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Imani-Lara Lansiquot On Discipline, Training And Evolving In Athletics | On The Wall | Myprotein
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Jan 30, 2025
Imani-Lara Lansiquot is a British sprinter who competes in the 100m and 4 x 100m relay. Go behind the scenes with Imani: training, growing up, and focusing on her future athletics career. From Peckham, south London, she first ran under 12 seconds at the age of just 15, when she won the Surrey Schools Championships. She has won medals at junior and senior levels, and her personal best time of 11.09 seconds makes her the fifth-fastest British woman in history over 100m. We were lucky enough to get an exclusive snapshot of Imani's life in the lead-up to what may be the best year of Imani's career to date. On The Wall is a documentary series where we follow some of our top Myprotein athletes in the run-up to big events, showing what it really takes to be the best of the best. *** Chapters: 00:00 - Introduction 00:46 - Who is Imani? 02:15 - What does discipline mean? 02:38 - Training in lockdown 04:06 - Growing up in Peckham 05:33 - What support means 06:57 - Future goals
View Video Transcript
0:00
discipline underlines everything
0:04
self-belief is something that is really
0:06
easy to say that you have
0:08
you're really put under the microscope
0:10
of how deeply do you believe in yourself
0:13
you're standing on a start line in front
0:14
of millions of people and it's just you
0:18
and you have to get every single step
0:19
right
0:22
that takes 150 commitment and self
0:25
belief
0:28
and i would say that's probably the
0:30
hardest thing i've had to learn
0:34
but i'm willing to put in the work and
0:36
that's the most important thing
0:48
[Music]
0:53
[Music]
1:10
i think for me growing up i was really
1:12
shy and really insecure
1:15
and
1:15
it took me a long time to be really
1:17
comfortable in the skin that i was in
1:19
and sport was a really big part of me
1:21
getting to that and i went to an old
1:23
girl school and then i went to an
1:25
all-boys school for sixth form and i
1:26
remember the differences just sitting in
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the classrooms like all the boys would
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shout out and answer even if it was
1:31
wrong and in the girls school we'd all
1:33
kind of we wouldn't say anything unless
1:34
we were 100 sure and
1:36
i don't know being on like the biggest
1:38
stages in the world it just made me
1:39
realize that
1:41
young women we can be so much braver
1:43
because we have such potential such
1:45
massive potential and we're always
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amazing at everything that we put our
1:48
minds to and i'm so lucky that i had
1:51
sport teach me that but i thought if i
1:53
didn't have sport
1:54
maybe would i still be living a bit in
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my shell probably and so that's why it's
1:58
so important for me to kind of spread
2:00
that message out there that no matter
2:02
what domain you're in it doesn't have to
2:04
be athletics it could be any sport it
2:06
could be any field to just be brave and
2:09
to believe in yourself and express who
2:10
you are because the potential is endless
2:15
i would say the toughest part of being a
2:17
professional athlete is probably the
2:18
discipline side because you're not
2:20
always going to be motivated i think it
2:22
sounds nice and shiny to say yes i wake
2:24
up every morning and i want to
2:26
vomit at training and i want to you know
2:29
not be able to sleep because i've got
2:30
really bad doms and all those different
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things it's it discipline underlines
2:34
everything
2:36
coming here at my dad in training
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during lockdown it reminded me of like
2:41
the early days
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of me doing athletics and it was nice it
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was like the only thing that i could
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really control
2:47
i mean it wasn't easy motivation
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motivation-wise sometimes
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because obviously my coach wasn't here
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my training group wasn't here but
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it kind of brought me back to
2:58
like the real core elements of
3:00
why i run and what it was like when i
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started and
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reignited my love for it in that sense
3:06
about all the bells and whistles and the
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fancy equipment and everything i just
3:10
was getting it done with me my dad and a
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few cones
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[Music]
3:38
it's been difficult to get myself into a
3:40
mindset where
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i'm just like on autopilot all the time
3:44
these are my goals i might not always
3:46
want
3:47
them a hundred percent all the time but
3:50
i'm willing to put in the work to
3:52
achieve them and that's the most
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important thing
3:58
there are so many stereotypes i feel
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that come from being from peckham like
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an area like this and i never really was
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aware of that growing up for me this
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area was somewhere that i just had heaps
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and buckets of inspiration of
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the puzzle pieces that make me who i am
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today there was always someone that
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looked like me on the street who was
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trying to upstart something or achieve
4:19
something i was always around people
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that were encouraging me and maybe we
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didn't have all the things in the world
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but we all believed in ourselves and i
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think that element of self belief is
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something that i've carried with me
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throughout my whole career
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it brings about just the biggest feeling
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of like nostalgia and happiness and joy
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and just all these memories from my
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childhood that made me who i am today
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and i'm really really proud of
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even this road here it leads to my
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granny's house and my mum and i used to
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race down here and skip over the little
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like double lines and things like that
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just make me smile and you know i can
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walk the streets and feel like i'm part
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of a bigger community a bigger family
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and
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there's just certain air about it if
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you're not from here you might not
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understand it
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the passion for me started at school
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sports day and i just remember having
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this feeling racing maybe the top five
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fastest girls in my school and just
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feeling like i was flying
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my family over there cheering it just
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felt like that was what i was meant to
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be doing with my body it felt like
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natural it felt magic and
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it really was birthed here it was
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birthed you know from my infant school
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from my nursery and it was something
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that in the back of my head i always
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knew i was really good at
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the number one supporter for me has to
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be my dad there was even a period of
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time where i didn't want to do athletics
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he was literally forcing me he would
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finish work drive home drive me to
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training we'd come back at night at like
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9 10 p.m and he did that just because he
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believed in me and before i even
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believed in myself really
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taking me to this park this very park
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racing me in the park trying to get my
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like
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trying to get those juices out get those
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jeans out he was the person that pushed
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me every single step of the way
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i remember the first time i took her to
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sports day and i recognized the talent
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she won quite easily but we then moved
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into a situation where i knew
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it was time that this talent needed to
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be nurtured i said right okay let's take
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this bit more serious let's get
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everything involved in one competition
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for the year she hated it never wanted
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to go
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in her first race she was ranked third
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in the country and she had never raced
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before in any sort of apart from that
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school race before on the track
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so we were filled with a lot of um
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we saw a lot of potential
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and so then when i took the batter
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myself and realized i really wanted to
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do it i never forgot that and my dad is
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still the person that i'll call at every
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athletics competition because even
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though he's not a technical coach or he
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doesn't necessarily understand
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everything he understands me as an
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athlete and
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yeah he has to be my number one
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supporter
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i'm so excited for the games in
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birmingham the reason why i really
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wanted to race there is because it's a
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home championships
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i absolutely can't wait and i've trained
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so hard for this moment really really
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hard it's the one competition i haven't
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qualified for yet before so i'm so happy
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to have that qualification under my belt
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and it will be amazing to just be in
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front front of friends and family you
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know they'll be able to watch in our
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normal time zone and it will be amazing
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just to kind of rep the country and
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really put my best foot forward
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physical work has been done at this
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point and all the gains i will make is
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by keeping myself really grounded and
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not getting too hyped up i think it's so
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easy to do that and get lost in the
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occasion
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i am genuinely in the most confident
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place i've been in mentally and i just
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want to keep the momentum going no
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matter whether there's wins or losses or
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draws along the way i really believe in
7:52
myself this year and i know that i can
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achieve really great things so it's just
7:55
about keeping your eye on the prize and
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being consistent and persistent
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and in my experience the athletes that
8:01
do that always always come up on top
8:12
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