Sally Pearson is ready to return to athletics after almost walking away from the sport

SALLY Pearson was almost down and out, on the verge of quitting athletics. But what was it that lit the spark back under the Olympic gold medal winner?

Sally Pearson is enjoying running again. Picture: Getty Images.

SALLY Pearson wasn’t in a good space.

The defence of her Olympic crown was over, her body was falling apart and she’d just split with another coach.

For the first time Pearson was genuinely questioning her future and she certainly didn’t expect to find any answers on a plane from Sydney to the Gold Coast.

But one right click on the in-flight movie selection changed the Olympic hurdles champion’s mindset almost immediately.

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“I just thought, ‘What’s the point of this sh.t? I keep getting let down, my body is letting me down so why am I bothering?,” Pearson explained.

“I was on the plane and I started watching Lydia Lassila’s documentary. I was blown away.

“Then as I was walking out of the airport I said, ‘Right, that’s it I’ve made my decision. I’m going to get back into training and I’m going to coach myself’.

“I made the decision right then and there. I’d never wanted to coach myself because I was too scared but I knew in that moment it was what I was going to do.”

Sally Pearson racing to victory at the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Picture: AFP Photo

Lassila’ acclaimed movie ‘The Will To Fly’ charts the aerial skier’s rise to Olympic gold and then her return after motherhood with lots of ups and downs along the way.

That’s what struck a chord with Pearson who’d seen her career slip away in the previous two years, missing the 2015 world championships and then the Rio Olympics.

Six months on from that life-changing flight, Pearson, 30, has taken another important flight ... to Germany to begin her comeback.

Next Saturday she will race in a 60m hurdles event in Karlsruhe with other indoor races planned in Berlin, Dublin and Birmingham.

The 2011 world champion was hoping for a low-key return but that’s out the window now that American 100m hurdles world record holder Kendra Harrison is in the field.

“I was hoping for a bit of a low-key meet and then all of a sudden they announce her (Harrison),” Pearson said.

“If she breaks the world record then good on her but that’s not what I’m looking for.

“I haven’t raced at a majors since 2014 so give me a break, cut me some slack, I’m just getting back into it. I have to be good in August not February.”

A broken wrist midway through 2015 derailed her and then a combination of achilles and hamstring problems forced her to withdraw from Rio last year.

“It’s been a horrible two years,” she admits. “I always knew that this season was probably going to be the hardest one, just making sure my body is good and fixed.

“It’s going to be difficult mentally and I’m feeling a bit apprehensive, a bit nervous and scared but I think once I get the first race out of the way I’ll be alright.”

Sally Pearson in action. Picture: Getty Images

Australia’s biggest star elected not to be a part of Usain Bolt’s revolutionary Nitro Athletics series in Melbourne next week, preferring to head overseas to get her eye back in.

“I wanted to get back into the international scene so that when I go over to Europe in June or whenever it’s not going to be such a big deal,” she said.

Despite her disappointment Pearson didn’t hide away from the Olympics, watching from the couch as Brianna Rollins led an American hurdles trifecta.

She got some joy from the time — 12.48sec — which was well below the Olympic record of 12.35sec which she set at the London 2012 Olympics.

“At least I still have that for another four years,” she said. “And as Bruce McAvaney said the event hasn’t gone away from me it, it hasn’t slipped away.”

Pearson says she’s a lot calmer as a self-coached athlete and her team includes a regular training partner and junior hurdler who she’s mentoring.

Sally Pearson is ready for the Commonwealth Games. Picture Glenn Hampson

“I think because I have had so much let down over the last two years that I’m not so hard on myself anymore,” she said. “I’m not angry at the little things I’m not getting right, I’m not getting angry about them anymore.”

While the goal is to make the final at this year’s world championships in London, Pearson thinks she will be back to her best for next year’s Commonwealth Games in her backyard of the Gold Coast.

In the short-term it’s about getting her mojo back and importantly there are signs the search is heading in the right direction.

“Last week was the first time I had felt over the hurdles like a world class athlete again for probably two years,” she said.

“I felt like I was a world class athlete again and that was a nice feeling.”

Originally published as Sally Pearson is ready to return to athletics after almost walking away from the sport