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In this edition of the Castilian Spotlight, we catch up with one of Newcastle-under-Lyme School’s highly decorated sporting alumni: Jazmin Sawyers. Since leaving NULS in 2010, Jazmin has become a household name – a two-time Olympian, a European Indoor Champion, and a multi-talented singer, broadcaster, and even designer. We spoke to her about her journey from the school stage to the world stage, and the lessons she has carried from the corridors of NULS to the heights of elite athletics.
Long before she was wearing a GB vest, Jazmin was a familiar face in almost every corner of the school. To the NULS community of the late 2000s, she wasn’t just “the athlete”; she was the swimmer, the netballer, the debater, and the performer. She embraced the “all-rounder” spirit of the school with a relentless energy that would eventually become her trademark on the global stage. “Obviously, I swam at school and I played netball,” Jazmin recalls with a smile. “Gosh, every time there was a house competition, I tried to do it. I feel like I did everything – at one point it was debating, it was chess – I just did as much as I possibly could.”
While her speed on the track earned her recognition, she found a necessary creative outlet in drama. The demands of rehearsals and the thrill of the spotlight offered a unique discipline that balanced her life as an athlete.
“Musicals were actually one of my favourite things about being in school,” she says. “We did Anything Goes and South Pacific – those are the two I remember most vividly and truly loved doing.” This passion for performance didn’t end at the school gates. Jazmin later took her vocal talents to the national stage as a contestant on ITV’s The Voice UK, successfully navigating the blind auditions and joining Will.i.am’s team.
This refusal to be “boxed in” is a value she credits to her formative years at NULS. “I think I was encouraged to do a lot of things, and that’s something that has stayed with me throughout my adult career,” Jazmin explains. “I’ve learned that being a person with a range of interests – not boxing yourself into just academics, or just the creative side, or just sport – is a strength. It doesn’t have to be one thing.”
Since leaving NULS, Jazmin’s career has been a blueprint for professional resilience. While the public sees the glamour of the Olympic opening ceremonies and the podium finishes, Jazmin is refreshingly open about the grit required behind the scenes.
“Winning European Indoor gold in 2023 was probably my career highlight,” she says. “It was my first international gold medal as a senior athlete, and it was at a distance I’d been trying to hit for like a decade. Seven metres has always been a goal of mine.”
However, her journey hasn’t been a linear path to the podium. She has faced significant hurdles, most notably a ruptured Achilles. “My first competition back after I ruptured my Achilles was another huge moment for me,” she admits. “To be able to come back and wear the GB vest again after recovering from that… I think that’s probably my second greatest achievement.”
“Within about 35 seconds of doing it, I asked the physio if my career was over. She told me, ‘Your career is not over.’ From that moment, it was all about coming back.”
Jazmin is candid about the fact that her career hasn’t always matched the “perfect” script she wrote for herself as a teenager.
“To be honest, apart from that one European win, a lot of my career hasn’t gone to plan,” she admits. “But the key thing I’ve learned is that if the goal remains the same, you have to be willing to change the plan.”
This adaptability was tested again when injury prevented her from competing in Paris 2024. Instead, Jazmin pivoted to broadcasting. “If you’re not flexible, you’re miserable,” she reflects.
In an era of carefully curated social media, Jazmin has used platforms like Instagram and TikTok to pull back the curtain on the reality of elite athletics. “As a young athlete, I would have loved to have access to what elite athletes were actually doing,” she says. “The difference between social media and traditional media is that you get to completely tell your own story.”
When asked what wisdom she would share with current students, Jazmin highlights the importance of health, recovery, and perspective. “That ‘one more rep’ in training that might hurt you is never worth it,” she advises.
But above all, she encourages students to dream even bigger. “Make your dreams even bigger. If anyone else has achieved it, it’s possible for you. And if nobody has done it yet, still go for it. It takes someone being a little bit ‘delusional’ to make it happen.”
We would like to extend our sincere thanks to Jazmin for taking the time to share her story with the Castilian Society. We are incredibly proud of Jazmine and look forward to watching the next chapters of her remarkable career unfold.
Louis Bond: “The site of the camp was much larger than I had ever expected. Much of the camp was destroyed, but there were the cabin like structures at the front of the complex which were tiny in comparison to the number of people who were forced to stay in them. At the rear of the
Mount Pleasant, Newcastle-Under-Lyme, Staffordshire, ST5 1DB
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