LONG JUMPER Jazmin Sawyers’s video blogs are a worthy reminder that for each elated athlete about to float down the Seine at this summer’s Olympic Opening Ceremony, there are plenty of others whose dreams have been cruelly crushed.

In April, the 30-year-old 2023 European indoor champion, who represented Team GB at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, announced she had ruptured the Achilles on her right take-off leg, forcing her to miss the Paris 2024 Games and kick-starting an agonising four-year wait for another chance at a first Olympic medal.

Sawyers has since turned to Instagram, where she is documenting her recovery journey and providing a candid account of a process she hopes will provide fellow athletes a realistic glimpse into both the highs and lows of bouncing back.

She told the PA news agency: “A lot of the time when athletes are injured, you see an injury post, you see maybe one clip with some rehab, and then you see the return.

“I knew this was going to be a long journey back and I wanted people to actually see what it really looks like to go on an injury journey like this, at this level.

“The way I’d like to show up online in general is to be able to help other athletes who may have gone through something that I have gone through.

“It’s hard to post when you’re not doing great. The first thing you want to do isn’t to tell everyone what that looks like.”

Sawyers, who is also using her vlogs to self-motivate and track her progress, is no stranger being, in her words, a “forthcoming” internet presence.

In 2017, she was forced to withdraw from a meet due to debilitatingly intense symptoms related to her menstrual cycle, later taking to Twitter to explain precisely the reason.

Some lauded Sawyers for speaking out, but many still rejected the idea that it was well past time for the subject of menstruation to be liberated from the realm of taboo.

“The reaction was very mixed,” Sawyers said. “I had a lot of supportive feedback, people saying, ‘OK, I’m really happy you’re talking about this. It’s something I experienced, it’s something my daughter, my athlete, my friend experiences, and we don’t talk about it’.

“But on the other side, I also had ‘why would you bring this up? This shouldn’t be spoken about in public, that’s disgusting. You just need to get on with it. My wife gets on with it, so why can’t you?’”

Sawyers, 30, alongside UK-based women’s health think tank The Well HQ, have developed the Master Your Menstrual Cycle Programme, a set of tools and resources to help girls and women learn about and feel more comfortable openly discussing their periods.

Normalising those conversations for future Olympians is vital, said Sawyers, who said she found it “very, very difficult” to discuss periods with her predominately middle-aged, male coaches as a young athlete and “just panicked” the first time she had her period during a competition as a teenager.

While athlete menstrual health remains an emerging field of research, the more someone understands about their own cycle – and feels comfortable communicating with coaches and staff – the more everything from training, nutrition and sleep can be tailored to individuals.

British Olympic sprinter Dina Asher-Smith, world tennis number one Iga Swiatek and England footballer Beth Mead are amongst those who have spoken out since Sawyers, with teams like the Lionesses also recognising that something as simple as a switch away from white shorts can alleviate unnecessary anxiety.

Sawyers added: “I think it’s brilliant. I think part of what is creating a better environment is people doing it. I think when one person talks about it, [someone else] starts to see, OK, maybe these are the words I could use to have that conversation.”