Indigenous Sport Month: Softball icon Stacey Porter reveals how she used pain to drive her to top

Limping around a softball diamond with a painful condition was always going to steel Stacey Porter for a journey which will allow her to celebrate her heritage at three Olympics.

As a youngster dealing with a crippling disease that forced her out of sport for two years, Stacey Porter would hang onto the word of Olympians, dreaming of one day being in their spot.

Now, the proud Indigenous star of the Kamilaroi tribe, has embraced her role model status and wants to use it to push future generations into elite sport.

The 39-year-old will feature in her third Olympics when she spearheads Australia’s softball campaign in Tokyo next month, an achievement which would’ve felt like a lifetime away when she was struggling with Perthes disease.

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In her own words, she talks about the painful injury, her hopes and goals as an Indigenous athlete and who continues to inspire her.

What does your heritage/culture mean to you?

It’s a real connection with something that’s gone on before me. I always say Indigenous people are really spiritual and I think if you can connect with 60,000 years of heritage and the ancestors that came before us, I find that really powerful to connect to as an Indigenous Australian. My dad is Indigenous and he’s no longer with us so I connect with him in that way as well.

Triple Olympian and dual medalist Stacey Porter. Picture: Gary Ramage

My earliest memory is...

Just playing sport. I started playing softball in Tamworth when I was five. I suffered from Perthes disease when I was young, where your hip socket doesn’t form properly — it was painful running around the softball diamond and meant I had to sit out of sport for two years. But the softball was always a happy place for me, especially from a young age.

One piece of advice I would give my teenage self...

I was quite hard on myself as a teenager, and it’s taken me a long time to be OK with being not as good as you had hoped you would be at times.

The best advice I was ever given...

You never stop learning. Being in a sport for 20-odd years, I’m still growing and learning so that advice has been really relevant the past five or six years.

When I cop abuse...

I’m more inclined to use it as fuel. I like to prove people wrong so I’d probably say I use it to put some fire on the belly rather than get angry and upset and worried about it.

Porter revealed she had difficulies running around the softball diamond as a teenager.

My sporting hero is...

I definitely looked up to Cathy Freeman as a child. Watching her in 2000 is something I’ll never forget. It’s something I can watch time and time again and still get the same goosebump feeling. It was quite controversial when she brought the two flags out to celebrate, but when you stand up for something you believe in, there was just something really cool about that. She had a tonne of pressure on her those games but glided around the track and still stood up for our Indigenous culture. I’ve been lucky enough to have a chat with her and it was incredibly special to get her thoughts on what she’s been through.

What’s it’s like being an Indigenous athlete today?

It’s a really important time for Indigenous athletes — we have a special power to encourage the kids today that are looking up to get to the level we’re at.

Porter says loyalty within the Australian softball team is a driving force for her. Picture: Russell Shakespeare

In five years, you could be speaking to people in the same way Cathy spoke to you… is that a special feeling?

Absolutely. As a kid I was always one of those little starstruck kids who would go ‘oh my god’ if an Olympian walked past and certainly took in what they did and loved watching, talking to and being around them. If I could pass that onto to someone else in my lifetime that would be a really special thing to give back.

Who is your inspiration...

We’ve been out of the Olympic movement for the last 13 years now, so my inspiration is the girls within the squad at the moment, because they’ve stuck around and to see there’s a real core group of girls that are still there now that I’ve worked with the whole time… I think this is the best reward for them to be going to the Olympic Games and is definitely a reason that I still pull on the boots and work as hard as I do.

Originally published as Indigenous Sport Month: Softball icon Stacey Porter reveals how she used pain to drive her to top