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Chapter 7
Connie Henry and Karl Lokko
I purposely don’t research “Brilliant Minds” before I meet them. I just want to listen to their stories and the most powerful message that I heard from both Connie and Karl is how certain individuals outside your family can have a profound effect on the rest of your life.
Connie’s own experiences of dysfunctional family life and lack of childhood security thrust her into the sporting arena, joining the Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers in Hendon and Willesden Sports Centre at just 15 years old. Here she met Coach Dave Johnson who had a profound impact on her athletics career. Her life changed because of having this person in her life, it led her ultimately to setting the Track Academy to help young minds believe they are more than the circumstances into which they are born.
Karl Lokko was a former gang leader having grown up on the gang ridden Myatts Field estate historically one of the most deprived areas of the borough in Lambeth. Karl was extremely fortunate that he met Pastor Mimi. She opened her home, allowing it to become a sort of informal therapeutic community rehabilitation hub. Her counselling and Bible-based intervention work led Karl to denounce his gang involvement and turn his life around. Through her holistic approach and spiritual teachings, he was able to claim back his identity and strive towards excellence.
On one night, just before lock down, 5th March 2020, we found away of bringing them both to the same stage, at the Royal Institution in Mayfair for the inaugural Sport Gives Back Awards to celebrate the invaluable work of charities, organisations, and individuals, up and down the country, who change lives through sport.
By Harvey Thorneycroft
Chapter 7: Connie Henry and Karl Lokko
One of the last events that we did before lockdown on 5th March 2020 brought together two very interesting “Brilliant Minds” who up until this point had never met each other but had so much in common.
The inaugural Sport Gives Back Awards was conceived by Connie Henry to celebrate the invaluable work of charities, organisations and individuals, up and down the country, who change lives through sport. The event took place at the Royal Institution in Mayfair, attended by 400 guests. It shouldn’t really have taken place, but sometimes luck is on your side, and you get to meet the life force that is Connie Henry, who had a vision and came to us to see whether we could work with her and make it a reality. Sports Gives Back was born from the work of Track Academy, founded by Commonwealth Games Bronze medallist, Connie Henry.
Her charity had been working in London for more than a decade. Connie recognised that sport could be a vehicle for social change and had a vision that she should bring together other organisations that work tirelessly to create opportunities with people within their communities.
Connie told me when I met her that, “at Track Academy, we help young minds believe they are more than the circumstances into which they are born. Our core aim is to create positive leaders of tomorrow, academic achievers and if we happen to create an Olympian along the way, that would be a positive by-product of our efforts”. As an international athlete, triple jumper Connie Henry pushed herself to her limits to be the very best she could be, to reach the furthest distance possible. But sport was always about more than winning medals for London-born Connie. It was about finding a family, creating a network of loyal friends and mentors who would be there for her no matter what. And twenty years after her biggest sporting achievement, she is doing the same for scores of young people at the centre where she first honed her talents.
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