She has battled with injury and mental health issues, but as she goes for Olympic gold weightlifter Emily Campbell is hoping all that will be a distant memory. “Last year I had probably one of the toughest years in my career, and I was injured for pretty much the whole of 2023,” she says. “And it's really rough when you have to sit and watch from the sidelines.
It’s hard, because you feel like you're being left behind because the world's carrying on.” But despite her setbacks, European champion and Tokyo Olympic silver medallist Emily refused to give up. And now she hopes to be back on that podium after battling her emotions as she was unable to train properly due to a back injury.
“I definitely feel like last year, I struggled a little bit,” the Nottingham- born athlete says. “I'm a very positive person most of the time. And I think I struggled feeling very low last year.
“Because you start to think, ‘oh, what's my purpose now if I can't do the one thing that I'm meant to do? What can I do?’.” It meant she felt she didn’t want to be in the gym, the place she had loved going to and instead retreated to her home, spending more and more time alone. But while she admits she struggled, it also gave her a new focus, she admits on the Great Company with Jamie Laing podcast.
“I think this is where I really learned that lesson about actually just talking, because I sometimes feel guilty for talking about things that I go through, because I feel like I have.