Glam Africa: The Lockdown Edition (2020)

GLAM AFRICA CATCHES UP WITH ADIDAS
SPRINTER AND OLYMPIC MEDALLIST DESIRÉE HENRY
When Desirée Henry
started sprinting
competitively at
the tender age 11,
she couldn’t possibly have known
just how far her legs would take her.
Now-aged 24, Desirée competed
in the 2016 Rio Olympics, where
she won a Bronze medal, the 2017
London World Championships,
where she won a Silver medal, and
was one of seven young athletes
chosen to light the Olympic torch
at the London Olympic Games in
2012.
“To this day it’s still a surreal
thing to be called an Olympic
medalist,” Desirée says. “Running
and representing my country
will forever be one of my greatest
achievements. It’s one of those
things you say at such a young
age - that you’ll be a professional
someday and you’ll go to the
Olympics. But to actually do it, it’s
64 GLAM AFRICA · MAY 2020
such a ‘wow, I actually did it’ kind
of feeling.” Since then, she’s been
gearing up for the 2020 Summer
Olympics in Tokyo. Sadly, Desirée
and her fellow athletes received the
news that the Tokyo Olympics had
been postponed until 2021, due to
the outbreak of COVID-19. When
I caught up with Desirée via email,
I wanted to find out how she felt
about the unanticipated deferral,
and in what ways the pandemic
has affected her personally and
professionally.
“We were all in a state of complete
shock when we found out that
all the competitions were being
cancelled, especially the Olympics,
which we know only comes around
every four years. I was planning to
compete this year. I hope I still get
the chance to race before the year
ends. Outside of sponsorships, a
major part of our income comes
from competitions, so on the one
hand it’s sad that they’ve all been
cancelled. On the other hand, as
athletes, it’s great to know that
they care about our health and
safety as human beings, and not
be treated like animals in a circus.”
One thing that struck me from
my conversation with Desirée
was her uncommon ability to find
silver linings in even the toughest
situations. Although being on
lockdown has interefered with
her ability to train and compete,
Desirée has found a fun new
way to spend those extra hours
at home - and she’s not the only
one. The TikTok trend has totally
taken over, and Desirée is just one
among millions of people to catch
the bug. In a world full of dance
crazes and makeup challenges,
people young and old, across the
globe, are taking advantage of
this novel social network/content
creation app.