Anna Hemmings, Britain's leading female marathon canoeist, current World and European Champion was told by medical experts she might never race again. In 2005 however, she signalled a miraculous return to fitness by regaining her status as the World's leading marathon canoeist at the Marathon Racing World Championships in Perth, Australia. In 2006 she successfully defended her world title.

In 2007 she went onto make it a hat-trick of three World titles in a row. This latest medal is her Sixth gold since 1999 and her Eleventh World and European Championship medal, confirming her status as Britain's most successful ever female canoeist. Anna's achievements were recognised at the Sunday Times Sports Woman of the Year Awards, where she won the 2005 Champions Award.

Anna, 30, from London, thought she would have to retire from the sport when diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in April 2003. Despite being told that there was no solution, Anna refused to give up and in September 2004, Anna learned about ‘reverse therapy', an innovative and highly successful new treatment. By February 2005 Anna was finally able to resume training again. She then went on to win a clean sweep of National, European and World titles.

Anna first broke into the top flight of the sport in 1997 when, at the age of just 20, she won the European Championship.
She participated in the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000 where she competed in the 500m singles discipline. The following year Anna really made her mark at the Marathon Canoeing World Championship when she became only the second person in the history of the sport to win both the singles and the doubles Marathon World titles.
In 2001, the same year that Anna became double world champion, she graduated from Royal Holloway College, University of London with a BSC Honours degree in Economics and Management (2:1)