Connie Hayes
Cycling
I started cycling through my primary school aged 10/11. Prior to this point I had never had any interest in the sport despite having grown up going to watch bike races in mainland Europe with my family. From here I joined my local youth cycling club LVYCC and started racing. During my teenage years via my state school I benefitted massively from competing at national and county level in various sports via my east London state school. When a short lived rowing career came to a head when I was 16 due to being too small I turned my attention fully to cycling and that is where my story really starts.
I took my time to slowly develop via racing junior/u19 nations cups. In 2021 I signed with the new UK based UCI conti squad AWOL O’Shea (now O’Shea racing) and made my professional debut in august 2021. By 2022 I was the leading u23 in the UK national series, achieving top 15’s in u23 races in Europe and winning the leading young rider title at the Manx international tour. However at the beginning of 2023 I was diagnosed with RED-s in eating disorder form that I had had for the best part of decade. Although I was still allowed to race in 2023 I was far from back on my best form. Come 2024 I was back to my best but shortly after a large crash in a home race saw me do a large amount of damage to my knee. I underwent open knee surgery and am currently in rehab with an aim to be back racing at my best in 2026.
From this crash I became more passionate about talking about RED-s and ED awareness as I believe had I not had the ED my body would have likely have healed better and the orginal damage to tendons may not have been so bad.
Alongside cycling I was diagnosed as autistic during my undergraduate degree. Despite initially struggling knowing I would always be me I soon accepted who I am and started to advocate for both myself and other neurodivergent athletes within professional sport. From here I developed a passion for bringing autism and wider neurodivergence into the field of human geography. I graduated with a masters by research in 2024 with a research project titled ‘difficulties by design’ which explored autistic adults experiences of navigating major cities in the UK.
I want to be a role model to others who are born different and fear they will never fit in. I would never personally call being autistic a superpower however it’s brought be an extra dimension to being a professional athlete that I would never wish to change. I feel with the right environment neurodivergent athletes like myself can outperform our neurotypical peers.
ENQUIRIES: If you are interested in partnering with OR booking Connie for a speaking engagement please email mark@athletemedia.co.uk or call 07952 304340.