ASP 2021 – Hermione Plumptre – 400m Hurdler

Hermione is a self-funded, fluorescent wearing, British 400m hurdler and personal trainer, living here in Berlin. Her goal – to represent England and Great Britain at International Competition level and make it to the Tokyo Olympics 2021.

So what can we tell you about Hermione? Well, like lots of self-funding athletes trying to turn professional her journey is hard work, high effort and not devoid of setbacks. But this is a women taking it on and rising to the challenges and it will be great to work closely with Hermione this season as part of the ASP!

Hermione’s entry into elite sports was playing national level Lacrosse for 5+ years before transferring to athletics in 2014. She suffered a serious back injury in 2015 but recovered strongly to have a PB season in 2018/19 racking up a few achievements including;
– British Championship Finalist 2018 for 400mh, finishing 8th in the UK
– Bronze medal at the Senior England Championships 2018 in 400mh
– Silver medal at the Senior England Championships 2019 in 400mh
– Finished 9th in the UK at the British Championship 2019 for 400mh

“I came to Berlin having had a lot of treatment in the UK with sports massage to keep my body in check in my fairly intense training schedule. When I came across Laura in Berlin I don’t think she really knew what she was in for! I’m now a fairly frequent customer, spending most Thursdays either yelling, laughing or nearly crying at various moments during the sessions. But as a practitioner for any athletes and competitive sports people I can’t recommend her more highly 💓☺️”

Hermione Plumptre 2020

Following this great season the next goal was to make the national team and the Olympics in summer 2020, but the global pandemic has made a major dent in that schedule. Or, it’s provided a whole extra year of training and preparation time to those athletes who can take advantage of it. How about the bright side right…
That’s typical of life at this level of sport, there are a lot of ups and downs. Some you can control, some you have no chance. The challenge for any athlete, but maybe more so for self-funding, self-supporting athletes like Hermione, is how to deal with the ups and come back from the downs when you don’t have a huge support team on hand.

That’s were I believe its important for therapists like me to step in and try and bridge some of the gaps that exist in young athlete support structures. Hermione has made her decision to keep training and keep pushing forward to be ready for any opportunity that comes up this year, despite having very limited to no access to regular training schedules, facilities or support. That takes dedication, strength of mind and more than a little help from your friends. So, we are happy to be a friend and make 1 of the important recovery services available to her this season.

We sincerely hope you get to see this fluorescent track demon clearing hurdles this year and maybe you’ll even spot me somewhere on the sidelines offering some prehab and rehab to those legs! If you do, give us both a big shout out and support your athletes on their way to big things.

Or – go one bigger and try a PT session with Hermione. She takes clients here in Berlin and online. Cups of tea are somewhat mandatory in her mobility sessions – just to warn you, but that’s where the niceties end!

Stay up to date on Hermione by following her on Instagram @hermioneplumptre or on my instagram @laura_sport.stt