Henry at the World Deaf Swimming Championships.
Henry will swim for Great Britain in the Tokyo Deaflympics 2025. At 20, he is studying Sports Management full time at Loughborough University, training full time, and does what seems to be a full time job of being on advocacy panels and boards. “I will always advocate until the day I die. I want to leave the place better than I found it, whether that’s at swimming clubs, charities, boardrooms or classrooms. I’m not sure if it’s driven by my imposter syndrome, guilt consciousness, or just “regular, empathetic Henry” as my younger brother, Austin, would say. That’s why I do so many roles, especially for the charities and causes that don’t get enough attention.”
Henry and I first met when he was on the Youth Advisory Panel for Swimming NSW. At the age of 14, Henry had just gotten back to Sydney after representing Australia at the Deaflympics. “I was on such a huge high and then there was a huge come down from cloud nine. No one ever looked after me when I came back. I went from racing against athletes from the USA, Japan and Turkey on the world stage, to racing at the local Sydney clubs. Walking around the pool deck having achieved this huge accomplishment, and no one recognised [me]. No one said ‘well done’—no one even knew. The Paralympians that came back from Tokyo had huge events, huge media attention, huge fanfare. I had nothing, and it really cemented my loneliness and depression.”
Henry was a key agent in creating a collaboration between Swimming NSW and ReachOut—helping them to connect and come together, delivering mental health resources to 30,000 Swimming NSW members. After being involved in a project that Swimming NSW and The Embrace Collective were running in 2022, Henry joined our Youth Crew too. “Body confidence was another aspect of mental health that I really liked learning more about—and it was still relevant to my sport.” Reflecting on his personal body image journey, Henry shared that ”you’re so in the world of being deaf, and society keeps telling you ‘you’re deaf, you’re deaf, you’re deaf’, and then you start hearing people commenting on your body, and how tall you are, and how should should be ‘more of this’ and ‘more of that’—and you hear that people have actually been nit-picking your appearance the whole time. Other people seemed to have these ideas that, as a swimmer, you have to be a certain shape, size, weight etc. And that started to creep in for me.”
Very early on, Henry was very lucky to have a sports scientist say to him that “people will tell you many things, but as a tall person, you will develop later in life. You will be a great performer after the age of 25. That’s your peak. When you understand your peak, you understand your process. Other people will tell you to do this or that, but you have to understand that you are on a different process.” Despite the competition he felt, he says that “most of those swimmers that were supposed to be better than me are not swimming any more. They were supposed to be the best swimmers as they had the ‘right’ body composition, and the great technique, but they didn’t have the right attitude. Success in sport is attitude, and how you apply yourself to your everyday life is the metric of your success and failure. As I was talking about before, it’s about being proactive, not passive.”
And Henry has definitely applied himself—to his study and his training, but also to his advocacy work. Henry takes every opportunity to advocate for more funding for Deaf athletes.
“My philosophy on advocacy is that I want to be loyal to each charity in each different sector. I will never have an official position with a charity that conflicts with another one. But in particular, I want to support the issues that are undersubscribed, the ones that people don’t usually advocate for. Education, climate change, human rights etc. are issues that are all well supported already—I want to support issues that people need help with. I’m a person with an invisible disability, a person of colour, a young person, home educated, an athlete—all part of my intersectionality. I’m a ‘walking DEI tick box’ as they say, that can offer a different perspective. I understand that, and see very clearly what I can bring.”
“Apparently The Palace does know about me and my work” Henry adds, as the conversation turns to a discussion about the Royal Family, and their support of the charities he contributes to. All I can say is that Kate and Will better watch out—Henry is the most quiet, considered force of nature you’ve ever met. He’s an incredible human and I have no doubt that he’s going to be the fastest Deaf person alive. We just have to watch this space and cheer Henry on (and his mum) as he kicks all of these goals and leaves the places he is in a little better, and a little brighter than when he found them.
More on Henry…
Henry Hughes DLY is a Deaflympian and a former decorated Team Captain for the Australian Deaf Swimming Team, and now he has switched to Great Britain to chase his dream of representing GB. Outside the pool, Henry advocates for many issues across various roles, not shying away from uncomfortable issues or challenging initiatives.
After moving to the UK, Henry did not want to leave his advocacy career in Australia, so he joined two youth boards, including the EY Foundation Youth Advisory Board—tackling social mobility by providing work experience to those on Free School Meals. In addition to his duties on the EYF Youth Advisory Board, he also is the Influence & Impact Representative, working closely with the Influence Team at EY Foundation.
He also sits on The Mix Youth Advisory Board, now known as the Mental Health Innovation Youth Advisory Board, following the merger between MHI and The Mix. MHI developed ‘Shout’—the UK’s first 24/7 crisis messenger service, set up by the Royal Foundation. He is also an Ambassador for the #iwill Movement aimed at youth social action, a Founding Trustee for Board Racial Diversity UK (who are on a mission to diversify charity boards), a Board Member of 64 Million Artists (a not-for-profit promoting creativity and improving culture) and a Trustee of White Ribbon UK—a charity dedicated to the prevention of domestic violence in the UK by supporting and educating men and boys.
Henry also studies BSc (Hons) Sports Management at Loughborough University through Loughborough College and represents Loughborough University Swimming and Great Britain Deaf Swimming.
Follow Henry on LinkedIn, Instagram, or henryvvhughes.com
