The taming of the athletics "wild child": Annie Tagoe's self-love journey to inner peace and body confidence

A wild child tamed on the track

Annie Tagoe hardly recognises the person she was before she started running. The oldest of five children, raised by a single mother, her early teenage years were spent getting into fights and stirring up trouble.

“Growing up, in school I was really popular, and I think I was just acting out for the attention. The more attention I was getting, the more crazy I thought I had to act in order to stay popular,” said Tagoe, who was born in Ghana and moved to Great Britain at age six. “I look at myself now and I'm like, ‘Whoa, who is this person?’”

Tagoe channelled some of her teenage restlessness into sports. Team sports, including football and basketball, took centre stage in her life at first, but it was athletics that ultimately steered her on the course she is following today.

Around the age of 15, Tagoe enrolled in the Track Academy, a charity supported by Laureus Sport for Good, which uses athletics to help young people from north London communities where gang and drug addiction problems are prevalent.

The Track Academy opened up a new world for Tagoe. In addition to learning how to run fast, she picked up habits that carried over into her everyday life as well.

Discipline and punctuality were among the key lessons, and the teenager was taught them the hard way. On one occasion, Tagoe’s coaches barred her from going to the 2009 World School Sport Games in Qatar because she misbehaved.

“That would have been my first championships, and from then on I was like, ‘I am never getting in trouble again’," Tagoe recalled. “[Athletics] tamed me quite a lot because my coaches were really strict.”

Another coach from the Academy would fine athletes if they were late for training. It was a valuable lesson for Tagoe too – thanks to that she now “cannot stand being late”.

“I learned dedication is very important,” Tagoe said. “I learned that being respectful is also very important. I had to speak with a respectful manner when I was speaking to adults, kids my age, [those] younger than me, regardless of who they are. I learnt discipline within myself, how I handle my emotions, how I handle myself as a young lady. I learned all of that through Track Academy, so it did really set me up for life.”

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