Coaching caper’s a winner for champ
ON August 8 last year, Sally Pearson took a punt. The Rio Olympics had just started and the 2012 Olympics hurdles champion was at rock bottom.
She was without a coach and, in recent months, had for the first time had a peek at life after athletics.
And she didn’t mind it. Pearson and her husband, Kieran, were enjoying a skiing holiday in New Zealand with friends, something she’d never been able to do previously.
A broken wrist had forced her out of the 2015 world championships and then a combination of hamstring and achilles problems had meant she wasn’t defending her Olympic 100m hurdles crown in Rio. It was the classic crossroads moment.
Pearson decided to push reverse and go back to the world she’d known for the previous 13 years but there was one significant difference ... she was going to do it by herself.
The history of self-coached athletes at the elite level isn’t great but the queen of Australian athletics figured there was no one more capable of lighting the fire again than herself.
Fast forward 12 months and Pearson is back in the stadium where she enjoyed her greatest triumph.
And she’s not just making up the numbers. The 2011 world champion is coming in as the third-fastest hurdler in the world this year.
Pearson, 30, served notice that she was back as a force at last month’s London Diamond League meeting where she ran 12.48sec.
“Most definitely (I had doubts),” Pearson said.
“The only reason I came back was because I knew I had more to give, obviously deep down I knew I was capable of doing it.
“It was more the disappointment that got me down and made me think maybe I shouldn’t be doing this anymore, maybe my body can’t handle it.
“But even deeper down I knew I could still do it if I just looked after myself properly and listened to my body and stayed injury free.”
Pearson admitted she didn’t know what to expect with selfcoaching but was pleasantly surprised with how easily she had adjusted.
“I know what works for me and it’s just a matter of getting your body to do that, listening to it,” she said.
“It is five years older than London now but it’s just a matter of knowing your body and understanding what you do and what you don’t do and also what you do have to do and not have to do anymore.
“That was the big learning curve and it was very slow to start off with.
“The hardest part has been the competitions, trying to keep yourself up ... keeping the athlete’s hat on and being positive that if you keep doing what you’re doing then it will be all right.”