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Paralympic Swimmer Rhiannon Henry targets triathlon glory

April 17, 2024
Rhiannon-Henry

Former GB Paralympic swimmer Rhiannon Henry is targeting more success in Para-triathlon, after winning gold in her in her first competitive race. Rhiannon and her guide Nicole Walters, claimed victory in the PT5 category at the ITU (International Triathlon Union) World Para-triathlon event in South Africa last month.

Rhiannon-Henry

“The next major event is only 30 minutes from my home, so I’m hoping for a big following,” says Rhiannon, whose shy smile gives away her modest demeanour. “I know my family and friends are coming down to support me and with the bike circuit being quite small, the crowd will be quite compact and add to that atmosphere.”

The former Bridgend Swimming Club member will be grateful to compete closer to home, having traveled nearly 9000 miles to make her debut.

“It was an amazing place to have my debut,” says Rhiannon, who is still bearing her South African tan. “I was a bit nervous as it was my first triathlon but it all went well.”

‘Well’ is probably an understatement, with Rhiannon finishing four minutes ahead of 2015 ITU World Para-triathlon silver medallist and Great Britain teammate Melissa Reid.

“Melissa is ranked number one and won the gold medal in the Europeans last year and silver at Worlds, so I was quite pleased and surprised at my finish in South Africa.

“The difficult part for me was transferring my swimming from in a pool to open water. I think my coaches were eager to see how I would transfer my skills as some people just can’t translate their pool swimming to open water but I seemed to do it very well.”

The four day trip, including two for travel, has left the Loughborough based athlete tired, but determined for more success, culminating, she hopes, with a plane ticket to Rio 2016

“The aim is of course Rio now, absolutely,” says a determined Rhiannon Henry.

“The qualifying for the games is quite complicated but it’s to do with how you place in major competitions in the year leading up to it. You’re not qualifying for your own spot; you’re qualifying for a female spot so the British team thenchoose who will take the spots. I don’t fully understand it; I just get on with it.”

Compared to the world of swimming, Rhiannon admits that her new sport gives her the opportunity to compete in more events,

“There are World and Europeans Championships every year in triathlons and it’s great to have a major event that often, in swimming it was every four years between the games.

“I’ll be qualifying for those events in May in Llanelli, if I come in the top two out of the British girls I’ll be guaranteed to go to European and Worlds as well as the test event in Rio in August. That event will be on the Olympic course - it’ll be amazing to go over there and experience what it will be like in 2016.”

Due to there being three female triathletes, one person will not be guaranteed a start, meaning a wild card entry may be the only way of making it to Brazil for one of them. When asked about that option, Rhiannon is forthright with her response; “My aim is not to be in that spot.

And who can blame her. Henry achieved two bronze medals in swimming at the Paralympics in Athens 2004, and competed at both Beijing 2008 and London 2012, but still feels she has much more to give and is turning the hurt from London 2012 into motivation.

“I missed out in two races at London,” says Henry, whose pause for a drink demonstrates the disappointment London fills her with.” I finished fourth in both, 0.1 of a second behind bronze in one and then just over a second in the other.

“I found out two years before London that they weren’t going to have my two main events (100 fly and 400 freestyle), they had been taken out the programme. I had to go for my third fourth and fifth best events, so I already knew it was going to be a bit of an uphill struggle but I decided to keep at it and try my best to win a medal.

“I was still really pleased with fourth, especially with my 200 Medley as that was a personal best and even though I was a second off bronze it was still a lifetime best so I was pleased.

“It’s just that one race where I was 0.1 of a second off that really hurts.

“It was very tough and I think that’s why I ended up giving up on swimming. Going through two years of solid training for an event that wasn’t really my best took its toll on me and I didn’t really want to continue after that.

Rhiannon admits it was no knee-jerk reaction that made her retire from the pool after London, citing that she took two full months before arriving at a very tough conclusion.

“It was a very hard decision because I’d been swimming and part of a club since I was eight-years-old. It’s just what I did and who I was.

“I didn’t want to make a decision straight after London when my emotions were really high, so I decided to get back into training and I was enjoying it at first but then about two months later I just didn’t want to do it anymore, so I was comfortable knowing I had stopped for the right reasons.

“But after two years off, now that I’m back in the pool I am loving it.”

It’s an irony that as a a young girl Rhiannon was warned off riding bikes due to her poor eyesight and now she is aiming for gold in Rio. We look forward to watching her progress.
You can follow Rhiannon on twitter at: @Rhi_Henry

Simon Wilderspin, Sportsister
The Women’s Sports Magazine

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