25 Years of Laureus: Joyful Resilience
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Annie Tagoe’s journey to a World Championship medal started at a Laureus-supported programme that provides training, education and mentorship to young people in North London.
Annie Tagoe was 15 when she started to run fast.
She was growing up in Willesden, north London, the oldest of five children and she was getting into a bit of trouble.
“I was doing a whole bunch of nonsense – getting into fights. Now I look back and I’m like, who was that person! If I didn’t go to Track Academy, God knows where I’d be right now.”
A PE teacher – Miss Goodwin – told Annie that her gift was running. She would pull her pupil to one side after every class.
You should go to the sports centre.
Yeah. Yeah, I’ll go.
Then, after a week.
Have you been yet?
No. Yeah, I’ll go.
“Then one day,” remembers Annie, “she literally took me down and introduced me to Connie Henry.”
Connie was a bronze medallist in the triple jump at the 1998 Commonwealth Games. Before that, she was a 15-year-old athlete training at the Willesden Sports Centre, just like Annie.
In 2007, seven years after retiring from the sport and having pursued a career in sports journalism, Connie founded Track Academy, a charity whose purpose was and remains to use athletics, education and mentorship to improve the lives of young people in a community that is dealing with gang crime and drug addiction.
Two years later, Annie found her way to Track Academy, with an assist from Miss Goodwin.
She was growing up in Willesden, north London, the oldest of five children and she was getting into a bit of trouble.
“I was doing a whole bunch of nonsense – getting into fights. Now I look back and I’m like, who was that person! If I didn’t go to Track Academy, God knows where I’d be right now.”
A PE teacher – Miss Goodwin – told Annie that her gift was running. She would pull her pupil to one side after every class.
You should go to the sports centre.
Yeah. Yeah, I’ll go.
Then, after a week.
Have you been yet?
No. Yeah, I’ll go.
“Then one day,” remembers Annie, “she literally took me down and introduced me to Connie Henry.”
Connie was a bronze medallist in the triple jump at the 1998 Commonwealth Games. Before that, she was a 15-year-old athlete training at the Willesden Sports Centre, just like Annie.
In 2007, seven years after retiring from the sport and having pursued a career in sports journalism, Connie founded Track Academy, a charity whose purpose was and remains to use athletics, education and mentorship to improve the lives of young people in a community that is dealing with gang crime and drug addiction.
Two years later, Annie found her way to Track Academy, with an assist from Miss Goodwin.
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By 2011, Track Academy was supported by Laureus Sport for Good and was visited by Laureus Academy Members Michael Johnson, Sebastian Coe and Steve Redgrave on the eve of the London Olympics. During this visit Annie took to the stage to speak with eloquence and passion about the impact sport had made on her life.
By then, she had developed into one of the most promising athletes to enrol at Track Academy. In her first year as a sprinter, Annie had made it to the inaugural Youth Olympics in Singapore (after successful trials in Moscow). There she won a bronze as part of the team in the medley relay.
While her talent and hard work opened up travel and elite international competition, Annie remained aware that for her and her teammates, Track Academy was also serving a different function.
“It was a safe space,” she remembers. “We trained Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays and we used to beg to do more days. You didn’t want to be on the streets.
“While we were there, we had that community, we were mentored by the coaches and the other athletes, even in our own age group.
“We were taught how to be punctual; how to speak to adults; they taught us how to do job interviews. It wasn’t just track. It was like a family.” That word comes up a lot when you talk to people at Track Academy.
By then, she had developed into one of the most promising athletes to enrol at Track Academy. In her first year as a sprinter, Annie had made it to the inaugural Youth Olympics in Singapore (after successful trials in Moscow). There she won a bronze as part of the team in the medley relay.
While her talent and hard work opened up travel and elite international competition, Annie remained aware that for her and her teammates, Track Academy was also serving a different function.
“It was a safe space,” she remembers. “We trained Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays and we used to beg to do more days. You didn’t want to be on the streets.
“While we were there, we had that community, we were mentored by the coaches and the other athletes, even in our own age group.
“We were taught how to be punctual; how to speak to adults; they taught us how to do job interviews. It wasn’t just track. It was like a family.” That word comes up a lot when you talk to people at Track Academy.
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Today, Laureus Sport for Good supports and connects over 300 sports-based programmes in more than 40 countries. For Track Academy, the Sport for Good mission is reflected in the coaches who enter the programme as participants and are equipped and empowered to become leaders.
Tayla Brade joined the family in 2013 as a student athlete. From the age of 15, she competed at a national level and became a multiple county, south of England, national and English schools’ medallist. Then, in 2017, she joined the Academy as a coach.
“The vision of Track Academy is to help kids from inner-city London who might be struggling – or might just love athletics – and give them a place to go so that they're not on the street; they're doing something really positive,” she explains.
“Some of them might have problems with authority at school – just teenage issues a lot of the time. Sometimes we have kids who come from difficult backgrounds – they might be in the care system. But when they come here, they can leave everything aside and just enjoy themselves, push themselves and make friends.”
Track Academy teaches youngsters to deal with adversity and that was vital to sustaining Annie in an athletics career bedevilled by injuries. Between 2012 and 2021, she was struck down by knee injuries and arthritis which limited her to racing at only 19 competitions. Tagoe also suffered from an eating disorder and depression during those years. Throughout it all, the support of her Track Academy coaches remained constant.
Tayla Brade joined the family in 2013 as a student athlete. From the age of 15, she competed at a national level and became a multiple county, south of England, national and English schools’ medallist. Then, in 2017, she joined the Academy as a coach.
“The vision of Track Academy is to help kids from inner-city London who might be struggling – or might just love athletics – and give them a place to go so that they're not on the street; they're doing something really positive,” she explains.
“Some of them might have problems with authority at school – just teenage issues a lot of the time. Sometimes we have kids who come from difficult backgrounds – they might be in the care system. But when they come here, they can leave everything aside and just enjoy themselves, push themselves and make friends.”
Track Academy teaches youngsters to deal with adversity and that was vital to sustaining Annie in an athletics career bedevilled by injuries. Between 2012 and 2021, she was struck down by knee injuries and arthritis which limited her to racing at only 19 competitions. Tagoe also suffered from an eating disorder and depression during those years. Throughout it all, the support of her Track Academy coaches remained constant.
Redemption came in 2023 when Annie made the Great Britain team for the 2023 World Championships in Budapest. It was a daunting prospect for her, not least when she found out she was running the last leg in heat 1 of the 4 x 100m relay. However, some wise counsel from Katarina Johnson-Thompson, who would win Heptathlon gold in Budapest, helped her focus and qualify the Great British team for the final, where they claimed a bronze medal.
“I thought I’d be running the first leg,” recalls Annie. “I remember crying and shaking, thinking, ‘I can't do this, I'm going to let the team down, I need to speak to someone that has done this multiple times’. So, I messaged Katarina Johnson-Thompson – and she sent me the loveliest message ever. I told her I'd been picked and that I needed help. She wrote…
Oh my god, congratulations. This is the best news. You’re going to have such a good time. Okay, pep talk, three points.
Don't worry about the sick feeling, it's completely normal, just your body getting ready for a big fight. It will stay there most of the day and everyone who is pretending not to feel the same is a big fat fake.
Once you get out there, take in the stadium for a minute or two, then it's pure process mode from there.
You've been waiting 10 years for this moment, you deserve this and you belong there. Take it in, it's your moment. You've been chosen because of your quality and the trust they have in you.
“I read that message 10 times, and then I was like ‘okay’. I walked into the stadium and looked at the lights, flashes everywhere. Then something just snapped, and I was like, ‘you got this’.
“I saw Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce run past me. I'm running next to my idol. It was the best feeling in the world, running – the screams, the cameras, the girls running up to me at the finish line. In that moment, the 10 years of injuries, all the struggles, everything, felt worth it.”
“I thought I’d be running the first leg,” recalls Annie. “I remember crying and shaking, thinking, ‘I can't do this, I'm going to let the team down, I need to speak to someone that has done this multiple times’. So, I messaged Katarina Johnson-Thompson – and she sent me the loveliest message ever. I told her I'd been picked and that I needed help. She wrote…
Oh my god, congratulations. This is the best news. You’re going to have such a good time. Okay, pep talk, three points.
Don't worry about the sick feeling, it's completely normal, just your body getting ready for a big fight. It will stay there most of the day and everyone who is pretending not to feel the same is a big fat fake.
Once you get out there, take in the stadium for a minute or two, then it's pure process mode from there.
You've been waiting 10 years for this moment, you deserve this and you belong there. Take it in, it's your moment. You've been chosen because of your quality and the trust they have in you.
“I read that message 10 times, and then I was like ‘okay’. I walked into the stadium and looked at the lights, flashes everywhere. Then something just snapped, and I was like, ‘you got this’.
“I saw Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce run past me. I'm running next to my idol. It was the best feeling in the world, running – the screams, the cameras, the girls running up to me at the finish line. In that moment, the 10 years of injuries, all the struggles, everything, felt worth it.”
That moment did not represent the finish line for Annie, but it was one of arrival, of a promise made good; the promise of a wayward 15-year-old who was marched into Track Academy by her PE teacher and found purpose and joy through the power of sport.
At the same time, Tagoe was also taking off in her parallel career – as a professional model. “I always make sure I look good,” she says. “The track is my runway, just as much as the runway is my runway!”
It’s been a journey that would not have been possible without Laureus Sport for Good providing the funding, the support and the network that supercharges programmes like Track Academy and helps raise up young athletes like Annie.
Today, 380 young people show up across the three weekly sessions at the same Willesden Sports Centre to where Annie was marched at the start of her journey. And their mission is the same: to help those young people fulfil their potential, on the track, within their communities and within themselves.
At the same time, Tagoe was also taking off in her parallel career – as a professional model. “I always make sure I look good,” she says. “The track is my runway, just as much as the runway is my runway!”
It’s been a journey that would not have been possible without Laureus Sport for Good providing the funding, the support and the network that supercharges programmes like Track Academy and helps raise up young athletes like Annie.
Today, 380 young people show up across the three weekly sessions at the same Willesden Sports Centre to where Annie was marched at the start of her journey. And their mission is the same: to help those young people fulfil their potential, on the track, within their communities and within themselves.
