Olympian Who Set Sprint Record Usain Bolt Never Managed Reveals How Parents Reacted
A former British sprinter who achieved an athletics record that not even Usain Bolt managed has explained how his parents reacted to the remarkable feat.
Harry Aikines-Aryeetey, 37, won five 4x100m relay gold medals representing Team GB at the European Championships and Commonwealth Games.
He competed at the Rio 2016 Olympics as part of the Team GB 4x100m men's relay team that reached the final.
In 2005, he was the seventh winner of the BBC's Young Sports Personality of the Year award, having been up against the likes of Theo Walcott, Tom Daley and future table tennis star Paul Drinkhall.
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Earlier that year, Aikines-Aryeetey had become the first sprinter, male or female, to win both the 100-metre and 200-metre finals at the World Youth Championships.
He ran a personal-best time of 10.35 seconds in the 100m, while his time of 20.91 in the 200m was world-leading for any junior sprinter that season.
In 2009, fellow British sprinter Jodie Williams did the double in the women's 100 and 200m events.
Aikines-Aryeetey revealed to The Big Issue in an interview published on Sunday that his parents, who were born in Ghana, 'worked really hard to give me what they could' while he was growing up.
The gravity of his sprinting achievement, though, was slightly lost on them, he says.
"I come from humble beginnings," he explained. "My parents worked really hard to give me what they could.
"When I started, I was wearing the wrong trainers or I'd use my birthday money to buy really saggy running tights.
"But you can imagine a 16-year-old already sponsored by Nike. I had a guy called Nike Boy who could get me anything I wanted.
"When I became BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year, I was given a McDonald's platinum card. So I was treating my family to free McDonald's every night.
"They were more concerned about how I behaved at home and if I was doing my chores [over athletics].
"They're Ghanaian immigrants who came over to give me an opportunity to be the best version of myself - and they didn't think sport would be as stable as being a doctor or a nurse.
"My sisters are a midwife, a teacher and a geographer. So in my parents' eyes, I'm kind of unemployed.
"They've never been impressed by my athletic prowess - they were just, so how are your grades?"
In a separate interview with The Guardian in November, he explained his parents' mindset: "Every year my parents would tell me I had one more year left to compete - and then I would win a national title, or BBC Young Personality of the Year, or get sponsored by Nike, and I was allowed to keep competing.
"At the same time, I had to work hard academically at school.
"My dad came over from Ghana in the late 80s - he was well educated, but when he got over to London he had to start again.
"Once he was on his feet financially, he brought my mum and sisters over. Then I came along.
"They worked so hard to give us every opportunity and comfort we needed. We were taught how to cook and clean at a young age so we were independent.
"We weren't the richest by any means, but we had everything."
After calling time on his athletics career in 2022, Aikines-Aryeetey was offered a role on the hit BBC TV show Gladiators as 'Nitro'.
He was named as a contestant on Strictly Come Dancing earlier this year, and was the sixth celebrity to be eliminated from the show.
"When I was six, I wanted to be a Gladiator," he told The Big Issue. "I always wanted to be a superhero. And the closest thing to being a superhero is going to the Olympics.
"And now Gladiators is everything I hoped it would be and more. You realise you are a genuine superhero to all these young kids."
Topics: Athletics, Olympics, Usain Bolt
Ryan Smart