Brent-born Connie Henry discovered a natural talent for athletics in her teens, honing her skills at the Willesden Sports Centre.

Excelling at the triple jump, she travelled the world through her sport, with her achievements culminating in a medal at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur.

Keen to support the next generation in Brent, Connie created her own charity in 2007, based at the Willesden Sports Centre where it all started.

Today, Track Academy uses sport, education and mentoring to help young people fulfil their potential and gain valuable life skills.

For International Women’s Day, she explains how all women can benefit from sport and movement.

“We spend so long trying to fit in that we forget to be ourselves. Are we a daughter, a mother, a colleague, a friend? What does our hair look like, our make-up, our clothes? What job do we do?

“But we don’t always consider who we actually are. Who are you really as a woman? What is your truth?

“The reason I love sport and movement so much is that they allow you to tap into a part of you that is unfashionable and unseen, and that no-one knows but you. The voice in you that is free of criticism and peer pressure.

“When you are lost in movement, you find the voice in you that is stronger than you, the voice you didn’t even know was there. It wills you to perform, it wills you to turn up, it wills you to just keep going.

“I encourage all women of any age and any demographic to find their unfashionable thing. Find the thing that makes you feel good and revel in it.

“Make it a place that you can always go back to, away from the pressure of who everyone else thinks you are, and who you think you should be. Dance in your living room, run, walk, ride…whatever it takes. Let the endorphins set you free.

“It is then that you can truly start to believe you are more than the circumstances into which you were born.”

To find out more about Track Academy, visit www.trackacademy.co.uk.