Après-ski . . . How Rising Team Wales Star Louisa Stoney Left the Party and Hit the Track

In the spring of 2024, Louisa Stoney returned to the UK after a party-filled six month ski season working in the French mountain resort of Val-dʼisère.

The Welsh sprinter had run only a handful of races since effectively giving up competitive athletics in 2019.

Stoney arrived back in London admitting she was “in the worst athletics shape ever”.

Last month, less than two years after her French sojourn, Stoney was competing on the highest stage at the World Indoor Athletics Championships in Poland.

The sprinter ran in the individual 400m and the 4x400m relay, lining-up in the final alongside team GB superstars Keely Hodgkinson and Dina Asher-Smith along with fellow Welsh athlete Tess McHugh.

 “When I say it out loud, it’s so unbelievable, it's crazy,” says Stoney.

“I had lost most of my fitness,” says the Birchfield Harrier recalling her time in France. 

“We were obviously skiing every day, but part of the life of somebody working on a ski season is having drinks and going partying - just having a very sociable time.”

Louisa Stoney competing at the UK Indoor Championships in Birmingham.

However, even during her time on the slopes, a seed planted in Stoney’s mind while at Cardiff University, was starting to grow. 

Studying in the city, Stoney had trained with coach Helen James’ successful sprint group, which has produced the likes of Wales’ fastest man and World Indoor 60m title winner Jeremiah Azu.

Although she was “training for fun”, coach James and the rest of her group would repeatedly tell Stoney how much potential she had.

“They all told me every single session how talented they thought I was,” says Stoney.

“Even though I didn't have crazy numbers back then, they said they could see something in me. 

“If I hadn’t been given that belief by them, I don't think, a year later, I would have fully come back into the sport.” 

When Stoney finished university, she left Cardiff and the training group to head for Val-dʼisère.

“It was a post-uni gap year thing, working as a chalet girl. I had fun and basically undid all of my progress and training. 

“But because the group in Cardiff had instilled that belief I had a talent, the whole ski season I had this sense of ‘oh, God, I've left something behind that I could have done well in’. 

“So, in May 2024, two weeks after I got back, I decided to run a 400 metres in Brussels, just to see where my baseline was with no training. I was probably in the most awful shape of my life.”

Louisa Stoney in action at the Novuna UK Athletics Championships last summer.

In the 400m race at the IFAM Meeting in Brussels, Stoney finished sixth in 59.03. 

For context, at the same event, McHugh, who ran alongside Stoney in the GB relay team at the World Indoors, won a separate race in 53.80.

However, Stoney’s time was enough to convince her it was worth persevering. “I was like, ‘okay, if I can do that with zero training, then game on!”

Game on indeed. Having run just 13 competitive races in the previous five years, Stoney took to the track no fewer than 30 times during 2025 covering distances from 60m to 400m.

Last January, Stoney won the Welsh Indoor 200m title and claimed a silver medal in the 60m final.
 
In August, she made her Novuna UK Athletics Championships debut at Birmingham’s Alexander Stadium – clocking 52.96 in the final. More than six seconds faster than her comeback run in Brussels the previous May.

Lousia Stoney takes a selfie for a fan at the UK Indoor Athletics Championships.

This year, Stoney’s remarkable progression continued as she became a full-time athlete under new coach Marvin Rowe in her home city of London.

At February’s UK Indoor Athletics Championships, Stoney claimed a brilliant 400m silver medal, achieving a Glasgow Commonwealth Games Welsh nomination B standard and new personal best of 51.83.

Edging double Olympic medallist Amber Anning into third place, Stoney’s performances caught the eye of the GB selectors for the upcoming World Indoors.

Stoney says of her success in Birmingham: “That was super fun. I was relaxed because I had no expectation on my shoulders and no pressure. 

“It was a case of going there and being excited to show people what I could do. Not having people expect anything from me. That was a really exciting experience. 

“Obviously, you get nervous, everybody does, but I really enjoy the whole process of racing.

“I knew what shape I was in. It was a very happy champs for me. That was the big breakthrough of the season. That's where my name got out more.”

Stoney celebrates with a heart shaped chocolate after competing at the British Indoor Championships on Valentine's Day this year

At the World Indoors, last month, a tough heat saw Stoney narrowly fail to progress as she finished fourth in 52.24.

In the relay she and McHugh helped the GB team - that also included Olympic champion Keely Hodgkinson - reach the final where they finished a creditable fifth.

Stoney says of the World Indoors: “It was very surreal and a very big learning experience.

“Obviously, I wanted a better outcome, but I equally learned a lot whilst I was out there. 

“It gave me the confidence that I have what it takes to push for those individual spots on the team. That’s definitely motivated me going into outdoors as well.”

Stoney has also taken inspiration from her GB team captain in Poland – Georgia Hunter Bell.

After a promising early career, Bell stepped away from athletics for five years, before enjoying a spectacular return – winning a clutch of global medals, including the 1500m title in Poland.

Stoney says: “She's also at Belgrave, so I’d heard all about her story for the last couple of years. 

“It's super inspirational and it was another motivation for me - a person to try to follow in the footsteps of.”

Stoney hopes other young athletes will be inspired by her own story.

“It’s refreshing for the sport when somebody who comes from a normal level of athletics as a kid can develop in their 20s and show you can be in your prime then.

“You don't have to have been a top GB junior to succeed as a senior. With my story, that’s what I want to push. I didn't win English schools. I was never on an international team. 

“I was at the top of my county, but there were never any serious notable achievements or times for me. 
“So, yeah, I definitely took a lot of inspiration from Georgia.” 

The upcoming outdoor season will provide Stoney with further opportunities to add to her story.

First up are the World Relay Championships in Botswana at the start of next month. 

Stoney has been selected as part of a GB team which includes Azu and young Newport Harrier Harry Bradley, who like Stoney shone at the UK Indoor Champs.

A further GB vest could also be up for grabs at this summer’s European Athletics Championships in Birmingham.

However, a major goal for Stoney is earning a place at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow where she hopes to pull on the red vest.

Despite being born and raised across the border, Stoney has decided to represent Wales due to her mother hailing from Bridgend and because of the support she received whilst training in Cardiff.

The 24-year-old is one of a number of Welsh qualified athletes who have transferred their allegiance recently.

The likes of javelin thrower Freya Jones, heptathlete Abby Pawlett and 800 metre runner Issy Boffey have all flourished since joining the Welsh system.

Stoney says: “After every race I get congratulations and that's really nice to have from people who are ultimately running athletics for the whole nation.

“It's nice to have people in your corner watching your races, hearing about how you're doing and really rooting for you. It's a lovely system and lovely people to be involved with. 

“Ever since I came back into athletics, the Commonwealths for Wales was my main goal. Competing for GB, wasn’t on my radar at that point. 

“I was like, ‘I need to try and make the Commonwealth Games in 2026’. We're really hoping to get our relay team there. But I'm going to push for that individual time as well.”

Despite the remarkable strides taken over the past two years, Stoney believes there is plenty of potential to improve further especially under the guidance of Rowe. The 2028 LA Olympics are also in her sights.

“I think the biggest jump for me, especially into this season, was finding my new coach and finding my new setup,” she says.

“But it's just the beginning of the work that we've started doing together. It's very exciting to be at this place so early on with a new coach, we have so many things we’re still working on. 

“I'm not setting out time targets. I'm on such an upwards projection, setting a time almost limits how far you can go. 

“This year, it’s a case of asking, ‘how fast can we go’ rather than saying I want to run 50 point something. 

“The aim is just to keep improving. We really do believe that right now, I'm not anywhere near what I'm potentially able to do. So it's about pushing that ceiling as high as I can. 

“Looking ahead to the 2028 Olympics in LA, that's also a team I want to make and I'm going to make sure I do everything to give myself that best chance of making it.”