Four months ago, Daryll Neita was in a wheelchair. On the European Championships track, she was back in spikes. The British sprinter may not have reached the 100m final, but after everything she had been through, simply making it to the starting line felt like a victory.

Neita ran 11.34 seconds in her semifinal, finishing sixth and missing out on the final alongside fellow Briton Imani Lansiquot. Under normal circumstances, the result would have fallen well below Neita’s usual standards. But these circumstances were anything but normal.

The road back was hardly straightforward. While sharing her journey in the past few months during an interview with Athletics Weekly, Neita said, “This is crazy because I’ve obviously just run 11.3 in a semifinal at the European Championships. Not my usual standard, but it’s not my usual circumstance! I broke my foot on the 4th of April, and it’s amazing to even be here. Like, I can’t sit here pretending that I’m upset because I’m not, I’m actually proud of myself (laughs).”

She revealed that there were days when even walking around in a boot was painful. Her legs were swollen, and with the injury constantly in the back of her mind, doubts naturally began to creep in.

Yet instead of watching the season disappear, Neita kept moving.

The easier option for her would have been to shut things down and wait for 2027. Neita knew that. But somewhere during the long recovery, she found another side of herself. “I feel like I could’ve easily been like, ‘Oh, I’m going to just come back next year,'” she said. “But now, I’m a fighter. I’m gonna give what I can.”

That mindset became even more important when she remembered just how far she had come. Not long ago, she was in a wheelchair. Then came the boot. Then rehabilitation. And eventually, she was standing on a major championship starting line, which was just as much a win as crossing the finish line.

According to Neita, she escaped surgery by just 1 mm. So, that reflects how severe that injury was and how much worse it could have been.

For an athlete who has spent years competing at the highest level, that perspective is significant. Neita has an Olympic silver medal from Paris with Great Britain’s 4x100m relay team, along with other Olympic, World, European and Commonwealth medals. But this comeback demanded something different from her.

It demanded patience… And she wasn’t drawing that strength from herself alone.

Throughout the recovery, Neita kept thinking about athletes who had already walked a similar road. Their comebacks became reminders that a broken bone didn’t have to mean a broken season. “I was very inspired by a lot of teammates that I have and people that I know on the circuit,” she said.

Among those she named were Brittany Anderson and Trayvon Bromell, athletes who had also battled back from serious injuries. “I just had them in the back of my mind,” Neita added. “If they have done it, so can I.”

She may not have made the European final, but Neita’s comeback was never really about one race. Four months after breaking her foot, she was back where she wanted to be… on the track, competing again. And for Neita, that was more than enough.