Sika Henry
Sika Henry has made a name for herself in triathlon and in running. She became the first African American woman to qualify for her pro card in triathlon in 2021, and in 2022, she broke the Virginia State 100K Road Record. At the 2020 Tidewater Striders Marathon, she finished in 2:57:13, earning herself a spot on “The List” of American-born Black women to break three hours in the marathon. She is a two-time champion of the One City Marathon.
Henry grew up playing “every sport imaginable,” she said. But when she was 11 and tried track for the first time at a track camp, it didn’t go well. “The first day, they tried to make me do the hurdles, and I’m really clumsy, so I never went back,” she said. But she got back into track and field in high school, and then she loved it. She was a high jumper and a sprinter, and she was an NCAA All American at Tufts University. Back then, distance running didn’t appeal to her at all.
After college, when her high-jumping days were over, she started jogging a few miles at a time. Then she decided she wanted to try a marathon, so she found one and signed up. “I barely finished, and it was one of those, like, ‘Yep, I’ll never do that again to myself,’” she said. But she still liked what it felt like to run, so she kept running.
Henry’s first triathlon came several years later, in 2013. Her athletic background also included swimming in high school, and she saw that a sprint triathlon was coming up nearby. “I immediately signed up, and I had two weeks to prepare for it. So I went to Dick’s, got a mountain bike, got a Speedo and goggles,” and started training, she said. And she finished it. “I came in close to last place. It’s not like I showed any promise or anything,” she recalled, but she liked it anyway.
In that first triathlon, she said, “I noticed immediately the lack of diversity. I’m pretty sure I was the only Black woman that day.” She remembered looking around and thinking, “‘Wow, there’s really no diversity in the sport,’ and being curious as to why that was. It did bring me a little bit back to high school when I was a swimmer, and I never saw African Americans at swim meets.” She also learned that no African American woman or man had been a pro triathlete.
By 2017, Henry had started getting more competitive in triathlon and decided to try to get her pro card. The following year, she was being coached by Jonathan Caron and made it onto the podium in an IRONMAN 70.3 triathlon for the fifth time—and she felt like 2019 would be the year she earned her pro card. But she had a bike crash during a triathlon that left her hospitalized with serious injuries. “I wasn’t sure I’d ever even be able to do sports again after that accident,” she said.
In the meantime, Henry’s social media following had grown, and when she posted about her accident, she received “an outpouring of support, especially from young Black girls who had been following me, and even families and moms,” saying they’d been following her and asking her to come back to the sport, she said.
“It confirmed to me that representation is important,” Henry said. And it had mattered to her as a kid. “My idol growing up was Dominique Dawes. I wanted to be a gymnast, because I saw her and, you know, she looked like me,” she said.
The accident and recovery also changed Henry’s approach to the sport. “When you’re finally back to it and able to do it, you just have a profound appreciation for even participating in the sport,” she explained. “Now, even when I have a bad race, I know what bad truly is”—and it’s not a DNF or missing a PR, she said.
Henry earned her pro card at the Challenge Cancun triathlon in 2021. “After I got my pro card, I was on Cloud Nine for a couple of weeks. And then I actually went through a pretty bad depression. I felt lost,” she said. “It’s not all a fairy tale, and once you hit your goal, it’s not like ‘Oh, I’m gonna be happy for the rest of my life.” She had been focusing on that goal for so long, she hadn’t thought past it. After she achieved it, she needed to find her passion again.
Photo credit: Caleb Henry
Also in 2021, Henry had paced some women who were trying to break 100k records as part of HOKA’s Project Carbon X2. “I don’t even know if I realized people ran that far—like without stopping or walking,” she said. “Watching them was just so inspiring. . . . It piqued my interest a little.”
Henry, who lives in Newport News, Va., and works full time as a corporate analyst, has always fit her training around her job. When she felt like she needed a break from triathlon, she signed up for the Dismal Swamp 100k in 2022, and her coach shifted her training. “I showed up not sure what was going to happen. And then, yeah, I found out I broke the state record,” she said.
In April 2023, Henry ran the Boston Marathon as part of Team Bevans, along with two other women on “The List” of sub-3 American-born Black women—Shawanna White and Alisa Harvey—to honor Marilyn Bevans. Bevans was the first to ever break three hours. All four have been inducted into the National Black Distance Running Hall of Fame by the National Black Marathoners Association.
As an IRONMAN Foundation ambassador, Henry is working to improve diversity in triathlon and to eliminate barriers that Black and other underrepresented athletes face. You can support the foundation here.
About the author: Allison Torres Burtka is a freelance writer and editor in metro Detroit. Her writing about runners and other athletes has appeared in the Guardian, Outside, Women’s Running, Runner’s World, espnW, and other publications. She is a co-lead of the Running Industry Diversity Coalition’s Media Subgroup. You can visit her writing portfolio and follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
