HIGHS AND LOWS
2003: Makes her full Australian debut as a 16-yearold in the 4x100m relay at the world championships in Paris. A star is born. 2008: The beginning of a celebrated rivalry with Dawn Harper-Nelson. The American claims gold at the Beijing Olympics with the 21-year Aussie flying home for silver. 2010: Wins her first Commonwealth title in the 100m hurdles in Delhi. 2011: Pearson’s annus mirabilis. The Australian reigns supreme at the world titles in Daegu, clocking her fastest ever time of 12.28sec en route to gold. It put her fourth on the all-time list and saw her voted Female Athlete of the Year by the IAAF. 2012: Wins the Olympic title in London, just two hundredths of a second ahead of HarperNelson. “The first thing that comes to mind when I crossed that finish line was obviously excitement and emotion, but also proud — so proud,” she said. 2013: Silver at the world titles — this time behind American Brianna Rollins — would be a career highlight for most athletes. For the fiercely competitive Pearson it was a glass half-full, half-empty moment. 2014: Delivers the perfect riposte to then-Australian head coach Eric Hollingsworth by winning a second Commonwealth title in Glasgow. Hollingsworth had unwisely slammed Pearson for declining to attend a preGames camp. He was sacked shortly afterwards. 2017: After a couple of injuryravaged years, Pearson coaches herself to a second world 100m hurdles title in London. Once again, HarperNelson was second.
2006: Denied the chance of a medal when she crashes into the ninth hurdle in the final at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games. 2010: Had she not dedicated herself to the hurdles, Pearson could well have been a great 100m flat runner. Was denied gold in the blue-riband sprint at the Delhi Commonwealth Games after a protest because of a false start. 2013: Parts ways with coach Sharon Hannan, ending a longstanding partnership that had dated back to her days in Little Athletics. 2015: Suffers a badly broken arm after hitting a barrier and crashing to the track at the Rome Diamond League meet, ruling her out of the 2015 world titles. 2016: Does not get the chance to chase a second straight Olympic title in Rio because of a hamstring injury. 2018: Forced to pull out on the eve of her home-town Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast with achilles injury.