I Won 11 World Titles Because They Said I Couldn't: Anna Hemmings MBE | E65

Anna Hemmings tells Stephen Bartlett how she fell in love with kayaking as a child and rose to the top of her sport despite being repeatedly told she was too small and not strong enough. She unpacks the mental tools behind elite performance: growth mindset, visualization, identifying intrinsic drivers, building a bank of positive experiences, and breaking free of limiting self-labels. The conversation's emotional core is her battle with chronic fatigue syndrome at the peak of her career, when doctors told her she would never race again. She recovered through reverse therapy, learning that suppressed emotion and isolation were triggering her physical symptoms, and went on to win three more world titles and compete at Beijing 2008. Throughout, both draw parallels between sport, business leadership, and personal relationships around trust, vulnerability, and human connection.

• A coach who was also the Great Britain team coach told her she'd never be big enough or strong enough to be a great kayaker.
  00:08:20
• At 24-25 she was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome at the peak of her career.
  00:47:39
• A doctor told her there was no cure and she would never race at the highest level again.
  00:56:33
• She didn't train again for 18 months while trying conventional and alternative treatments that didn't work.
  00:56:02
• She recovered through reverse therapy, founded by Dr John Eaton, treating symptoms as alarm bells from suppressed emotion.
  00:58:40
• Non-expression of emotion and self-isolation were identified as the key triggers of her illness.
  01:00:42
• She returned to win the world and European championships in 2005, won twice more, and competed at Beijing 2008.
  01:21:02

• She first got into a kayak just under nine years old at Elmbridge Canoe Club, one of the country's best clubs.
  00:01:33
• At her peak she was the strongest girl in the Great Britain team gym, bench pressing 100 kilos.
  00:09:55
• She worked with a sports psychologist from the age of 16.
  00:16:40
• Visualization is her core technique; she believes the mind can't tell a vividly imagined experience from a real one.
  00:33:46
• CFS left her unable to hold her hands up to wash her hair for more than 10 seconds, having recently done 100 press-ups in one go.
  00:51:20
• She wished her skin was covered in spots so people could see something was visibly wrong with her.
  00:52:22
• She would cry alone but never in front of anyone, telling people she was 'fine.'
  01:00:42
• A sports psychologist identified her as a 'stable extrovert' via a Myers-Briggs type assessment.
  01:16:19
• She isolated herself training alone for years under a coach based in another country with a five-hour time difference.
  01:09:35

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