How Leah Hayes set World Championship record standing in the face of alopecia

The opening day of the 2023 World Junior Swimming Championships lived up to expectations, featuring the first World Junior Record being broken.

In the girls’ 4x200m freestyle relay, the United States secured a gold medal with an impressive performance by Addison Sauickie, Leah Hayes, Lynsey Bowen, and Madi Mintenko, who collectively clocked a winning time of 7:52.48. They narrowly outpaced the Australian team, who touched the wall just 0.20 seconds later, earning them the silver medal.

Earlier in the session, Hayes had claimed another gold medal in the girls’ 400m individual medley, setting a new Championships Record with a time of 4:36.84.

It’s worth noting that the 17-year-old World bronze medallist has been battling alopecia since the age of 7.

What is wrong with Leah Hayes?

Hayes’s condition started gradually.

Initially, she experienced hair loss in patches on her scalp, which later extended to her body hair. Eventually, she faced complete hair loss.

Rather than concealing her condition, Hayes chose to embrace it. She briefly tried wearing wigs, but she found that they didn’t effectively hide the fact that she had no hair from her classmates. Instead, she opted for a different approach.

“I just decided it was best to address the situation by telling everyone what I had and just fully dispelling any and all rumours,” said Hayes in an exclusive interview with Olympics.com. “So in fourth grade on Veterans Day, I wrote a little speech and spoke to my whole class and told them about my alopecia, what it was, why I didn’t have hair, and what I would wear moving forward.”

At first, that was wearing hats, but then eventually, but those went away, too. The response from her classmates boosted her confidence.

Hayes embraces her condition

“I finally was able to really just embrace my alopecia,” said Hayes. “[My classmates] were just so happy that I could be myself around them. I just remember they cried and I cried. It was a very emotional time.”

Ten years after her diagnosis, the teenager has a growing platform ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

“I really hope to bring more awareness to help people with alopecia and help other people with autoimmune diseases or just differences, insecurities about themselves,” she said. “I hope to help them embrace who they are.”