This week’s IFAF European Flag Football Championships mark a significant milestone in the life of Marta Mathews. Four years ago, the wide receiver was the tournament MVP as Great Britain claimed the silver medal.
That was before the pandemic prevented the Lions from seeing how their continental success translated against the best the world had to offer on a global stage. It was before a hyper extended knee, a dislocated finger and neck and back injuries. It was before Marta was diagnosed with thyroid cancer last year.
“And then I crashed my car to top it off,” she laughs, reflecting on a challenging period in her life that would have most people recoiling rather than chasing dreams. “As much as all of that stuff has happened, how I’m doing in my athletic well-being and my performance and my business that I run, when I look at it, it’s pretty phenomenal.”
Now Marta has set herself three goals, the first of which is to compete for glory in Limerick. The others are to back flip 30 meters or 100 feet, which would be the highest female cliff jump flip of this century perhaps ever, before the age of 31, so by next year. She leaps off bridges, quarries, cliffs; anything that’s above water. Her third goal is to double the size of an already successful business, which offers private tutoring for students taking SATs, GCSEs and A levels, providing maths, English and science support.