2016 Olympics: the rocky road to Rio
Years of hard work and training can end in a gold medal and adoration – or turn to heartache in a split second. Some of our best athletes reveal the winding path to the top.
Eloise Wellings, 33, Marathon
Eloise Wellings spent her childhood dreaming of being an Olympian. She would make podiums out of telephone books, climb on top and play the national anthem. “It’s what I’ve wanted since I was really young – even before I showed any running promise.”
At 16, she was long-listed for the
Sydney 2000 Olympic team. Yet no sooner had she been measured for her uniform than she discovered a stress fracture, the first of many, in her feet, shins, hip and spine, keeping her out of both the Athens and Beijing Olympics.
Tests revealed low bone density, osteopenia (the precursor of osteoporosis), caused by lack of nutrition. Eloise had anorexia. “It’s rife through female distance running,” says Eloise.
Remarkably, she beat it by discovering Christianity. “Anorexia is a mental illness and I changed how I saw myself and the conversations01-013 I had with myself. It took two years and there were times I still flipped back into my old thinking, but my faith played a massive part in helping me get better.”
She credits her faith, too, in helping her manage the grief of missing out on two more Olympics. “Of course, there were tears, but I made a daily decision to wake up and be thankful. People endure hardships that are worlds away from a sore leg. I knew I would get better eventually and I vowed to learn everything I could from this time because I didn’t want to have to learn it again!”
When she finally did stand on an Olympic starting line in the London 5000m and 10,000m races, she admits the emotion meant that “I definitely underperformed”.
Rio, she believes, will be different. That’s partly due to experience, but also to the birth of daughter India (right), who just turned three. Eloise took four months off after her birth and was surprised how quickly she regained fitness. “I think it’s because I now have this good, healthy distraction in my life so I’m more relaxed. A relaxed runner is a more efficient, happy runner.”
Madeline Hills, 29 3000m steeplechase
Imagine being close to making your dream come true – a wedding proposal maybe or the perfect job – only for it to be taken away from you, before, finally, coming true almost a decade later.
That was the story for Madeline Hills, who was running for Australia eight years ago when a knee injury stopped her in her tracks. After six months of rest and physiotherapy, she lost her passion for competing, so quit to focus on study and travel.
Her time off the track saw two Olympics go by which Madeline watched on TV. “I remember seeing girls I had been competitive against getting to experience those moments,” she says.
As a schoolgirl, Madeline loved to run. At 10, she was selected for the nationals and competed in Europe and Japan. By the age of 19, that dream had been dashed with injury.
“When I recovered, I just wasn’t enjoying it,” she says, so she focused instead on her degree and working as a pharmacist across rural Australia.
It was in early 2013 – four years since she had seriously pulled on a pair of trainers – that Madeline decided to enter a 10km fun run. Standing at the starting line, adrenaline pumping, it reignited her love of running. Madeline’s 2015 was epic – she married, represented Australia in Europe and won her Olympic trial to qualify for Rio. Now, she’s juggling competing, working as a pharmacist in her hometown of Thirroul, NSW, and training, but finally, she has gold within reach.
“It took me a long time to continue being passionate about what I do.”
Anna Meares, 31 Cycling
Anna Meares is one of our biggest hopes for a medal – and a deserving one. She suffered a huge emotional blow last year when her nine-year marriage broke down. She admits it rocked her self-belief and confidence. “For a long while, I had no enjoyment in riding,” she revealed soon after the marriage split. “I lost my confidence. It took me a long time to find some fun and allow myself to continue with and be okay with being passionate about what I do.”
It’s not the first challenge the world champion cyclist has faced. She broke her neck in a horror riding accident at the World Cup in January 2008. She came off at 65km/h, fracturing her C2 vertebrae. The break was a “lucky” one – she was just 2mm away from being paralysed from the chin down. It was a small miracle she was back on her bike 10 days afterwards, qualifying for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Life has never been handed to Anna on a silver platter. As the youngest of four in the Queensland mining town of Middlemount, her mum couldn’t be at four sports at once. The family rule was the oldest chose the sport and the little ones followed. So Anna mastered karate, triathlon and swimming before finding cycling. Then her parents spent six hours every weekend driving her to races.
“A very big sacrifice on the part of our parents ... They taught us that, in life, if something was worthwhile chasing, then it wouldn’t necessarily be easy,” she said.
Anna is sure to make her family proud in Rio and won’t let the demons of the past year slow her down.
“We need to learn and keep making our sport safer.”
Christine Bates, 40 Equestrian, eventing
When Christine Bates first got her horse, Adelaide Hill, he was untrusting and petrified of the world. He was also dangerous. All he wanted to do was kick people. “Most people wouldn’t have persevered,” she admits, “but I saw something in him and truly believed there was a really nice person inside.”
Christine was right. Adelaide didn’t just turn out nice – after years of patient training and plenty of love and food rewards, he turned out to be a superb steed, destined for the Olympics. That dream, however, was dashed just weeks ago when Christine noticed Adelaide’s leg was unusually hot. It was an injured tendon, the only treatment lots of rest and rehab. Just like that, her Olympic dream vanished.
Disappointment was followed by tragedy. Christine is also a riding coach and, in April this year, her “beloved pupil”, 19-yearold Caitlyn Fischer, was killed in a riding accident at a crosscountry event, when her horse’s hoof caught on a fence and fell on her. “To lose Caitlyn hit hard,” Christine says and admits that it would have been easy to walk away from the sport she loves. “I have a very good relationship with her family and ultimately Caitlyn was doing what she loved. Knowing her so well, she’d be devastated if she knew I hadn’t kept riding and coaching because of what happened. She’d be mortified.
“We need to learn and keep making our sport safer – but every time you get on a horse there’s risk and it doesn’t matter if you’re on a low-level hack because horses are flight animals. One of my worst falls was just walking along and the horse tripped.”
So Christine is back in the saddle, looking for positives, including watching her son, William (pictured with Christine), now nine, who just competed in his first event. “He’s not really been into riding so we didn’t push him, but this year, he’s suddenly got keen,” she says.
She is also looking forward to cheering her mates on in Rio. Once that’s over, she’ll start preparing Adelaide and a couple of reserves for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The dream’s not over yet.