Mike Colman: How Pearson conquered life’s hurdles to became a champion
When a commentator labelled Sally Pearson “a tough competitor” after winning Olympic gold, little did he know the mountain she had climbed to reach the pinnacle of her sport, writes MIKE COLMAN.
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When Sally Pearson won the 100m hurdles at the London Olympics in a photo finish over defending champion Dawn Wells, the British TV commentator described her as “a tough competitor”. He didn’t know the half of it.
He went on to say Pearson had fought back from a shock loss in her previous race to claim the Olympic title, as if that was the biggest setback she had ever had to overcome.
In fact she had been a battler from day one. Her life story might have been unknown to the majority of sports followers in the UK and elsewhere around the world but to Australians, eagerly devouring every pre-Olympic news feed, it was as well-known as the Oarsome Foursome’s favourite brand of canned peaches.
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How her father was never part of her life; how her mother Anne McLellan worked three or four jobs to support them both. How she was discovered aged 12 by Gold Coast Little Athletics coach Sharon Hannon and would spend hours alone on the bus going to and from training as she chased her dream. How nothing, not injuries, a fall in the hurdles final at the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games or disqualification after winning the 100m in Delhi four years later, could dampen her steely determination to be the best – or perhaps more correctly, to not fail.
A RELUCTANT STAR
At the Beijing Olympics she won silver in the hurdles but for many people that feat took second place to the fuss created by her TV interview with Brisbane journalist Pat Welsh moments after her name flashed up on the scoreboard.
To some her wide-eyed, childlike astonishment was sweet: an honest, uncontrived reaction in an era of slick media-speak. To others viewing it on YouTube around the world, it painted her as a simple-minded hick from Down Under.
It didn’t worry her. Within three years she was world champion and 12 months after that, her ultimate goal, Olympic gold medallist, jogging straight from the finish line into Sharon Hannon’s arms.
A day or two later I was given the chance to sit down with Pearson to talk to her about her life and career. It wasn’t an easy interview. She gave the impression that she would much rather run than talk. Years later she would reveal she suffers from a condition known as “social anxiety” that makes her uncomfortable in unfamiliar situations.
She may have been uncomfortable that day as we sat in a magnificent 160-year-old Soho townhouse rented by one of her sponsors, but she was also at the crossroads of her career.
Neither of us could possibly foresee what was to come: her 2013 split with Hannon that has never fully been explained (when contacted yesterday, her former coach and mentor answered politely: “I decline to comment”); the fall and shocking broken forearm in 2015, further injuries that ruled her out of the 2016 Olympics and 2018 Commonwealth Games.
Nor could anyone – apart from her – have confidently predicted what is probably her greatest triumph: her comeback from oblivion to take the 2017 100m hurdles world championship. Like the man said, one tough competitor.
MIND OVER MATTER
That day in London I tried to make the point that Pearson’s hunger for success was a result of her early struggles but she was having none of it.
“Yeah, I had it tough but at the same time it’s not a sad story,’’ she said. “I think it’s the person really, not the upbringing. I think if the person has the right mindset of what they want to do in life, and is prepared to do the hard work to get there, they’re going to make great athletes or great people no matter what.’’
She then gave me an insight into that “right mindset” when I asked for an example of her competitive spirit.
“There was a gymnastics competition that I was in,” she said. “We had two teams from our club, with three in each team. When they announced the bronze place they called up Bunnerong Gymnastics Club.
“They didn’t say which team it was so we all jumped up, we were so excited. Then they said ‘Oh sorry, it was Bunnerong B’. I was devastated.
“Two of my friends were in the other group and they were showing off their medals in the car going home. I was just sitting there sour as anything because I wanted to win one.”
As she finishes the story, her Olympic gold around her neck, her lips are pursed, her fists clenched, still furious at the memory. “When was this?” I ask.
“I was six,” she says.
Enough said.
Originally published as Mike Colman: How Pearson conquered life’s hurdles to became a champion
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