Gladiators star Harry Aikines-Aryeetey, aka Nitro: ‘Not even Usain Bolt had done what I’ve done’

Harry-Aikenes Aryeetey was born in Carshalton in 1988. After winning a silver medal in the 100m at the 2004 Commonwealth Youth Games and in 2005 he was named BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year and the IAAF‘s Rising Star of the Year after becoming the first athlete to win gold at both 100 and 200m at the World Youth Championships.

Further success on the track followed, including a 100m bronze at the 2014 European Championships, and gold in the 4x100m relay. Further golds followed at European and Commonwealth level.

In 2023, he was named Nitro, one of the characters in a BBC One reboot of Gladiators. He has also appeared on Celebs on the Farm, Celebrity Master Chef and Strictly Come Dancing.

In his Letter to My Younger Self, Harry Aikens-Aryeetey recalls his journey from the track to becoming a TV fixture as Nitro.

At 16, I was on top of the world. I was double World Youth champion, I’d been the fastest 14-year-old of all time in Europe, and I already had a shoe contract. At 15, I was UK champion over the 100 and 200m in the under-17 category, then I went to the World Youth Championships [in 2005] at 16 and was the first person to ever do the sprint double. Not even Usain Bolt had done that before. 

If anything, I was a little bit too cocky. I come from humble beginnings. My parents worked really hard to give me what they could. When I started, I was wearing the wrong trainers or I’d use my birthday money to buy really saggy running tights. But you can imagine a 16-year-old already sponsored by Nike. I had a guy called Nike Boy who could get me anything I wanted. When I became BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year, I was given a McDonald’s platinum card. So I was treating my family to free McDonald’s every night. At this point, I started to feel myself a bit, if that makes sense?  

As much as I was the best in the world at something, my parents didn’t care. They were more concerned about how I behaved at home and if I was doing my chores. They’re Ghanaian immigrants who came over to give me an opportunity to be the best version of myself – and they didn’t think sport would be as stable as being a doctor or a nurse. My sisters are a midwife, a teacher and a geographer. So in my parents’ eyes, I’m kind of unemployed. They’ve never been impressed by my athletic prowess – they were just, so how are your grades? 

I was average at school. But I don’t think I was taught the right way for how my brain operates. I retain information like you wouldn’t believe, I’m a bit of a geek and love history and geography. But there are multiple ways to learn. At 16, I was training four times a week from 6-8pm. Having done a full day at school, I would come home, look after my sister, then go to the track by myself and be home by 9pm. So I’d eat, do homework, then wake up late and run to school the next day. I was in a cycle of catching up on myself. 

I was listening to a lot of hip-hop. LL Cool J was big for me when I was 16. UK garage was going on, so I’d listen to Eskimo by Wiley, I loved Pow! (Forward) by Lethal Bizzle. We were getting all this new technology, with video phones where you could record stuff in colour, but people were still listening to cassettes in their cars.  

My track heroes were Linford Christie and Maurice Greene. Justin Gatlin was just coming through. But it’s funny, at 16, I was awarded the Rising Star Award at the IAAF Gala for winning the double at the World Youth Championships, so I was sat at a table with Tirunesh Dibaba, Haile Gebrselassie and Justin Gatlin. Like, what’s going on, I idolise you, but I’m sitting with you right now? 

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I was obsessed with being the best athlete I could be. I lived and breathed track and field. And I was finding my place, getting respect and bringing praise to my family name for being an athlete. So I had a purpose in this world. My first agent was Jonathan Marks. He also managed Colin Jackson, who had just done Strictly. I remember walking through his office, seeing this picture of Colin doing an amazing jump – he did better than me on Strictly – and my agent saying, if you work hard enough in your career, these are the things that come afterwards.  

So much of who I am is shaped by my upbringing and who I grew up around. I found a real community at the track. My best friends to this day, my best men at my wedding, the guys I see weekly, are the guys
I met on the track. And I am so thankful for the sport of athletics. I started training at 13 and met a group of Black boys from humble beginnings like me. We spoke about our upbringings, and the expectations on us. But we weren’t falling into gangs or knife crime. We laughed over Dragon Ball Z, danced to Sisqó doing the Thong Song or Peaches & Cream by 112. We were also learning to talk to girls at the track. I was happy there. I was always a happy guy – I ran on good vibes. 

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Straight after being on top of the world aged 16, I had a double stress fracture of my back. And I’m so proud of myself for getting through that period. I wouldn’t change anything. It taught me so much about resilience. That young boy went through it. And any time I’ve had a setback, I’ve been able to think how a 17-year-old boy who was the fastest kid in the world was suddenly wearing a back brace and had to learn how to walk again. I wasn’t getting the phone calls I used to get. But I found happiness and made a point of enjoying every day. The next year, I made the Olympic team. Last year, when I wasn’t able to compete in Gladiators because of injury, I knew I could survive. And it all stemmed from that 16-year-old boy. So I’ve got a lot to thank him for. 

At 16, I would have been thinking about winning those Olympic medals. I’d be up in the early hours watching videos of Maurice Greene or Ato Boldon, Frankie Fredericks, Linford Christie, Dwayne Chambers non-stop on YouTube trying to see how I could emulate them. I’d tell my younger self to stretch more. Get flexible! With everything I know about that now, I would have run so much faster as an athlete.  

Young Harry would be disappointed. He’d say, what, I haven’t got an Olympic medal? Because that’s all I wanted. I didn’t make the 2012 Olympics because I tore my hamstring at the European Championships six weeks earlier. If my younger self knew that, he’d be distraught. I’d built up this whole mindset of me winning a medal at London 2012. So, although he’d be happy with all the other medals, the fact I missed out on an Olympic one would hurt. But if told him about Gladiators and Strictly, he’d be over the moon. Because being Nitro is another level. 

Running in the era of Usain Bolt taught me a lot. Because when he’s on the line, you’re not going to win. It doesn’t mean that you don’t try or you don’t use the energy he brings to the stadium. But he’s the fastest of all time. He brought such a different energy to those stadiums. It gives me tingles up my spine. You knew this was a once-in-a-lifetime thing. In that era you had six of the fastest men of all time. Because if it wasn’t Usain Bolt, it was Yohan Blake. And if it wasn’t Yohan, it was Asafa Powell, Tyson Gay or Justin Gatlin. And this was before super spikes and carbon-plated spikes – they’d be even faster now.

What would surprise my younger self? Probably how soft a girl dad I am! I always wanted a boy, but having been surrounded by females my whole life, I now know that I was born to be a girl dad. Seeing me dancing, playing, dressing up, cooking with my daughter would surprise my younger self. It changes you for the better.  

I think my child is the most amazing thing on this planet. I now appreciate my parents for how they raised me – because when you’re a big dog, you do need to be controlled. You can’t just be let loose because you could bite someone. You need to learn control and appreciate things, which my parents helped me with. I think I’ve done the same – I’m the fun dad, but I’m also the dad that expects. 

I’ve done everything I wished for when I was younger. When I was six, I wanted to be a Gladiator, I always wanted to be a superhero. And the closest thing to being a superhero is going to the Olympics. And now Gladiators is everything I hoped it would be and more. You realise you are a genuine superhero to all these young kids. And they make you want to be better, because of the power you have.

Everything I am now stemmed from that cocky 16-year-old kid. That was the birth of Nitro. I’m a people person. I’m a battery. Nitro is a form of energy, and I get charged up by being around other people. I’m a man that wears Lycra for a living. It’s just changed from Team GB to Gladiators. I still run around a playground. I’m the boy that’s never grown up, you know?

Gladiators returns to BBC One and iPlayer this month.

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