LYNSEY STILL AT THE SHARP END
“It’s a very hard lifestyle but the places I go, the things I do keep me going”
THE walk on the beach became a preamble towards the podium, towards glory. But it seemed at the time to signal a journey into a sporting cul-de-sac.
‘It was 2010 and I hadn’t made the Commonwealth team because of injury,’ says Lynsey Sharp of that stroll in Rothesay with her mother, Carol. ‘I told my mum: “I don’t know if this is for me. I don’t know if I can do it”.’
The injuries, the continual demands of training, the punishing schedule of rehab all conspired to stop Sharp in her considerable stride. Her studies in Edinburgh for a law degree had taken her into another world.
‘I had had a taste of what normal life was like,’ she says. ‘Going out at the weekend, not having to look at my diet so closely. When you have a taste of what another life can be like, it can be quite tempting. I just didn’t know if I could go through the whole recovery thing again.’
She adds: ‘I had to ask myself: “Is this really what I want?”’
Her mother, a former athlete, was at her side. Her parents always have been. Her father, Cameron, was an elite 200metres sprinter.
‘They are both my biggest critics and my greatest support,’ says Sharp. ‘My mum has always been the one to keep it real and tell me when I have messed up. But they both have an understanding of what it is like to compete at the top level.
‘They have never put pressure on me. My mum just painted what life would be in both scenarios. I had to make the decision.’
She came to the conclusion that her race was not run. The stroll on the beach was followed by a gold in the European Championships in 2012, an Olympic run in 2012, a personal best in Rio in the Olympic final of 2016 and a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014.
Sharp, now 27, will contest the 800m at the World Championships which begin in London next week. She reflects: ‘It was a blessing I had those injuries. It made me realise how much I love the life I live.’
These successes have been almost routinely accompanied by drama and controversy.
‘My coach (Terrence Mahon) jokes: “It wouldn’t be Lynsey without a crisis”,’ she says. It may be best to investigate these in chronological order.
HER silver medal in the European Championships of 2012 was upgraded to gold after discrepancies were found in the biological passport of race winner Elena Arzhakova of Russia. Sharp received her gold medal from her father in a ceremony at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow in 2013.
Her appearance at the London Olympics also caused a furore as selectors picked her ahead of athletes who had achieved better times. Her sixth-place finish at the Rio Olympics was overshadowed by the row over hyperandrogenic athletes, that is runners with high levels of testosterone such as race winner Caster Semenya.
Sharp, a Rangers supporter, also sent out an ill-advised tweet regarding Celtic Boys’ Club. She apologised unreservedly for that, claiming she was unaware of its full meaning. She also stated that she had ‘tremendous respect’ for Semenya. The outrage on social media, though, was overwhelming.
She says now: ‘I have always been outspoken and opinionated. My mum always tells me: “You never let things go”. I have taken a step back from social media as it is a very negative environment. It wasn’t adding anything to my life or my performances. It’s not the real world.’
But it was her appearance in the final of the 800m at the Commonwealth Games at Hampden in 2014 that was her defining moment. Sick, depleted and yet again in crisis, she raced to a silver medal in the most desperate of circumstances.
‘I had been feeling not well for a week but the night before the final it was suddenly much worse,’ she says. ‘There had been norovirus in the village and I think it was that. I certainly had all the symptoms.
‘I was up all night the day before the final,’ adds Sharp, who was put on a drip to keep her hydrated. Stephen Maguire, then Scottish Athletics’ head of coaching, played a pivotal role in Sharp running in the final. ‘He was brilliant. He didn’t even talk about not competing. In fact, he told everyone not to ask me if I was running. It was not even a consideration. It was business as usual.’
But how did Sharp feel, limbering up in front of a full house that expected her to win a medal but did not know of her crisis?
‘I didn’t want to say anything before the final about how I was,’ she says. ‘It wasn’t going to help me in any way. I walked out and thought: “Everybody here is expecting something. All I can do is give it 100 per cent and if I can’t finish, or if I break down at some point in the race, then I have given it my best shot”.
‘My mum always knows in the first 100 of the race if I am going to run well or not. She said later she knew it was going to be a good day.’
It was. Sharp finished second behind Eunice Sum of Kenya. Two weeks later, Sharp would win silver in the European Championships in Zurich. Almost as an aside, it is worth noting that she spent most of 2013 competing with an open wound in her foot after an infection contracted during ankle surgery.
It is now 10 years since Sharp made her first appearance in elite competition in the World Youth Championships in the Czech Republic. She has become a stalwart of an increasingly powerful Scottish team, with 16 Caledonian athletes going for gold in London.
‘People all over the world keep coming up to me and asking why we have become so successful,’ she says. ‘I just say that I haven’t a clue.’ But she is frank about the motivation provided by such as fellow countrywomen Laura Muir, Eilidh Doyle and Eilish McColgan.
‘Everyone wants to be the best athlete,’ she says. ‘Everyone wants to be the one everyone is talking about.’
This drive demands everything both psychologically and physically.
So what has kept her going, what took her from the beach at Rothesay to Olympics, European and Commonwealth championships?
‘It is a very hard lifestyle but the places I go, the things I do keep me going,’ she replies. ‘And the messages from people saying: “I want to be like you, I want to do what you do”. You have to see that you are lucky to do what you love.
‘I was always interested in sport. I played hockey and I liked skiing but it was me who kept saying to my parents that it was what I wanted to do. But at that young age, you don’t know what it takes.’
It gives, too, and not just in gold and silver. She speaks of the moment of joy when she runs at her best.
‘I have not got to that point yet this season,’ she says, though a campaign best in Monaco in her last outing suggests she is coming into top form.
‘When I am able to run freely, open my stride out and overtake people, then it is so rewarding. But the satisfaction is in the struggle in getting to that point. You know what you have had to overcome and that makes it special.’
She has plans to do a masters degree in business but is already talking about a three-year schedule that includes the Commonwealth Games and European Championships next year, the World Championships the following year and the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.
‘I am in it for the long run. Definitely,’ she says.
There is glory to be garnered and crises to be overcome.