About Track Academy

• Through three athletics sessions a week, 50 weeks a year, at the Willesden Sports Centre
• Over 350 young people make more than 50,000 visits to our sessions each year
• A wide range of education and tutoring workshops are provided, along with skills and training activities
• We offer group and 1:1 mentoring

Proven record
We help our young people build their confidence, and their faith in their own ability to positively affect their lives, both now and in the future. Our aim is to increase participants’ academic performance and personal growth strategies, as well as their employment opportunities and physical health and fitness.

With a firm understanding of issues such as truancy, anti-social behaviour, poor discipline and concentration, and obesity, the Track Academy team has a proven record in delivery. What’s more, we are well placed to continue delivering these desirable outcomes for the foreseeable future.

Connie’s drive to help the disadvantaged young people of Brent comes from her own background, growing up in the borough as part of a chaotic family. She found solace at the Willesden Sports Centre, where Track Academy is now based, and where her natural talent for athletics was noticed.

She went on to become an international athlete, winning the bronze medal in the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur. After her retirement in 2000, she then moved into sports journalism, providing commentary for broadcasters such as Eurosport, Sky and the BBC. She also worked with boxing promoter Frank Warren, a role which saw her broadcast from the heavyweight match between Vitali Klitschko and Danny Williams in Las Vegas.

As the director of Track Academy, Connie continues to drive and motivate others using her lived experiences and excellent leadership skills.

She has several mantras by which she lives, the essence of which can be experienced at Track Academy. These are:

• It’s not about the destination. It’s about what you learn on the way and what you do with that information
• Surround yourself with people who know more than you do
• Hard does not necessarily mean bad
• What you want to do isn’t always the thing you should do. But the thing you should do normally gets you what you want

Sport Gives Back

Connie was the brainchild behind the inaugural Sport Gives Back Awards, which took place in early 2020. The concept of the ceremony was to celebrate the work of organisations like Track Academy, which change people’s lives through sport and movement.

Ten charities from across the UK chose their winners, while the event was sponsored by corporate organisations such as Nationwide, British Athletics and DHL.

The ceremony, which was later broadcast on ITV, was attended by sporting luminaries including Lord Sebastian Coe, Dame Kelly Holmes, Daley Thompson and dancing legend Dame Darcey Bussell. The Sport Gives Back Awards can be viewed here.

Back to Movement

Connie secured strategic funding from Sport England to launch a new initiative in Brent in response to Covid-19. The borough was disproportionately affected by the pandemic, both in terms of cases and deaths, and Connie identified that it would take some time for its residents to become active again in its aftermath.

Therefore, she devised a scheme whereby local people could enjoy a wide range of activities in their community, all for free. This programme is currently underway, with a variety of activities on offer, from Buggyfit sessions to a golf programme with the Jason Roberts Foundation. More details on all the activities can be found here.

MBE

Connie’s achievements were recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2022, when she was honoured with an MBE for her Charitable Services to Young People through Sports and Education. You can watch a short video of her investiture by King Charles III here, using the password 6739245. She was later one of 200 people from the Honours’ list to be invited to attend the Queen’s funeral.