Confidence joined Track Academy at the age of 15. At that time, he was getting in a lot of trouble at school and was on the verge of a custodial sentence for out of school activities.

When he first joined, he was an angry young man and found it difficult to control his temper but was talented athletically.

The London Sports Trust gave him a grant to support him with his athletic goals and over the years through mentoring, study support and the athletics training programme with Track Academy, his personality started to change.

He enrolled into college full-time then moved onto applying to University alongside studying

to be a qualified Level 2 Athletics Coach. Confidence was even allowed the honour to return to his secondary school for an athletics demonstration at their sports day. He also did an inspiring presentation to the children about attitude and behaviour and how it is possible to turn your life around. His ex-teachers were flabbergasted at the change they saw in him and praised Track Academy for all the hard work and support they had put in and given to get him on the right track. The Head of PE Mike Finnie stated that “without Track Academy, Confidence Lawson would not have made it out of school.” Confidence himself says, “…if I wasn’t at Track Academy, I would probably be in jail by now.”

Confidence is now a Track Academy Alumni Athlete who still meets with his coach and mentor as he navigates a professional career in sport. He is also an example to our younger student athletes and comes back to peer mentor, support our internal competitions and take part in workshops (pictured above). Alongside peer work within Track Academy, Confidence is now doing talks in schools to inspire and potentially change the path of young people who may be in a similar position to where he was as a young school boy before Track Academy.

Confidence is a now a successful athlete representing Team GB all over the world.  He competed in the 2017 Nitro Games alongside the likes of Usain Bolt (pictured left). He was also selected for the 2018 Athletics World Cup to represent Team GB in the relay team.