‘My only outlet was self-harming’: canoeist Kimberley Woods on taming depression and targeting Paris gold

Kimberley Woods, the British world champion slalom canoeist, hopes to add Olympic gold to her collection in Paris this summer. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian

Kimberley Woods has been dumped off a high ramp into the roaring waters in her sleek kayak cross boat. As the rain falls relentlessly at the Lee Valley White Water Centre just north of London, on the course where she became a world champion last September, Woods faces the raw elements and her past demons. In less than five months she aims to win gold in this wild and rollicking event at the Paris Olympics and complete an uplifting story of hope and healing.

Woods survived years of bullying, depression and self-harm and the 28-year-old slalom canoeist has a serious chance of winning an Olympic medal in the K1 class. But the jeopardy will be most intense in the kayak cross.