SALLY CONWAY
● Rio bronze medallist in peak form but knows she faces challenge to make podium again after Tokyo postponement
on how the postponement of Tokyo 2020 has been a major blow to her hopes of winning another Olympic judo medal.
“I hardly slept that night. I just lay there thinking: ‘so, what am I training towards now?’”
Sally Conway has always known there was a chance she might not make it to Tokyo 2020.
Locked in battle with England’s Gemma Howell, pictured inset, to top the British rankings in her weight category and convince selectors that having delivered a medal in Rio, she was the one bestplaced to equal or even better that bronze, the Scottish judoka remained positive. But she was well aware that an untimely knee injury early in the year had left her a limited number of opportunities to pin down her Olympics berth.
But if that was a concern occupying space at the back of her mind over the last few months, Tuesday’s official decision to postpone the Games is what ultimately kept her awake.
“I hardly slept that night. I just lay there thinking: ‘so, what am I training towards now?’” said Conway.
“Everything has been about the Olympics and after getting the medal in Rio, I think it took a lot of the pressure off because before then I hadn’t got a medal at a major championships, like the Worlds or the Olympics, so to do that at 29, took a lot of pressure off and in the last two years, I have had some of my best performances and results of my career.
“My judo has been getting better and better and, especially, at the start of this year, I felt that consistency and felt in a really good place mentally and physically. I felt on peak form.”
Determined not to get lost in the big picture, preferring to zero in on each and every performance, she was still in a place where she felt another Olympic medal was a real possibility, until the coronavirus pandemic intervened.
“I kind of saw it coming. I think we all knew that there was a high possibility that would be the case and at the minute there are a lot of other things going on – a lot of more important things for people to worry about and focus on than the Olympic Games so I completely understand the decision and think it is the correct decision,” added Conway. “But it is crazy to think that after three and a half years of dedicating everything to these Olympics, the Games won’t happen in July.
“It will take a while to sink in and still keep up with my training because that is what makes me happy and keeps me sane.”
With no formal word on when competition will resume, the 33-year-old Edinburgh athlete says she is simply trying to maintain standards and sanity, aided by a forward-thinking “goodie-bag” from Judo Scotland, which included weights, medicine balls, and even a rowing machine.
“With Ratho shut down it means we can’t use the mats and training equipment but I can now throw open my doors and train in the fresh air,” Conway added. “I was on the rower the other day and it was after the Olympics had been cancelled so I suppose I wasn’t really training for anything but I did it because everything is so strange and that is what I
do and if I didn’t, I would feel that a part of me was missing. That’s what I need to do physically and mentally.
“But everything is different and it is going to be for a few more weeks, even longer.
“The other morning, the neighbour from two stairs up was shouting down encouragement while I was doing the rowing and circuits so that was nice. And another neighbour said they had more weights if I needed them. It is lovely in what is a crazy time for everyone that people are pulling together and it reminds us what is important.”
For so long, the Olympics were of most importance as elite athletes homed in on the biggest prize. In 2014 Conway was part of the Scottish judo team’sdominationofthehome Commonwealth Games but they were denied a repeat four years later as the sport was dropped from the Gold Coast schedule, which means they have had a long wait for another major multi-sports event. Conway has filled the void with
Grand Slam gold, grand prix successes and, most notably a 2019 World Championships bronze but if she wants to make it onto another Olympic podium, she knows there will be new challenges, for her and the other half a dozen Scottish hopefuls who had been hoping to be part of Team GB this summer.
“I was talking to my coach about it and we were saying: ‘who knows what the youngsters behind us in the rankings will be doing by next year’. I do feel there will be greater competition and I feel for those who had qualified, in our sport or other sports, but might not next year or those who have pushed their bodies through another Olympic cycle, making all the sacrifices that are needed, and might or might not manage to squeeze out another year.
“For the athletes in that position it is going to be really hard.
“It’s crazy times but once this all sinks in and we come to terms with it and we get back to training properly and competing, I think there are going to be some exciting times.”
With the lure of another Olympic medal still dangling ahead of her as an incentive, even if it is now a further year down the line.