GB sprinter back on Track after life turned upside down
Desiree Henry lit cauldron at London 2012 and won medal at Rio Games before anxiety left her in fight to save career
Desiree Henry is a member of one of the most exclusive sporting clubs on earth. The sprinter has her name etched on the steps of the Olympic Museum in Lausanne alongside Muhammad Ali, Cathy Freeman and Naomi Osaka, having been one of seven British teenagers to light the cauldron at the start of the 2012 Olympic Games.
Henry, 28, has the same glint of excitement in her eyes as she did almost 12 years ago. Despite looking on track to fulfil the potential Daley Thompson spotted when he selected her as his choice to represent the next generation of Team GB in 2012, and winning a bronze medal four years later in Rio, she has endured a torrid time through injury, mental health issues, missing out on selection for the Tokyo Games, loss of funding, and having to work full time.
However, this year things have moved in a positive direction.
When we meet in Lee Valley Athletic Centre in north London, Henry – who “lives just up the road” in Enfield – cannot stop smiling despite the hardships and the uncertainty over Olympic selection for this summer’s Paris Games.
In many ways, Henry’s story could be replicated on the big screen, beginning with that famous night in London’s Olympic Park. The novel concept for lighting the cauldron had been a tightly guarded secret.
“When we were told that we’ll be the ones lighting the cauldron, it was just like a, ‘huh, come again!’,” Henry says, grinning broadly. “We were all just starting our careers. On TV, there was speculation that it was going to be David Beckham or whoever. And then I was like, ‘wait, you want us to be the ones?’”
Rather than being distracted by 900 million watching globally, Henry gained a laser focus that would prepare her for the Rio Games.
“That was my moment of having focus, because I just thought, naturally, I want to be at the next Olympics. And it is doable. I’m way too young for this one at 16, but come the next one, I was thinking I want to be there,” she says.
Four years later, Henry was part of the 4x100metres relay team, also including Asha Philip, Dina Ashersmith and Daryll Neita, who claimed bronze. Having won an Olympic medal in the month of her 21st birthday, a long career looked to lie ahead.
In 2017, Henry returned to the London Stadium for the World Athletics Championships and was part of the relay team who went one better than Rio by winning silver. However, injuries were starting to take their toll and she made the difficult decision to have surgery on both knees. The protracted rehab period turned her life upside down, leading to severe anxiety.
“I think it was just panic and fear and, honestly, just having a little breakdown of crying, but I couldn’t really understand where it was coming from,” she says. “But then a light bulb went off where it was just like, ‘I actually don’t think I’m too happy’.”
Initially, she thought using the extra time and freedom away from intense training to spend more time with friends or indulge in forbidden foods did little to quell her sadness.
“I thought even being in a social setting doesn’t provide me with the calmness that I felt I needed.”
With a wry laugh, she continues: “And then it’s again, trying to do things that make you happy. Like eating junk food, especially because I was doing my rehab. But it still didn’t make a difference.”
The issue of mental health in sport is not a new one but Henry is refreshingly open in how she explains her approach. Many athletes speak about a sport psychologist or mental skills coach, but she felt she had experienced that and needed to seek the help of a therapist rather than someone less qualified to manage her thoughts around performance.
She says: “I know that this isn’t a moment of, ‘OK, how do I set up my first 10 metres mentally?’ No, it’s, ‘How do I wake up and feel good about myself? How do I have a change of mentality when I am doing rehab after not being able to run, watching competitions and knowing that I’m not there?’
“There’s no sugar coating it. I’d heard of therapy so many times, but there’s also that taboo even back then that you’ve got to be insane. But I’m sure that there is a space for me to just discuss how I think and feel and to have someone that doesn’t really know me to really help me. And I think I was just happy to speak to someone that wasn’t in my world.”
For Henry, the other key to managing her anxiety was getting a puppy. Her dachshund is such a key part of her family that he is named Henry and acts as an emotional support, travelling to longer training camps. “Even just taking him to puppy classes gave me a different focus and now he is such an important part of my life. I think I’ve sat there, I’ve cried, I’ve been sad, and he’s just been there consistently. He’s absolutely incredible – we’ve even worn matching outfits!”
The other misfortune to befall the sprinter was to lose her funding in 2019. This meant she had to pay for everything out of her own pocket leading up to the Tokyo Games, which she did not make. She was determined to get to Paris even if it meant taking on a fulltime office job to pay for coaching, physiotherapy, scans and other costs associated with being an elite athlete.
It was through one of her passions away from competition – speaking to young girls about building self-confidence – that her dreams of a second Olympics became more likely, when insurance company Domestic and General approached her about sponsorship so she could return to being a full-time athlete.
“I was training until late at night.
My body wasn’t recovering as well. I had more aches and pains, more problems. And it was just ridiculously difficult to the point where I was doing well at the new job that I had but again, my performances weren’t there,” she says.
“I think 2023 became one of the hardest years for me because I was thinking, ‘What on earth do I do? But what I do know now is that I need to work.’ And so that’s why I feel like what has happened... call it the universe, call it God.”
Henry will not find out until about a month before the Olympics if she has made the team, but if her sporting odyssey has had an obvious impact, it is that she is beaming with anticipation.
“The aim for me, honestly, is just to make the team. And that could look like an individual event, whether it’s the 100m or the 200m or being a part of the relay pool. I think, realistically, that’s what’s keeping me motivated.”
‘I think it was just panic and fear and honestly just having a little breakdown of crying, but I couldn’t understand it’