Sharron: I fear for next generation
OLYMPIAN Sharron Davies has told how she fears for young people today due to their lack of physical activity and the amount of junk food they eat.
The champion swimmer, who represented Britain in the Olympics and European championships, and competed for England in the Commonwealth Games, warned about the dangers of processed food and sugar.
She also stressed the importance of teaching children about the link between physical activity and mental health.
Sharron, 60, said: “I do worry about children these days sitting with their tablets, being inactive – and Covid made it even worse.
“I’ve got three children. My youngest is 15 and he’s involved with sport. I’ve instilled physical activity in my kids and they’ve had that during what I call their ‘programming years’.
“When they’re young, that’s when we programme kids to eat well and exercise. So it’s terribly important we get young people to be physically active.
“They don’t necessarily have to compete in sport if that doesn’t float their boat but we need them to be physically active and we need them to eat healthier.
“We need to be really concerned about processed foods – the amount of sugar young people are consuming in everyday food nowadays is very worrying. It didn’t used to be that way.
“My big belief with mental health issues is that they are very linked with physical activity.
When we do physical activity we release endorphins, nature’s antidepressant. If we’re happy about how we feel about ourselves, feel more confident about the way we look, we genuinely feel more active and busy, and don’t spend too much time on gadgets.”
After her sporting career, Sharron went on to commentate for the BBC and was part of the successful campaign to bring the
Olympic Games to London in 2012. She also appeared in Gladiators, which aired in the UK throughout the 1990s.
Her character Amazon was put up against other competitors such as Falcon, Jet and Lightning.
BBC One is rebooting the show for a new generation and will film this summer. Sharron hopes it will encourage youngsters to be more active, although says she is “not privy” to any secrets about the new series.
She said: “Maybe the BBC will try to educate young people about physical fitness and about eating well and about health and exercise. It will be nice if that plays a part in it.”
Having first swam for Britain at the age of 11 she was selected for the 1976 Montreal Olympics and became a household name.
However, she suspects she will always be known as Amazon the Gladiator.
“I worked very hard to be Sharron Davies the Olympic swimmer, that’s who I am and that’s who I’ll always be. But for a period of time for a young generation I was Amazon.
“Gladiators was real fun but it was entertainment, it wasn’t the Olympics. They were more interested in making sure we had the time for hair and make-up.”
Sharron is also a single mother to three children, Elliott, Grace and Finley.
“I’ve been a single parent for years on and off. But all of my kids see their dads and we work together to parent well.
“Motherhood is wonderful – the best thing I’ve ever done.”
‘Mental health issues linked to physical activity’