Dina Asher-Smith is a history student at King’s College University in London but in the last few weeks she has been creating the landmark moments rather than reading about them.
In Hengelo in May, World junior champion Asher-Smith, 19, ran 11.02 to break Great Britain’s national 100m record by 0.03 before a fortnight later her time of 22.30 for the 200m in Birmingham took her to the top of the European Athletics rankings.
If she needed a gauge to where she stands in the sport, it came when she was asked about a ‘rivalry’ with Dutch star Dafne Schippers, the European 100m and 200m champion.
In Hengelo, Asher-Smith was second as Schippers won in 10.94m but on those 200m lists, the positions are reversed.
'Dafne is absolutely amazing,' said Asher-Smith. 'To say that it is a rivalry is kind of weird. I haven’t got my head around that. It’s a compliment.'
Now she is ready to make another impression this weekend in Cheboksary in the Super League of the European Athletics Team Championships.
Asher-Smith runs in the 200m while British teammate Asha Philip, who was third in that race in Hengelo in a personal best of 11.10, entered for the 100m.
Yet to the outsider, it is no shock that Asher-Smith finds herself in this position because her progress has been impressive over the past two years.
In Rieti in 2013 she won 200m gold in 23.29 at the European Athletics Junior Championships – as well as helping Britain triumph in the 4x100m relay - before last summer becoming the World junior 100m champion in 11.23.
But it was her silver in the 60m in Prague in March at the European Athletics Indoor Championships which had as much significance as she broke the British record with 7.08 as Schippers won in 7.05.
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Asher-Smith is heading towards a big future, even if she never contemplated that 100m time in Hengelo.
She said: 'I wasn’t really expecting it. I knew I was in good shape. But then thinking you are in good shape and then actually doing it in a race are two completely different things. My coach was kind of expecting it but he didn’t tell me.'
In this 12-team competition, Ukraine’s Nataliya Pohrenbnyak, who has run 22.98 this year, and Russian Yekaterina Smirnova, with 23.04, will provide tough opposition to Asher-Smith when they race on Sunday afternoon.
And the Briton will only have maximum points on her mind.
'Records are great,' said Asher-Smith. 'But you have to look at championships and how you perform there.'