27-year-old British sprinter and 2019 200m World Champion Dina Asher-Smith is breaking with coach John Blackie to train with Edrick Floreal ahead of Paris 2024.
Rhasidat Adeleke also trains with Floreal in Austin, Texas.
Asher-Smith, who won bronze 100m medals at both the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Olympics, announced the change on Instagram:
"After 19 years, John Blackie and I have ended our coach-athlete partnership."
"My life changed by meeting him and I will be forever grateful to him. His intellect, patience, and dedication has taken me from an energetic eight year old to a World Champion; with over twenty international medals and many Olympic, World, Commonwealth, and European finals."
"John and I will, of course, remain close friends."
"Thank you to John and thank you to all of my team in London whose talents and hard work have helped me realise so many dreams to date."
"My next chapter will be Edrick Floreal based out of Austin,Texas. I'm very excited to join his talented training group ahead of Paris 2024."
Asher-Smith struggled at the World Championships in Budapest this summer, finishing seventh and eighth in the 200m and 100m finals respectively.
After the 100m final she commented, "I'm almost in disbelief...I know I'm in great shape. It doesn't really happen to me — that's why I'm so surprised."
Haitian-born Floreal (known as 'Coach Flo') represented Canada in the triple jump at the 1988 and 1992 Olympics. He has been head track and field coach at the University of Texas since 2018 and coached Rhasidat Adeleke to numerous national records and a fourth-place World Championship finish since she accepted a scholarship there in 2021.
