The former British 200m champion is speaking for the first time about the kidney disease that forced her to retire from athletics.
Hannah Williams casts her mind back to the 2023 British Indoor Championships and the uncertain days ahead. After finishing third in the 200m in Birmingham, he quickly fell ill on his return home. “I was so weak that I couldn’t eat or drink,” he recalls. “I was sick all the time and struggled to get off because of the pain.”
Considering the seriousness of the problems, the 27-year-old girl was immediately examined, and after tests, doctors said that her kidneys were damaged. However, after spending three days in the hospital, he left without an official diagnosis.
“They said: “The only possible reason for that is if you were severely dehydrated, but that just wasn’t possible because I wasn’t,” he adds.
Frustrated that he still didn’t know what was causing his problems, Williams turned to UK Athletics and spoke to John Rogers, the national governing body’s sports and exercise medicine consultant.
After being confirmed by a second doctor, it was diagnosed that the anaerobic exercise had caused kidney failure, a condition so rare that it is not currently listed on the NHS website.
In short, Williams’ body struggles to break down lactic acid, which means his creatinine levels (a waste product from the breakdown of muscle tissue filtered from the blood by the kidneys) become too high, leading to kidney damage.
“The veins in my kidney basically spasmed after the competition,” Williams says sharply. “If this continues and you don’t stop, you may even need a kidney transplant.
“The diagnosis was a relief because it’s quite difficult for something to happen and there’s no explanation for it. I wasn’t upset in any way just because I already knew I couldn’t continue in the 200m or 400m.”
Wanting to continue competing while reducing lactic acid build-up, Williams has decided to switch from the 200m, in which she won the national championship five years ago, to the 100m for the rest of the 2023 season.
Such was his passion for the sport, he even spent five months training for the triple jump, wanting to find the discipline that would allow him to compete without getting sick. However, in the winter of 2023, Williams came to a very sudden realization.
“I (had) completely checked out,” he says. “I was just going to train for the sake of it. I just didn’t want to give it up. It was a very sad, depressing phase of my life because deep down I knew I had already stopped and was going through it.
“During those months, I was basically trying to figure out what I could do, and in my mind it was: “I don’t care what it is, I just want to do something.” So when I stopped, I was really upset.”
In March 2024, Williams retired from athletics at the age of 25, but only in September of this year did he publicly reveal his health condition.
“I actually went through a phase of thinking I wasn’t a good enough athlete to even warrant a ‘why did I stop’ post,” Williams tells AW in her first interview since her diagnosis. “I put it off, too, because it kind of relived the whole moment.
“Then my friend said I should because it could be useful for other people and it could be good closure for me. Half the reason I posted the video was so that if anyone was struggling with it, they could see that it wasn’t just them. It’s hard for anybody.”
Since Williams released the reel Instagram:more than 100,000 people watched it. He was approached and messaged by a young woman in Canada who had the same condition.
Williams, who first started experiencing symptoms back in 2019, still doesn’t know exactly why her body can’t process the lactic acid. The illness became more common over time and at first she thought she had food poisoning. Not surprisingly, the support of his family is crucial. Given that she is the younger sister of Olympic, European and Commonwealth medalist Jodie Williams, her brother’s understanding has been a big factor.
Both sisters shone at the youth level. Jodie became the under-18 100m and 200m world champion and Hannah secured a European under-20 400m bronze medal before moving up the ranks.
The Williams sisters have won the national 200m titles three years in a row (Jodie in 2019 and 2021 and Hannah in 2020). The opportunity to represent her country alongside her big sister has been a lifelong ambition for Hannah and, despite still battling illness, she finished fourth in the 400m at the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Trials and was selected for the Games relay.
“I’ve been on a high my whole life,” he says. “I was told by one of the Great Britain Athletics coaches that I would definitely run in either the 4x400m medley or the women’s 4x400m relay.
“I was saying: “Well, this is incredible!” I never doubted that I wouldn’t run. We traveled there and I shared a room with Jody.
However, Hanna was ultimately never called into action in Tokyo. “I couldn’t believe it,” he says about the moment when he found out and cries on the spot. “It was a diamond league race in Gateshead between the trials and the Olympics and I didn’t run very well because my kidney flared up again. I think that’s what they based the decision on.
“I was embarrassed because everyone at home, including all my friends and my family, was watching the Olympics. I was so disappointed that I never ran. I still feel angry because that opportunity was taken.
“Jodie was more upset than I was and went to the coach to say ‘what?’ I cried aggressively, so she was really a big sister to me at that point. Three years later, when he won the Olympic 4x400m bronze medal in Paris, he said: “This is for you.”
Those moments now seem like a long time ago for Williams, who says she lost the joy in any exercise or training after she retired from track and field. In the last two or three months, however, that love for the movement has returned. He has competed in several 10km races and is testing his limits to see how longer but less intense distances affect his kidneys. He does not rule out the prospect of a half marathon at some point.
Modeling is now his main passion, however, with over 75 flights completed for shoots and meetings in 2025.
He wants to move on from his time in athletics, but emphasizes its importance to his growth as a person as well as an athlete. As she moves into the next phase of her life and having to retire from elite sport at such a young age, Williams now takes a philosophical approach to life.
“It was like an incredible chapter in a book with a sad ending,” he says. “I’m actually trying to remove the diagnostic part because I was very happy with what I got anyway.
“Obviously, to top off my achievements, I’d like to actually compete in the Olympics. But I had listed everything I wanted to do other than that. I aimed to be at the World Championships, the European Championships and the Commonwealth Games. And I did it.
“My philosophy is as follows. “Yeah, I could do it and ‘career cut short’ but I was always going to stop at some point. I probably had another five to eight years left in track and field and about a decade left in sports.
“So I would say, as harsh as it sounds, really try to focus on what you’ve achieved and how amazing it is. So often we think that such a diagnosis can be the end of the world or your life. Get excited about life and just trust yourself. I’m not into athletics right now, but I still do things that give me purpose and make me feel better. I want.”
