SEMBER Cindy

General
INJURY WOES
After a fourth-place finish in the 100m hurdles at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, in 2017 a torn Achilles tendon sidelined her for more than a year. She says that following her recovery, she worried that she would suffer another serious injury. "When you have had a major injury like I did, any other injury that comes your way makes you feel that it is something huge. So even something small or medium, it still feels huge in your head. It's hard to truly race or train as you should because you're thinking about it. That has happened multiple times, that something comes up at the wrong time, in the middle of the season, and mentally it's very hard for me to trust that I can get back quickly from it because of what happened in the past. I have had multiple times where I'm hurt in the middle of a race or something happens in a race and that makes me feel anxious that it could happen again. So that is what mentally is hardest for me." (runblogrun.com, 20 Nov 2020)

REPRESENTING GREAT BRITAIN
In 2015 she became eligible to represent Great Britain, five years after her older sister Tiffany Porter also switched nationality from the United States of America to Great Britain. Her mother Lillian was born in London, England. "I do definitely [feel British]. Obviously I don't have the accent but I feel ties here. My mum was born here and she told me so many great things. My brothers were also born here, in Birmingham and Plymouth. I had the choice to run for America, Great Britain and Nigeria. It had always been my intention to opt for Great Britain, especially having seen my sister compete for Team GB in the [2012] London Olympics." (telegraph.co.uk, 02 Jul 2015; athleticsweekly.com, 23 Jun 2015; dailymail.co.uk, 23 Jun 2015)