Paris Olympics 2024: How Zoe Hobbs deals with the pressures of her rapid rise

In the past year, Zoe Hobbs has been on a meteoric rise, but she knows achieving a personal best time in every race isn’t attainable.

It’s the ability to manage expectations that sets her apart as New Zealand’s fastest woman.

Hobbs (Ngāruahine) has had a crazy past 12 months and though proud of her fast-tracked success, the 26-year-old admits that it’s been full-on.

In 2023, Hobbs – the then seven-time 100m sprint national champion – shattered her personal and national records five times, achieving a historic 10.96-second run at the Resisprint International meet in Switzerland. She qualified for her first Olympic Games and became the first woman from Oceania to break the 11-second barrier in the 100m sprint. And if selected for Paris, she’ll be the first female sprinter from New Zealand to do so in almost 50 years.

Reflecting on the year, Hobbs told the Herald: “I’m really proud of what the team has managed to pull together.

“It’s been a lot and really exciting and I think it’s just enabled a lot of momentum moving forward.”

Despite her remarkable success, Hobbs finds herself facing increased pressure.

“Unfortunately, you can’t run PBs [personal bests] all the time, so it’s more just understanding where you are and trusting your preparations. Hobbs admitted to feeling some initial nerves leading up to the event.

“There was a bit of expectation that I’d come out and do something spectacular and there was a lot of hype before the event,” she continued.

“There are pressures but it’s just part of sport and it helps elevate me, if anything.”

Before the last year, she would let the uncontrollable – like the conditions on race day – feed into her emotions.

Zoe Hobbs during the semifinals of the women's 100m at the World Athletics Championships. Photo / Photosport

“Conditions can have a massive play on the result. If you’ve got a big headwind, then you’re probably not going to run an overly fast time.

“If you have a tail, then sometimes it’s not clocked as a legal time and in the past, I used to get quite caught up in all of that.”

Hobbs also pointed out sprinting has a distinctive tension, where athletes spend up to 40 minutes together in the call room, building anticipation before the race.

“It’s quite a unique situation for our sport because you’re sitting in a quiet room with your competitors opposite you and beside you.”

But Hobbs said she’s found recent success by not letting the aforementioned bog her down.

She’s also had to deal with travelling alone overseas for months at a time.

“It can get quite lonely because you’re not in your usual environment,” she admitted. “You don’t have your usual entire team or people around you.

“When I’m overseas, that looks like exploring or finding a good coffee shop and good company.”

When she’s home, the Taranaki-born runner finds joy off the track by undergoing house renovations with her partner.

“It’s important to not talk about athletics or be at the track, completely remove myself from that environment and just switch off,” Hobbs said.

Hobbs highlighted to the Herald that the regularity of competitions and her focus on 60m races have also been instrumental in her success.

Earlier this month, she made her first global final of her career – narrowly missing bronze by 0.01 seconds in the indoor 60m in Glasgow.

Being a fairly untapped event for Hobbs, she revealed she initially had a few frustrations executing the shorter distance. But after familiarising herself with the event – and using the valuable experience of running three rounds – she knew she had the potential to execute her talents.

Hobbs said the 60m races complement her specialised 100m distance and the only real difference is the 40 metres added at the end.

She said the shorter race has finer margins and there’s less room for error.

“It’s a lot less forgiving. You don’t have the time to make up at the end if you do screw up the start so it really forces us to hone in on some of the more finer details and it’s more of like a pressure cooker environment, and having to nail each component of the race.

“There’s more focus on the acceleration phase of what would usually happen over 100 metres.

“It’s just the top-end-running that is missing... but to come home so strong like I did at the World Indoors was probably the most reassuring part for me.

“[The result] certainly gave me a confidence boost leading into Paris.”

Right now, Hobbs is working back from the Olympics in July to ensure she’s at her peak.

And after how quick out of the blocks Hobbs has been recently, she said a medal is not out of reach.

“We have a solid building and if we keep trending the way that we are trending, then it’s not impossible.”

Hobbs feels being the first woman since Sue Jowett in 1976 in Montreal to compete at the Summer Games is an opportunity to put sprinting on the map in New Zealand.

Zoe Hobbs will be the first female sprinter from New Zealand to compete at the Olympic Games in almost 50 years. Photo / Dean Purcell, New Zealand Herald

“Making the Games full stop is a huge achievement and a massive feat and I hope it shows that it is possible,” Hobbs said.

“That alone to me is enough... anything else that comes with that as a bonus.

Despite her meteoric rise and the potential for making further history, Hobbs is still in shock at the opportunity to compete at the pinnacle event, as she admits to grappling with doubts about whether such an opportunity would ever materialise.

“I’ve always wanted to go to the Olympic Games from a very young age.

“To actually be in a position now where I’ve done the qualifier and we’re working towards the games, it’s really, really special.

“Lining up on that line once I get to Paris will be a moment I’ll never forget.”

Bonnie Jansen is a multimedia journalist in the NZME sports team. She’s a keen footballer, has worked with the Alternative Commentary Collective and was part of the Te Rito cadetship scheme before becoming a full-time journalist.