Lucy Charles-Barclay is ready to avenge the heartache of London 2012 as the T100 Triathlon Series heads to the English capital.
Charles-Barclay was determined to represent Team GB in the 10km open-water swim 12 years ago but was overlooked when it came to selection.
Devastated by the outcome, Charles-Barclay, then a teenager, lost motivation to keep swimming with the sole intention of making it to Rio – instead, opting to add other sports to her repertoire.
She has not looked back since taking up triathlon in 2014 and became a world Ironman champion last year. Her next challenge is seizing her opportunity in front of her home crowd this weekend.
“This is a really unique opportunity, the T100 in London,” she said.
“I’ve never actually raced on home soil at this kind of level of competition. My first or one of my first ever triathlons was in Hyde Park in London when I was a complete novice.
“But to actually be racing on home soil, literally just down the road from where I live, and have all my friends and family watch me compete live – most of them have never actually seen me compete in person, they’ve watched it on a screen.
“I don’t really see it as pressure, I see it as an opportunity to perform at my best and for everyone to be there to witness it.
“It’s really exciting and being an athlete that missed out on the home Olympics, it almost feels a little bit like I’ll get that opportunity to maybe see a small snippet of what it was like to have the home crowd in London at an Olympic Games.
“It’s going to be a spectacular event.”
In the build-up to her home event, Charles-Barclay has given an insight into her mentality on the Inside the Mind of Champions podcast.
Hosted by former England cricketer Jeremy Snape, now a sports psychologist, the episode sees Charles-Barclay open up on how she has overcome setbacks such as her Olympic non-selection.
“I’ve always been someone who can turn something quite negative into a positive motivation,” she said.
“I received a note when I was a swimmer, and I kind of knew that it was because I was doing well. I can’t remember [exactly what it said], it might have said something along the lines of ‘leave the club’.
“I remember thinking, ‘well, I’m definitely not going to be leaving. I’m going to be here and I’m going to make sure that I’m doing better every single day’.
“I remember saying to my coach, ‘I’m just going to pin it up on my wall and look at it every day and use it as motivation to be better.
“My coach at the time was like, ‘are you sure you want to do that? We can just take it and get rid of it.’ And I was like, ‘no, I definitely want to use this as extra fire to make myself better’.
“My mind will never break; my body will always break first.”
‘Listen to Lucy’s full ‘Inside the Mind of Champions’ podcast and her thoughts on the London T100 Triathlon on Apple (https://apple.co/3kLX2Nd) or Spotify (https://spoti.fi/302xfIU)’
