Former Olympian Sally Pearson on the moment that broke her: ‘I cried my eyes out’

For hurdler Sally Pearson, retiring was as much an emotional pain as a physical one. Here, the Olympic champion explains why she finally closed the door on her athletics career.

For 31 seconds at the London 2012 Olympic Games, Sally Pearson had millions of Australian viewers in the sweaty, fidgeting palm of her hand.

After Pearson crossed the finish line of the 100m hurdles final, the wait to find out if she had won gold ahead of US athlete Dawn Harper was torturous.

Time seemed to stand still as she bounced on her toes and clutched her hands to her chest, nervous energy threatening to envelop her while her eyes stayed glued to the giant screen that would reveal her fate.

When it was finally confirmed that she had won gold by 0.02 seconds, Pearson dropped to the track, rocking and sobbing uncontrollably as the nation caught its breath at the same time.

It was just one of many moments that cemented Pearson among Australia’s greatest track and field athletes, and one of our most fascinating sporting characters.

Picture: Hamish Blair for Stellar

Four years earlier, she had burst onto the world stage winning a silver medal in the 100m hurdles at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, endearing herself in an equally characteristic way with her genuine, raw, and this time hilarious post-race antics.

“Oh my God, you’ve got to be kidding me, right? Is this real?” she asked in disbelief during an interview with Seven Network’s Pat Welsh. “Did you see me? I was just … Did you see how pumped I was?”

Sixteen years on from that first Olympic medal, Pearson – who retired in 2019 and

is now raising daughter Ruby, 4, and son Harry, 2, with her husband, Kieran – has one final hurdle to clear: accepting that she has reached the finish line.

Next month, Pearson will be inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame at a gala dinner on November 18. The august honour brings with it a sense of pride, but also some more difficult emotions.

Listen to the latest episode of the Stellar podcast, Something To Talk About, below:

Picture: Hamish Blair for Stellar

“My career got me to this accolade, and that’s fantastic,” Pearson tells Stellar.

“But it also means that I’m retired. And I haven’t fully resolved that yet, because I loved my sport so much. The way I retired [because of injury] isn’t the way that athletes dream of going out.

“So I felt like I haven’t been able to fully 100 per cent close that chapter of my life. Because it’s a struggle retiring after 20 years of something that you loved, and aren’t able to do anymore.

“So when this honour came upon me, I was like: now it’s time. I’m honoured, happy; it’s a huge moment. But I’m also very sad because it’s another part of my book that’s being closed.”

Pearson’s sporting career is a page turner with a plot worthy of the greatest sporting novels. On top of her 2008 Olympic silver and 2012 Olympic gold, her resumé also includes two Commonwealth Games gold medals (2010 and 2014); the honour of being the first Australian to be named World Athlete of the Year (2011); two Sport Australia Hall of Fame Don awards (2012 and 2014) and a Member of the Order of Australia in 2014.

‘I was so proud about having the confidence to back myself.’ Sally Pearson with her husband, and Kieran. Picture: Luke Marsden

More important to her are two world championship gold medals, which came six years apart in very different circumstances.

The first, in 2011, produced her fastest time. The second, in London in 2017, is what she describes as the most satisfying moment of all. She had coached herself to get to that point, and it was her first major race following four years of injuries, coaching changes, and the disappointment of missing out on a third Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 due to a hamstring tear.

“Coaching myself and being proud of the fact that I was able to do that and come out unscathed was just unbelievable,” she says.

“I was so proud about having the confidence to back myself. I felt like, off the track, Sally Pearson the person wasn’t as confident as Sally Pearson the athlete. So having to put a coach’s hat on as well was daunting, because I felt like I wasn’t smart enough to be able to do it.”

Pictured in 2019, Sally Pearson arrives to a press conference to announce her retirement in Sydney after a devastating run of injuries. Picture: AAP

Picture: AAP

Pearson say she desperately misses the adrenaline rush of competition (“that was what drove me to want to keep going”), but has found new thrills in the world of live TV since joining 7News Gold Coast as a sports presenter in February 2022.

“I absolutely love it. But it’s also very daunting because I didn’t know how to do it,” she explains.

“It was like I just walked in off the street and started reading sport on live TV.

“And it’s a lot harder than everyone thinks it is. I probably cried my eyes out for the first month, every single day, driving home because I’m such a perfectionist.

‘There’s so much learning to do after your sport!’ Sally Pearson on set with Seven News. Picture: Instagram

“I’m an athlete and I was at the top of my game and now I’m not. And I have to work through that and work out what’s the best way for me to get better.

“There’s so much learning to do after your sport, and that’s a really hard place to be in when you’ve come from the top of your game, the best in the business, basically to: now I’m back to learning again.”

With her competitive career now at its end, she has two smaller budding athletes angling to take her place on the track.

“Ruby can do a block start, and I’ve never taught her that in my life,” Pearson tells Stellar.

“I don’t know if the people at daycare knew who I was. I think she likes it, but I think Harry will be the runner. She’s fast, but he’s just got that little bounce in his step that you have to have if you’re going to be a fast sprinter.”

Listen to the latest episode of the Stellar podcast, Something To Talk About, below:

Looking back at her incredible career, Pearson sums it all up by saying that her time on the track was “everything that I wanted from that six-year-old girl [who dreamt of this]”.

“I became the best in the world – and I was, for a number of years. I think [that’s] success. It makes me proud knowing that I went through everything I went through. I experienced the highest of my highs and some of the lowest of my lows. And I still made it out alive.’’

Read the full interview with Sally Pearson in the latest issue of Stellar. For more from Stellar and the podcast, Something To Talk About, click here.