CAPE TOWN ANGUISH — KELLY HOLMES EXCLUSIVE:
Dame Kelly Holmes on the shocking tragedy she encountered on a routine run around Cape Town
THE public rebirth of Dame Kelly Holmes has been centred around using her rich bank of experience to inspire others in search of self-improvement, to lend a hand to those striving for a more rewarding way of life.
In recent weeks, though, the double Olympic champion has been working through the trauma of looking on, completely powerless, as a handful of children died before her eyes, children who embodied the very essence of that quest for betterment and new opportunity.
It was around 2pm on November 24. Holmes had just arrived at the house she owns in Cape Town, South Africa, and was no more than a matter of minutes into a training run along the coast when the horror unfolded.
Passing Rocklands beach, in the suburb of Sea Point, she was stopped in her tracks on the promenade by the sight of three teenagers being washed into the water by a large wave and swept away by rip currents.
Holmes stayed there for three hours, doing what she could to aid the recovery operation staged by emergency services.
Local surfers managed to haul one 15-year-old boy onto their board, but he died despite receiving extensive CPR.
Two days later, struggling with her feelings, Holmes returned to the scene to discover that the bodies of two others
— a 15-year-old girl and a 16-year-old boy — had been retrieved.
An 18-year-old, named as Uwamungu John Damour, would also be taken, lifeless, from the water shortly afterwards.
The four kids came from Burundi and the Democratic
Republic of Congo. They were refugees, living in the Central Methodist Church in the city centre, their families having fled their homelands with little more than the dream of fresh beginnings and a more prosperous existence.
It has taken time to come to terms with what happened. The emotions still seem raw when Holmes, now a renowned motivational speaker and mental health campaigner, recalls the chain of events.
Yet, as she prepares to launch a programme this month through her charitable trust, aimed at recruiting toplevel sportspeople to mentor disadvantaged youngsters in Scotland and throughout the rest of the UK, she hopes this visceral reminder of the fragility of life will help focus minds and win support for her overarching message of sharing stories, helping each other and taking as much as possible from our short time together here.
‘It is another reason I feel people should make the most of their lives and capitalise on whatever good things they have instead of maybe always thinking negatively about where you’re at,’ reflected the 49-year-old. ‘You really don’t know what is round the corner. ‘They were just children playing on the rocks and they clearly couldn’t swim because they had gone in and gone under within minutes. In one case, it was within seconds.
‘The tide was
They were just children playing on the rocks and they clearly couldn’t swim because they had gone in and gone under within minutes. In one case, it was within seconds. The tide was rough, it was very rocky and a wave had come in over them, pushed them out to sea and they couldn’t get back
rough, it was very rocky and a wave had come in over them, pushed them out to sea and they couldn’t get back.
‘I saw the rescue operation happen in front of my eyes and saw those kids drown.
‘It was horrible, not something you would ever want to witness. I couldn’t do anything to help them and, in the end, I felt I had just had to run down to that location again.
‘I go to South Africa all the time and have a place there and didn’t want to be fearful of the area or not want to go down there any more.
‘I run there all the time. I am scared of the sea myself and I wouldn’t go in it, but I didn’t want to look at the sea in a way that only gives me fear.
‘When I went down there, I saw some of the recovery team and the police. I just said: “Please tell me you saw those kids”, because I’d seen three of them drowning.
‘Anyway, they had found two of the bodies, unfortunately. A girl and a boy. I’d seen them drown. They must have got caught in a vortex or some kind of current.
‘The thing is, all I had in my head is that I wanted closure for the families. There were no family members there.’
The very background of those youngsters would have chimed with Holmes, their difficult starts and difficult circumstances. On a recent adventure sports trip to Malawi, she broke down in tears during a visit to an orphanage, reminded of her early years in and out of a children’s home as the mixed-race daughter of a white, teenage mother, who refused, despite advice, to give her up for adoption.
It is something Holmes has talked about with disarming honesty. In the same way she has addressed most things in her incredible journey — from rising from a physical training instructor to a sergeant in the Army and, now, an Honorary Colonel, to suffering a breakdown in 2003 that reduced her to cutting herself with scissors to relieve the pain and frustration of
It is the reason why I think people should make the most of their lives. You never know what’s round the corner
seeing her athletics career damaged by injury.
For many, the defining moment of her life will always be bouncing back to win gold at the 800metres and 1500m in the Athens Olympics the following year, but that is not the way it feels to the woman herself.
Fresh from speaking at a business and self-empowerment summit in Dublin this week, alongside the likes of Sir Alan Sugar and TV adventurer Bear Grylls, Holmes senses this is the moment everything has been leading to.
‘I feel I’ve been through a different type of journey from every angle — emotions, highs, mental and physical pressures, my army background, my upbringing — and I believe I can use that to connect with people and get the best out of them,’ she said. ‘It is a powerful tool for me as well.
‘Most people know me for winning those two gold medals. Yet, I was just saying to someone the other day that, having been retired now for 14 years, I feel the journey towards winning the Olympics was not my defining moment.
‘I believe that was just the platform to let me do what I am doing right now — and I hope I can help people see things in different ways that maybe benefit their lives.
‘It has taken me a while to get here. I am still new to it and can be better. If just one little thing I say strikes a chord or helps someone think in a better way, though, I get really happy with that. I love it.
‘I am also still an ex-athlete trying to fulfil the next part of my own life. You have to find who you are.’
And this, in addition to giving young people a leg-up, is a central plank of the work of the Dame Kelly Holmes Trust.
Backed up by financial support from the Edinburgh-based People’s
Postcode Lottery, Holmes’ new ‘More Than Medals’ project is now looking to put professional sportspeople with high-level experience into a two-year training programme aimed at both turning them into mentors and providing the sense of purpose that often evaporates when a sporting career ends.
‘I started the trust in 2008 because I’d got to know quite a few sportspeople who were really, really suffering from lack of identity and having no understanding of who they really were,’ she recalled.
‘How do you use the things you did in sport to make another life? That was — and is — hard for a lot of people.
‘Sportspeople know about achievement, high performance, overcoming barriers and that is what people face in life. What we are trying to say is that athletes can use the skills they have perfected to change other people’s lives.
‘In two years of training with us, they will look at leadership, mental health, first aid, media training and public speaking. That’ll be invaluable and I am chuffed we have the funding from the People’s Postcode Lottery in Scotland because they have been with us for years.’
Although eager to hear from Scots sports personalities looking for a fresh path, Holmes is also maintaining a keen focus on one particular woman at the peak of her powers and very much on a single-track road right now.
Holmes presented Laura Muir with her Scottish Athlete of the Year award in 2018 and introduced her at the awards ceremony in Glasgow as ‘your future Olympic champion’.
The 26-year-old is out to follow in Holmes’ footsteps as the first Briton to win Olympic gold in the 1500m in Tokyo later this year and will spend much of this month stepping up preparations in the South African university town of Potchefstroom, which Holmes once had a house in and used in the lead-up to her moment of glory in Athens.
Dame Kelly remains more confident than ever that Muir has all the ability required to join her in the pantheon of British sporting greats. It is all just about finding the right way to unlock every ounce of her potential on race day.
‘Laura is already one of the very best athletes in the world. She has beaten the best and the times she is running are fantastic,’ said Holmes.
‘Winning major championships, though, is down to an individual believing they can do it on the day and is dependent, too, on the opposition.
‘You can put the mantle on someone’s head. You can say that she has the ability to be the Olympic champion, but it is up to her to execute, isn’t it? And that’s the difference.
‘There are a handful of talented, young athletes who have come to the fore at the same time and the best girl will win on the day.
‘That is when it comes to mindset as much as physicality. It is probably more about mindset.
‘Laura has just got to know that she has to be the best, perfect version of what she already is — a world-class athlete.’
Being your best. Making the very most of what you have. It is the message Holmes, this most accessible yet remarkable woman, exudes at every turn.
Because — as recent events have reminded her — it can all be taken away in an instant.
Sometimes, before life has even properly begun.