We spoke to the Bristol law finalist who’s a Commonwealth Games medallist

Most people find it a struggle to balance their intense revision schedule with preparing three decent meals a day in exam season, but Jazmin Sawyers casually manages to balance an internationally acclaimed sports career on top of that.

Now in her final year as a Law student at Bristol, Sawyers has been a sports enthusiast since taking up gymnastics at the age of four. Her passions developed from there: she started athletics at the age of 10 and since then has become an Adidas athlete and a preeminent long jumper.

Participating in the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow may have caused the budding lawyer to miss her criminal law exam, but no-one can deny that winning a silver medal for an impressive 6.54m jump sounds worth it. As if the athletics track wasn’t impressive enough, Sawyers also represented Great Britain at the 2012 Winter Youth Olympics’ bobsleigh competition, becoming, with her partner, the country’s first ever medal-winning team at the competition.

And as if her brain and athletic skill weren’t enough, her YouTube channel reveals she’s a talented singer too.

We spoke to Jazmin to get to know the woman behind the story…

What are your plans for after you graduate?

After graduating I’m going to focus on athletics for a while – I want to get my LPC but not straight away as I want to give sport a good crack before I try to settle into a legal career…the degree will still be there but my legs are only young once.

How do you organise your time between all your separate activities?

I organise my time very badly to be honest. I train in the mornings then if I have seminars/tutorials. I travel from Bath to Bristol in the afternoons – I moved to Bath to be nearer to training, and uni have been great about putting my all my contact hours onto two days of the week so I don’t have too much travelling. I do all my lectures online as they’re recorded.

At the moment, with exams looming, I’m training first thing then taking myself off to revise in the afternoons.

What was your most thrilling sporting moment?

My most thrilling sporting moment was easily the final round of the Commonwealth Games where I jumped myself from bronze to silver medal position, the crowd were willing me on and the place went crazy when the score came up and I saw I’d moved up. I can’t imagine anything like it.

What do you prefer doing, law studies or athletics?

I do actually really enjoy my degree, but jumping is way more fun than studying, no contest.

I see you’re into music, what’s your favourite song at the moment?

My favourite song right now is actually Man by Skepta. It doesn’t fit with the kind of stuff I play and sing myself but it keeps me in a good mood when I’m stuck in traffic, plus I’m getting really good at rapping along.

What’s your favourite thing about Bristol?

Probably the diversity of fun things available. Whatever you’re into there’s probably three events on in any given week. I love that, I’ve never been short of something to do.