Meet Jazmin Sawyers: From the Olympics to The Voice in six months

Jazmin Sawyers celebrates winning silver in the final of the women's long jump at the European Athletics Championships. Photo / Getty Images

As far as Jazmin Sawyers is concerned, there is absolutely no doubt over where her focus lies.

This weekend it will be on the British Indoor Championships, next weekend the Birmingham Indoor Grand Prix and then she will embark on the quest for a medal at the European Indoor Championships. Anything else is relegated to the periphery.

A Commonwealth and European silver medallist, Sawyers, who also finished eighth at last summer's Rio Olympics, is adamant that she is a long jumper first and foremost.

But try as she might, it is impossible to ignore the fact that recent weeks have seen her move away from the sports pages of the newspapers to instead inhabit the rather different world of the gossip pages.

Just over a fortnight ago, Sawyers, 22, made an unexpected - at least, among the ranks of Olympic athletes - appearance on the British talent show The Voice. A singer-songwriter in her spare time, Sawyers had accepted an invitation to perform in front of four celebrity judges in the wake of her Rio appearance, sufficiently impressing during the 'blind audition' stage of the show to gain American artist will.i.am as her mentor.

Add in a law degree from the University of Bristol and a bobsleigh silver medal from the 2012 Winter Youth Olympics, and Sawyers can probably lay claim to being one of the most multi-talented women in the country.

Which creates problems. What, for example, happens if she wins the The Voice to land a recording deal with Polydor Records a few months before the World Championships take place in London? Sawyers thinks about it for all of a nano-second.

"The first thing I told the coaches on The Voice when I auditioned was that I was an Olympic athlete so they are aware of that being my priority," she said.

"Should I win we would be looking to fit that around athletics."

She gives similarly short shrift to the question of whether she would rather win Olympic gold or record a number one album.

"It's Olympic gold for me, definitely," she said. "Music is a passion that came later in life, but athletics has been a dream since I was a kid.

"Much as I'd love a music career, Olympic gold is the dream."

Instead of serving as a hindrance, Sawyers is adamant that taking part in the talent show can actually have a positive effect on her long jumping and says British Athletics have been "super-supportive" of her decision.

"I like to keep my brain engaged," she said. "Some people like to focus all their efforts on training, but I like to take myself away from that.

"I relax and can compartmentalise things. I don't want training to be all-consuming. That's not who I am.

"I want my life to have different aspects to it. Doing a degree was a big part of that and now it has finished, music is becoming a much bigger part of my life.

"The Voice has been a lot less work than my degree, for example, which was seven hours a day. It hasn't been taking up much of my time."

Indeed, while the novelty of the singing competition has been a source of entertainment, Sawyers' main focus has been on gaining the extra centimetres required to make her first global podium later this summer.

A move to Birmingham from her native Stoke-on-Trent over the winter saw her join a new coach in Athens 2004 Olympic heptathlon bronze medallist Kelly Sotherton and this weekend will provide the first chance to show the fruits of that relocation after an impressive Olympic debut.

"I was actually disappointed in Rio at the time because I'm all about going for as much as possible and trying to win," she said.

"While you might look at Rio and say that wasn't realistic, I was gutted with eighth because all I could think was seven whole people beat me.

"But, on reflection, to make the final in my first Olympics at 22 is a really good result. There were girls there who had PBs that were much, much higher than mine and I managed to hold my own with them in what is currently a strong event.

"I'd just like to build on that over the next two years and improve on that at every major championships. The big target is London 2017. I really want the opportunity to compete at the World Championships in front of a home crowd."

Her athletics goal is clear, but to keep her dreams of a dual career alive, she must next navigate The Voice 'battle round' later this month in a bid to secure a place on the live shows.

Should she fail, she will always remember that time when the long jump and singing worlds combined. In the words of will.i.am: "You went to the Olympics? Wow, check you out. That's dope."