The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
How Hannah Miley is using injury as Olympic motivator
Reports of her demise have been greatly exaggerated. Hannah Miley, a medalladen swimmer who has accumulated accolades at World, European and Commonwealth level, is treating the first major injury of her prolific career not as a roadblock, but as a new pathway.
Ankle surgery to remove an additional ligament has prompted a change of tack for the Inverurie athlete who has won more than 40 medals in the pool.
Working with her father and coach Patrick, who is the high-performance swim coach at the University of Aberdeen, she has renewed energy for the challenges ahead.
She said: “I think the fact I’ve gone this far in my career without having anything as major as this injury is pretty impressive.
“This is a different part of my training. When I had my foot in a boot and a cast, I thought ‘I’ve got three other working limbs, I’ll just try something different’.
“I’ve no idea if it’s going to work or not, but it’s better than sitting still with my foot up.
“Every time I say rehab, people think it’s something else! It’s allowed me to change my training and I’m a lot stronger in the gym now.
“It’s allowed me to look at my sport with fresh eyes and onwards for Tokyo.
“One of our unique points is we’ve adapted our training. We adapted it in the training centre we had. It wasn’t the best facility and sometimes we couldn’t train because the water was too hot, too cold or the pool was shut. We found ways around it.
“Now we have a facility like the Sports Village but we still want to bring in the same fight and fire we had in the other facility.
“It’s a luxury being here but we don’t want to lose that fire and grit, as it’s part of who I am.”
Even though she has been at the pinnacle of her sport, Miley retains a grounding of her teenage years growing up on the outskirts of Aberdeen.
Inverurie’s 25m pool was hers and Patrick’s training ground, a second home where the foundations of her career were built.
It has taken her to gold medals in the three major championships, with only an Olympic medal missing from her collection.
But, now free from injury, that could be ticked off the bucket list in Tokyo in 2020 .
Patrick said: “For two years. Hannah’s been performing at Commonwealth Games and other international meets in significant pain. Now that’s removed and we get through the full recovery, I know if she goes back to what she was doing before she’ll be better than she’s been for a few seasons. It’s allowed us to focus on a couple of specific events and I think the story will be quite surprising over the next couple of years.
“Rather than seeing it as a disaster, we’re enjoying the different perspective and outlook.”
The father and daughter duo were at Aberdeen Sports Village last week to give an insight into their respective careers, with Patrick, a former helicopter pilot, keen to maximise the facilities on offer in Aberdeen, particularly with the European Junior