Amy Hunt's Two Golds in Birmingham — and the Nail Art That Helped Get Her There
Amy Hunt stood on the start line in Birmingham with the Bull Ring and the Jewellery Quarter on her fingertips. The 24-year-old British sprinter had her nails done to celebrate her Midlands roots. Then she went out and won two European titles.
Hunt took the women's 100m on day one of the 2026 European Athletics Championships, becoming the first home champion of the Birmingham meet (European Athletics, via Facebook). On day four, Thursday 13 August, she added the 200m gold, beating Ireland's Rhasidat Adeleke and fellow Briton Dina Asher-Smith to the line (The Guardian; BBC Sport). Adeleke finished second in the 200m.
Hunt had been chasing a historic quadruple across the week — four golds from a single European Championships, a feat no British sprinter has achieved. Two are secured. The ambition alone tells you the scale at which she is now operating.
What catches the eye beyond the results is her approach to race-day preparation. Hunt told BBC Newsbeat that "looking good and feeling good" is part of her process for getting into the right mindset, and likened walking out on to the track to a gladiator entering an arena (BBC Newsbeat). "Everyone knows I love a bit of glam and I love my nails," she said. Her nail art for Birmingham was curated to reference local landmarks — the Jewellery Quarter, the Bull Ring — a Midlands-born athlete paying tribute to home soil.
Her reasoning is straightforward. "The glam definitely helps that mentality because sprinting is such a confidence game," Hunt said. "It's a show at the end of the day."
She is in good company. Olympic champions Keely Hodgkinson, Sha'Carri Richardson and Noah Lyles are all known for statement nail art on the field. The lineage stretches back to Florence Griffith Joyner — Flo-Jo — whose long, vibrant nails became iconic at the 1988 Olympics and set the template that today's sprinters continue to build on.
For Hunt, the polish and the performance are not separate rituals. One feeds the other. She steps into the arena looking like she belongs there, and then runs like it too. Two golds in Birmingham, with the crowd behind her every step.
