Mansfield’s paralympic hero looks to savour each moment as she bids for more gold
Nottinghamshire’s Paralympic gold medallist Charlotte Henshaw MBE wants to enjoy her illustrious career while she can after reaching the top of paracanoe racing.
Henshaw, 39, from Mansfield, an ex-student of All Saints’ Catholic Voluntary Academy, Mansfield will compete for Great Britain at the ICF Canoe Sprint and Paracanoe World Championships later this month, entering a as a three-time medallist from the 2024 Paralympics. She will take to the water in Poznan in competition, from 26-30 August, and the event will be another marker before the LA 2028 Paralympics, which would be her sixth Games.
“You can bever shy away from the privilege to be the person who people are chasing with a list of achievements. I’ve tried to enjoy this part of my career,” Henshaw said. “I’ve achieved everything there is to achieve and I wanted to remove the pressure of competing. It’s naïve to think that all the pressure is off, but it’s something that I’m very conscious of, trying to embrace and enjoy what I’ve worked at for years.
“My first Games were Beijing 2008 and I’m grateful for a supportive network of people which I have accumulated throughout my career, of people I value and get the best out of me. So much has changed since London 2012, and any athlete privileged to be part of those Games knows that it was a real shift for the Paralympics.
She is part of a team which includes another reigning Paris champion Emma Wiggs, as well as Paris 2024 Paralympic silver medallists Hope Gordon and Jack Eyers. The Mansfield native spoke at the National Watersport Centre at Holmepierre Pont, in the heart of the county she has called home since she was born.
Henshaw said: “I’m always proud to represent Nottinghamshire and one of the big draws for me to come across to canoeing from swimming after the 2016 Games was that I could train in my home county. I can train where I did my Year 10 work experience when I was a student at All Saints Catholic Academy.
“I’m hungry to win but the biggest thing for me is that I want to be proud of my performance. When I was soul searching after Paris as to why I would carry on for another cycle, because you have to have a reason to put yourself through what we do every day in cold winter months.
“It was less about winning and more about how we do it. I believe there’s more in there and that’s the challenge.”
Henshaw first went to the Paralympic Games as a swimmer in 2008, and picked up the paddle competitively in 2017 after retiring from her first para sport. She added: “Swimming and paracanoe are very different, much more powerful and explosive. I’ve learned to not be scared of the gym, swimmers are scared of the gym because they don’t want to get bulky. Stepping away from swimming has given me the chance to rediscover my love for the sport.
The swimmer turned paddler also thanked the contributions of National Lottery players, who help fund her training and competition through Sport UK.
“The influx of The National Lottery funding that we received personally and into the sport is why we can follow our dreams without having to compromise – I’m grateful to everyone who buys a ticket,” she said. “We are able to travel the world and represent our country at the highest level.”
Paddle UK is the national governing body for canoeing, kayaking and all other paddle sports. For more information, visit https://paddleuk.org.uk/
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Story courtesy Joseph Terry of the Nottingham Post
