Jasmin Paris‘ odds of winning this year’s BBC Sports Personality of the Year award have been slashed from 100/1 into 33/1 by a leading British bookmaker.
She made global headlines late last week when becoming the first woman to ever finish the infamous Barkley Marathons at Frozen Head State Park in Tennessee.
Crossover appeal
And back home in Britain the reaction has been incredible.
She featured on the main BBC news two nights running and across broadsheet and tabloid newspapers.
Perhaps most important of all, her exploits are clearly motivating so many others – something she admitted she is starting to appreciate.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast she said: “I did it for me and I’m super happy that I achieved what I set out to do after the three years of trying.
“But I’m glad that I kind of did it for women worldwide as well – not just runners – but any woman that wants to take on a challenge and maybe doesn’t have the confidence.
“The idea that I might have inspired them to believe in themselves… that’s huge, especially all the young girls – you know how hard it is to keep young girls in sports. That’s fantastic if I might have inspired them to keep at it.”
Moment in history
Her achievement has been compared to Sir Roger Banninster breaking the four-minute mile in 1954, the first year of the BBC award, when ironically he came second to Christopher Chataway.
And while it will be an incredibly competitive year with the Olympics and Paralympics still to come, plus football’s Euro 2024 for which England are the favourites, there has been a surge of money for Paris in the days since her historic Barkley finish.
Skybet initially made her a 100/1 chance but she’s now a third of those odds at 33/1, with their compiler Andy Bell telling us that she is one of the five best-backed in their list so far this year.
