Louisa Stoney, Class of 2020: The Sprinter Who Chose the Starting Line Over the Safe Option

There's a particular kind of courage in walking away from a sure thing. Louisa Stoney, LEH Class of 2020, has done it twice, and both times the track has rewarded her for it. 

It was a sports teacher at LEH who first saw what Louisa herself hadn't yet dared to imagine. "You're going to be the next Jessica Ennis-Hill," she told her, more than once. Whether or not she believed it at the time, the words lodged somewhere deep. Sports Days became Louisa's stage, taken by her own admission rather too seriously, and athletics quietly took root alongside the sport that dominated her school years: lacrosse, which she played to international level for Wales. 

After leaving LEH in 2020, mid-pandemic, she followed the path that had always seemed sensible. Years of careful CV-building pointed towards a career in Finance. Graduate offers arrived. She turned every single one down. No plan B, no safety net, just a nagging conviction that this wasn't it. 

What followed was, refreshingly, not a redemption-by-discipline story. Louisa spent her post-graduation break doing a ski season she describes as "very party-filled." And then, one day, she laced up her spikes. 

She returned to competition as an underdog, opening her comeback season with lifetime bests in every single race. The what if that had lingered for years was finally getting its answer, and the answer was remarkable. In January 2026, she ran a personal best of 52.08 seconds to win the EAP Glasgow 400m, beating Great Britain international Laviai Nielsen among others. 

The performances accelerated from there. At the 2026 British Indoor Athletics Championships in Birmingham, she qualified for the 400m final with a personal best of 51.92 seconds, then crossed the line in 51.83 seconds to claim the Silver Medal, finishing behind Yemi Mary John and ahead of reigning World Indoor Champion Amber Anning, with both athletes credited with the same time. To put that podium in context: the woman she edged out had won gold at the World Indoors less than a year before. 

All of this from an athlete whose serious training only began 20 months ago. 

She now trains full time at Lee Valley Athletics Centre in London, and has been selected for the World Indoor Championships in Poland (more details below) and the World Relay Championships in Botswana. A title at the Commonwealth Games and European Championships this summer is on the horizon. Beyond that, the goal is unambiguous: the LA 2028 Olympic team. 

Sponsorship in athletics can be hard to come by, so Louisa has continued to run her online vintage fashion business, Lou's London, alongside her training, hoping eventually to build a career that merges her twin passions for sport and business. 

For now, though, the track has her full attention. The girl who was told she'd be the next Jessica Ennis-Hill is still very much in the race, and on current form, she may be writing her own story entirely.  

You can cheer Louisa on when she joins Team GB to take part in the 400m individual and 4x400m relay for Team GB in the World Indoor Athletics Championships in Poland at the weekend on 20th-22nd March 2026. Watch it live on BBC2!