TRUE STORIES feat. DESIREE HENRY (The Olympian who won medals with knee pains )

The north London athlete opens-up to Joel Campbell from The Voice Newspaper.

BRITISH ATHLETE Desiree Henry had to make a decision to have an operation on both knees in an attempt to put right a condition which has affected the sprinter for past three years.

Henry, 22, told Joel that she couldn’t wait to get back to full fitness ahead of what is going to be a hectic 2018 season.

As a junior athlete Henry said a decision was taken to address the lack of mobility and slight pain she was getting in her knees but the subsequent medication she was administered only served to make matters worse. She recalled:

“The day after I had taken the injections I woke up with both of my legs in a bent position and for at least two days I couldn’t straighten them.

“In my head I thought it [recovery] was going to be a quick thing. I had the World Junior Championships to compete in with the trials prior to that and then I found out that I couldn’t walk for a few days and trying to go back into training meant that I was on the bike for a lot of the time. What should have been a fast recovery turned into three weeks of me not doing any real training.

“I was an 18-year-old girl feeling like I had a hop in my step and I can do all of these sessions to suddenly not being able to walk and train, it was extremely frustrating and scary.”

COMPLICATIONS

Henry did make a recovery of sorts and has been able to compete to a level but the situation has worsened to the point she had two debilitating nodules under each knee.

The operation she underwent was quite straightforward and it’s hoped there will be no more complications for the north London athlete.

Having won medals on a global stage in the last couple of years, Henry is rightfully frustrated at her ascent being curtailed temporarily by injury but looking ahead to her return the Enfield and Haringey athlete says individual success is the goal. She enthused:

“London [World Championships] was amazing because it meant that all of our friends and family were there rather than watching at home on TV. It also meant though that when on the podium I could point out my mum, my dad and my sister and that just made you so genuinely proud; there were moments when I had to remind myself not to cry. You want to hold it together, you don’t want all of your memories to be filled with just crying.”

She added:

“I can’t take World Championship and elite medals for granted. To go to my first Olympics and come away with a medal is amazing and then the following year to go to a World Championships and come away with a silver medal, it’s just like wow, we’re really building and growing on that.

“I just feel so proud and happy that early on in my career I am getting relay medals but of course in the future I am going to be looking at individual medals but I am really, really happy with 2017 as well as 2016 despite what was going on behind the scenes for me. I feel proud of that fact.”