WOMEN WHO DARED & WON
EXCLUSIVE The gruelling reality show has been life-changing for its female stars, writes Lisa Mayoh
THEY’RE the women taking on the blood, seat and tears of SAS Australia – and dominating.
Whether its hanging from a helicopter or buckling under double their body weight, they haven’t backed down – despite the hurdles constantly thrown right at them by men twice their size.
Olympian mother of four Jana Pittman wet her pants on a run – par for the course she says, after having had a baby just six months before. She was stripped naked, leaky boobs and all, and grappled with whether her postpartum body could hold up under such turmoil.
So great was the physical and emotional toll of the shows challenges – based on the rigorous training for soldiers joining the Special Air Service – motto Who Dares Wins – that when finally reunited with her family, they all just cried.
“It was largely because I had said yes the previous year and then I was pregnant that I even agreed to do it that close to having a baby,” she said.
“Ideally, I would have waited 12 months. “I cried all the way to the venue because I was like ‘I can’t believe I’m leaving my baby’. But it was something I have always wanted to do.”
Pitman, who graduated as a doctor in 2019 and currently works as Resident Medical Officer in obstetrics at Blacktown Hospital, says deep down, the experience changed her – and her life – for the better.
“I got to the point in the show where I thought ‘wow, I am more capable then I thought I was’ – but the result of that was that I don’t need to chase success as much as I did in the past, in my life before SAS,” she said.
“So I am now working parttime this year and the whole of next year so that I can be with my children more.
“All of a sudden I’ve turned the dial down on what I think is important – and family and their prospects of their future life is now more important to me than my own.
“I’ve always been the dream chaser who has taken on 100 million things at the same time and tried to be very successful and I realised that I don’t think that to be happy – and that has absolutely made me happier.
“And my kids are happier appier – I have more time for them. em.
“I didn’t miss my son’s n’s first crawl and the first time ime he stood up and his first t tooth and all that because I was working all the time. I can promise you, I would d never have done that 10 years s ago.”
Pittman, who has joined the Army Reserves since shooting SAS, said while ile wetting herself on national nal TV was embarrassing, she e didn’t shy away from highlighting hting it simply as part of motherhood erhood – and that was something to be celebrated.
“One of my biggest worries was that my body wouldn’t be up for the challenge … and I think it’s important we acknowledge women aren’t meant to be running hurdles and carrying huge logs six months after having a child,” she said.
“You sneeze and pee ourselves or jump on the trampoline and it happens again, but ultimately, it’s a normal thing and it’s part of the gift of giving life and I feel incredibly privileged that my body does show and wear the scars of motherhood, because some
I thought I was way too old and broken. It’s fear and doubt Kerri Pottharst
times I need that reminder.”
This week there are 14 recruits still on course – six of them female – including tennis champion Alicia Molik.
The mother of two said she had no regrets from the show, even after being abused by Chief Instructor Ant Middleton for showboating last week.
“I’m proud of what I did and I’m proud of the way I reacted,” she said. “I’ve not a single regret about it, because that’s me.
“That was my instinctive reaction and I wouldn’t take it back. Yes I suffer the consequences and he was pretty
hard on me, to be honest. I was always going to attempt everything. If someone else is doing it, my attitude is always I can do that too.
“You need to get through what’s right in front of you right here, right now – do the best you can and then worry about what happens next.”
The bond between the female contestants continues, with the group staying in touch, messaging and supporting each other since shooting in April.
That meant a lot to 56year-old Kerri Pottharst, who wanted to prove age was
never a barrier to greatness.
The volleyball player, Olympic gold medallist and mother to 15-year-old Tyson, from the northern beaches said it was often fear that held women back – and that had to change.
“The whole reason that I’ve done this experience is because I want to prove to women, particularly around my age group, that there’s so much more we can do, but we’re holding ourselves back,” she said.
“It’s our fear and doubt about our ability or being too old – and that’s exactly why I wanted to prove that, I had a place in this group to represent women of my age.
“Overall, I 100 per cent feel like I did what I set out to do.
“I challenged myself to do something that even I thought was impossible – even when I was first approached by Jana with the opportunity to go on the show, I actually started writing out the message, ‘oh, no, thanks very much’.
“I thought I was way too old and broken. And that was the pivotal moment – that was the moment where I could have gone with my doubt and then always regretted that I never said yes. The women on the on the show were an incredible bunch of ladies to say yes and do something like that which is normally a man’s world – I think having the courage to say yes was the first big step.
“We’ve all become friends, and hopefully will be for a long time.”
Sprint star Jessica Peris and singer Bonnie Anderson join actor Isabelle Cornish to round out the final six females on the course. Cornish lives by the motto you only live once, give it a go
“Getting to do cool shit like jump out of helicopters, get submerged in a car, shoot blank weapons … I love that stuff,” she said.
Ant Middleton said for both men and women, success was mind over matter.
“I don’t care what race, religion or gender you are on this course, but this year some of the women surprised me,” he said.
“Some of the smaller women on the course, they’re tough cookies.
“You think ‘how are you still here?’, while some of the big burly men break psychologically and go.”