This Sporting Life: Jack Pierson Captures a New Wave of Athletics Talent

This story is taken from the Summer/Autumn 2026 issue of Another Man, Volume II, Issue V:

Increasingly, legacy tournaments like the Olympics and the World Championships have embraced smaller-scale, lesser-known sports like BMXing and climbing. The convergence of daytime TV sport with global subculture has undoubtedly made athletics a richer and more interesting area of investigation in 2026. Enter Kye Whyte, Hamish McArthur, Charlie Dobson, Kyle Kothari, Jeremiah Azu, and Noah Williams, six very contemporary-feeling British contenders bringing focus and individuality to their sporting expertise. They take a break from practice to congregate in a north London studio, trading upcoming season schedules and injury horror stories, their focus trained on LA 2028.

Kye Whyte, BMX Racing

Kye Whyte hails from a veritable BMX dynasty. It started with Tre, the second oldest brother of Kye’s six siblings, who went on to earn bronze at the 2014 World Championships. Oldest brother Daniel was next. From a young age, Kye was gagging to join them. The preternaturally gifted Whyte accelerated fast: from ages three to 13, he won 10 British titles in a row. At the top of the dynasty, their father coaches at their local BMX club in Peckham. “Me and my family are a representation of being where we’re from, and living a dream and actually making it happen,” says Whyte. It was 5am back in London in 2021 when the now 26-year-old won a silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics – later that morning, over 60 eager new riders showed up to the Peckham track. Whyte celebrated his homecoming at the Prince of Peckham pub, where he was crowned with the same nickname.

“They’re so cheeky, they think they can beat me” – Kye Whyte

Since Tokyo, it’s been a rocky time for Whyte. 10 weeks before Paris 2024, he had unknowingly broken his back, and continued to train despite the injury, crashing out of the semi-finals. The return to competing has been slow-moving, but his confidence remains unwavering as the road to LA 2028 reveals itself. “Everyone wants to win. They’ll do whatever it takes. If you’re scared, you’re not gonna do whatever it takes.” Whenever Whyte gets the chance, he ventures back to Peckham to visit the 100-strong cohort of BMX prospects with everything to gain and nothing to lose. “They’re so cheeky, they think they can beat me,” he laughs. “It’s good to see that they’re training and they want to beat me. They never will, but let them dream.”

Hamish McArthur, Climbing

Even to the most seasoned of climbers, it feels like there isn’t a rockface on Earth that Hamish McArthur can’t scale. When he successfully ascended Megatron, a craggly behemoth firmly nestled in Eldorado Canyon State Park, Colorado, he cemented his place in history by solving one of the world’s hardest bouldering problems. (A feat that has only been achieved by just one other climber.) But the 24-year-old phenom isn’t here for the ephemeral satisfaction of sending a climb. “I feel like you do need these big challenges and big obstacles to claw some stuff out from within and find out what you’re made from,” he explains. “That’s kind of what it is for me, but it’s not really about the climbing, actually.”

It’s why he almost stumbled into becoming an Olympian. The Yorkshire-born climber had happily shed himself of his competitive spirit. “It wasn’t bringing me much freedom or joy in my life,” he says. “I didn’t want to live in that rigidity of competing.” When he showed up at a qualifying event, however, he “accidentally” did well enough to earn himself a spot. McArthur equates competing to gambling: “You just get sucked into this world of looking to the next thing and not enjoying the moment.” So in the lead up to Paris, he trained in the healthiest way possible – which was whenever he felt like it. “I didn’t sacrifice anything,” he continues. “I wasn’t a good athlete in lots of conventional ways, but in a lot of ways I showed up and had a really free mind, and it was beautiful.” Unburdened from expectations, a 5th place finish in the Olympic final was as gratifying as the top spot. “Everything felt like a bonus for the first time instead of something to lose.”

Charlie Dobson, 400 Metres

“I don’t think I’m underestimated,” 26-year-old Charlie Dobson, who claimed victory at the 2025 Diamond League, reasons. “I think the way I run my races is a little different to how you probably typically see a 400 metre runner.” His strides from his six foot frame are longer than average, which makes him appear slower. For the first 200 metres of any race, he’s likely to bring up the rear, before unleashing his energy reserves like an electrical surge has coursed through him. Dobson, who was born in Essex, has the unassuming appearance of an underdog, but the accolades of a champion. The runner took home a bronze medal at the Paris Olympics in the 4 × 400 metre relay, where he crossed the finish line in the final leg of the race. “Just the honour of being trusted to bring it home was pretty cool,” he says. His Diamond League win was just as satisfying: “It was a home crowd in front of 60,000 people in London at the Olympic Stadium, and I felt incredible going into the race,” he remembers. “It was just such an awesome experience. Nothing came close.”

“That feeling I get when I’m running at top speed, you can’t really describe it – it almost feels like you’re floating” – Charlie Dobson

With the European Championships and the Commonwealth Games nearing, Dobson has his sights set on a gold medal at the LA Olympics. That leaves plenty of time to harness his element of surprise. “That feeling I get when I’m running at top speed, you can’t really describe it,” he says. “It almost feels like you’re floating.”

Kyle Kothari, Diving

In the lead up to his big moment in the preliminary round of the Paris Olympics, Kyle Kothari couldn’t help his mind from drifting. “I was watching the Tottenham transfers on my phone, just seeing football updates because we had ages to wait,” he remembers. “It’s just whatever kills the time that settles you.” The first time Kothari tried diving, his feet were frozen to the platform. Beginning his athletic career at three years old, he ascended the ranks as an accomplished gymnast in London before his father forced him to attend a local diving trial. The coaches sent him and the other prospects 10 metres upward, but there at the top, he was stuck. “I ended up standing there for like 10 minutes,” he remembers. “It wasted all the storage on my mum’s phone (after she filmed my attempt).”

The 28-year-old diver has since swallowed his fear. Kothari has a stacked awards display, today: two golds at the 2022 European Championships, a silver at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, and two bronze medals from the 2017 Diving Grand Prix. The next challenge is juggling time at the pool with a full-time gig at a tech firm. “It’s so funny, it’s like my job is my hobby,” he jokes. But Kothari has yet to lose his appetite for the three-second dose of adrenaline a dive affords. “Obviously that feeling of falling, when you first do it, it’s something you’re not used to – but after an amount of time, it’s addictive.”

Jeremiah Azu, 60 & 100 Metres

At the British Indoor Athletics Championships in February, Jeremiah Azu, officially the fastest man in Wales, floated past the finish line and retained his title in the 60 metre sprint. As he barrelled towards the perimeter of the track, he clambered up a crash mat by the stands and sat on top, crossing his arms and nodding towards the domain he had conquered for the third year in a row. The 24-year-old sprinter from Cardiff has settled well at his home on track. As a kid, he played football – “but every boy plays football in the UK when they’re growing up,” he counters – but he was aimless. Though he took part in the odd race once or twice a year, he was too fixated on football to accept his PE teacher’s suggestions to join an athletics club. And yet, in his final year of school, he broke a district record without any formal training – a natural born speedster had arrived. “I was like, ‘Okay, maybe I am quite good at this,’” he recalls.

“You don’t realise how much sport can change your life” – Jeremiah Azu

Azu is often the last to rise on the starting blocks, efficiently preserving his battery for that energy burst that propels his body down the track. The path to the Olympics in 2028 is similarly all about maximising momentum: “I’m trying to hit specific goals each year, which will lead me to be confident when I get there,” he explains. The European Championships and Commonwealth Games this summer, the inaugural Ultimate Championships reserved only for the top 16 in the world (Azu is currently ranked 10th), next year’s World Championships in Beijing: Azu has found his direction, and it’s straight ahead of him. “You don’t realise how much sport can change your life,” he says.

Noah Williams, Diving

Consider this: you’ve discovered you have a knack for diving, contorting your body in the air from a 10 metre height, then spearing the water like a pebble dropping into a well. Every cell in your body has been optimised, finessed, dedicated wholly to the pursuit of the one accolade that can only be won every four years. And then it’s the Paris Olympics, you’re partnered with Tom Daley – the one teammate guaranteed to have every eyeball in Britain on you – and you head home with two medals coloured silver and bronze. What next?

For Noah Williams, 25, the logical step was to give retirement a trial run. “I didn’t like diving,” he admits, matter-of-factly. Competing was fun, not so much training six days a week at the cost of his social life. “I medalled at the Olympics, so in my head I was like, ‘I’ve done it.’” The pursuit was over. “I didn’t even have any motivation to go back.” So the London-born diver went on a gap year to test out life beyond the pool. He took an office job as a web analyst thanks to a Team GB recruitment scheme, and embarked on what he calls his “side quests”: climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, picking up a snowboard, running the London marathon at a respectable 4:24:00. When he returned to diving in October, “it felt like it had only been a week off,” he says warmly. Refreshed and clear-minded, he’s having fun again, experimenting with an inward four-and-a-half dive. “In six years, I hadn’t done a single new thing,” he realises. He’s becoming reacquainted with the sport that had him falling head over heels. “It just feels like being a kid again.” 

Hair: Lachlan Mackie. Make-up: Laura Dominique at Liberte Productions using CHANEL BEAUTY. Talent: Charlie Dobson at Team Wass, Hamish McArthur at Indie Sports Management, Jeremiah Azu at Youra Agency, Kye Whyte at Milk Management, Kyle Kothari and Noah Williams at Elite Sports Agency. Set design: Samuel Pidgen at Bryant Artists. Casting: Piotr Chamier at Streeters. Digital tech: Tom North. Photo- graphic assistants: Pedro Faria and Jamie Parkin. Styling assistants: Sam Thapa, Skylar Kang and Yuma Nakahama. Hair assistant: Pip Paz Howlett. Make-up assistant: Metty Taji. Casting assistant: James Mitchell. Set design assistants: Sophie-Mai Wiggins and Tom Hope. Production: Benji Landman at Farago Projects. Production manager: Keri Hannah-Pettigrew at Farago Projects. Production coordinator: Jay Jacobs. Production assistant: Emily Dunca 

This story is taken from the Summer/Autumn 2026 issue of Another Man, Volume II, Issue V, which is on sale internationally from 30 April 2026.