SPORTS MAG - ISSUE 100
SPECIAL EDITION
AN INTERVIEW WITH FRANKIE JONES: THE WORLDS GREATEST ATHLETE
Here at SportsMag, we've had the absolute pleasure of spending an afternoon with Frankie Jones, one of the most important names in the sporting industry, in honour of our one hundredth anniversary as a publishing magazine.
Jones has always been significant in the sports industry, from her first olympics at just eighteen years old, when she took home five gold medals. Ever since then, Frankie Jones won gold at every Olympic games, and near enough every athletic championship she took part in. By the end of her competitive career, Jones not only won countless amounts of medals and trophies, but broke the world record for the fastest sprint in the 100m, 200m, and 400m, whilst also smashing the record for the only athlete to ever achieve all three records in the time frame that Frankie did.
As somebody who has been overlooked her entire life, with the media branding her as ungrateful and cold, Jones proved that this wouldn't get to her, and went on to become an inspiration to millions, not only as the greatest athlete of all time, but as a woman who never let a world dominated by men ruin any of her dreams.
Jones has always been an advocate for feminism, and since taking the world record at her last olympic games, she has since started her own charity, 'The Jones Trust', which focuses on women in sport, helping women of all ages and all social backgrounds get into sports. The Jones Trust has foundations in 43 countries across the globe, with girls football clubs in South Africa, to an over 60's female hockey team in New York.
Not only has The Jones Trust provided a safe space for women all over the world to be involved with all kinds of sports, but The Jones Trust has recently developed a union for competing athletes, protecting them against unfair representation in the media, cruel treatment of female athletes, and ultimately allows female athletes to come together to campaign for equal opportunities, particularly in the sporting world.
Numerous famous faces have joined Frankie Jones journey, backing her charity and joining in on numerous campaigns and helping out at sports clubs across the world. Twenty years after she took her world records at the Barcelona Olympic Games, Frankie Jones celebrate fifteen years of The Jones Trust.
We have been lucky enough to have an interview with Frankie. A member of our team, Isla Walters had the opportunity to sit down with Jones to discuss all things athletics, work, life since Barcelona, and so much more.
Note: the conversation below has been adapted for print, the full unedited version is available online at SportsMag.org
Isla: Congratulations on fifteen years of The Jones Trust!
Frankie: Thank you, and congratulations on the anniversary of SportsMag, I used to read this all the time as a kid so it's an honour to be the feature of an issue.
Isla: Let's start with your early life, what was it like growing up for you? Did you always want to be a professional athlete?
Martha: Yeah, pretty much. I was never academically gifted unfortunately, sports was all I was good at and so the second I realised there was an opportunity to make a life out of it, I jumped at every opportunity I had.
I worked two jobs to fund any trips up and down the country I had to compete in competitions, and eventually I signed with a sports team where I met my manager Alice. I was sixteen when I met her, and even now she plays a huge role in my life. She was one of the first people who understood me. My parents had a hard time accepting that I was going to run for a living, which I understand to an extent, it was a strained relationship, but Alice acted like a mother figure to me and I would not have made it where I am if I didn't have her fighting my every battle with me.
