need.”
Hobbs will be the second New Zealander on the track at the France’s national stadium, where the Black Ferns Sevens won the country’s first medal on Wednesday.
Sam Tanner is first, lining up in the last of three 1500m heats from 9.10pm (NZT) a few years after he failed to progress beyond the first round in Tokyo.
However, Tanner has come a long way since then, and has aspirations to both win an Olympic medal and break Nick Willis’ long-standing 1500m record.
“It’s going to take 3min 29sec to get a medal. So it’s going to be a double-whammy. I’m going to have a real good day that day, August 6 [1500m final],“ Tanner told Stuff in February.
Watch ThreeNews tonight at 6pm for more news from Paris. ThreeNews is made by Stuff and available on ThreeNow and Three.
- Stuff