Muscle Fitness Muscle & Fitness UK - April 2018 | Page 106

S P O RT S
PERFORMANCE
F ROM THE QUIET
flatlands of the Fens to the
Hollywood Hills via the London
2012 Olympics, Louise Hazel’s
journey has been a long and
varied one which has seen her
win a Commonwealth Games gold
medal in the Heptathlon, stand
up against her sport’s policy makers
and swap her spikes for heels as she
prepares for a glitzy career in the
mainstream media.
During the mid-1990s small shock
waves revurberated around the
tiny market town of March in
Cambridgeshire. A diminutive teenage
girl was dominating the older girls on
the netball courts, was standing out
from the adults on the hockey pitch
and was putting the boys (and men)
to shame in the local boxing club.
This multi-sport background would
prove to be imperative, both physically
and mentally, in her development into
an elite athlete and future Olympian.
“If it wasn’t for my multi-sport
background there is no way I could
have even considered or attempted to
compete in the Heptathlon” Louise
states matter-of-factly. The biggest
advantage she feels this approach gave
her was the constant skill acquistion
from playing and competing in 4 or 5
104
MUSCLE & FITNESS / APRIL 2018
In this exclusive interview with M&F
Louise Hazel shares her journey
with Sports & Performance Editor
/// PHOTOGR APHS BY MARK SHE ARMAN
Mark Laws.
different sports on a weekly basis,
each with their own diverse physical
requirements.
Her confidence soared as result, and
when the time came to step into the
Shot Put circle for the first time she
was unphased and undaunted. Years
and years of repeatedly exposing
herself to new sports had given her the
physical dexterity and proficiency to
take on anything the Heptahlon could
eventually throw at her, and allowed
her to confidently exude a sense of
fearlessness which would scare the
hell out of her opponents.
“I used to jump in and take part in
sports like Boxing and Rugby, which
aren’t your typical sports for any
female athlete, but the main thing it
gave me was the confidence to try
anything” says Louise.
If you’re wondering how the 2010
Commonwealth Games Gold medalist
ended up choosing Athletics ahead of
all the other sports she tried, well it all
came down to one defining moment.
One Saturday afternoon Louise was
asked by her PE Teacher to go along
and play Hockey for her Ladies team,
and she duly obliged. The game was
fine and Louise stood out as ever.
However, upon getting back into the
changing rooms and seeing “a group
of 50+ Ladies in their bare essentials”
Louise decided that “it was much more
fun to spend my Saturday afternoons
on the track by myself trying to win
gold medals”.
It wasn’t that the naked old ladies
had put her off Hockey completely,
but it was also “the realisation that in
a team sport you have to rely on
other people, whereas the allure
of Athletics was that I could control
my own destiny. In Athletics you
pretty much get out of it whatever
you put in. In sports like Hockey
and Netball success depends on
how well a group of players pull
together on the day, there is much
more risk and much less control
which doesn’t sit as comfortably
with my personality type” says the
self-appointed control freak.