Mackenzie Little on juggling the demands of medicine and medal chasing

Doctor by day, medal hopeful by night – how javelin star Mackenzie Little juggles the demands of medicine with her Paris Olympic dream.

Mackenzie Little has just stepped out of her doctor’s scrubs and into her Australian gear in preparation for a late training afternoon session at the NSW Institute of Sport when she starts to delve into her love of javelin.

It’s really quite simple. Nothing too complex about how Little came to find herself hurling a spear into the distance.

“So I started kind of under sixes and became a hurdler like my mum – she was quite good,” she says.

“And then one day at year seven at Pymble Ladies College, I went to hurdles training in the morning and it was raining.

“So the hurdles was called off and I went over to the javelin, where my kind of friend’s sister was.

“I gave it a go and then the coach said, ‘you know what, maybe you should come back and do this another time.

“So that was kind of really a bit fortuitous. It’s a cool thing and when you watch someone really throw a javelin hard – it’s quite cool to see.

“And I don’t know, I guess it shows you that you keep an open mind, you’ll find a niche.”

Mackenzie Little at work before training. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Little after receiving her silver medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. Picture: Michael Klein

Little has certainly found one, although it hasn’t all been plain sailing for one of Australia’s genuine medal hopes heading to the Paris Olympic Games.

Having spent time in America at Tiger Woods’ Alma mater of Stanford – she still owns the outdoor record for the women’s javelin – Little returned to Australia in 2019 having graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Science and Biology.

She was home but she felt lost.

“I think it’s really unique the way you can combine academics and athletics at these US colleges,” Little says.

“Had a fantastic time then came back to do postgraduate medicine, and in that interim, I struggled a little bit. I was grieving my life in the US, I was changing coaches. And the beginning of med school was really hard.

“You know, we were doing lectures from 8am to 6pm. And then I dragged myself to training on my own – at that point, I was training remotely with another coach.

“It all kind of broke down a little bit and …. I didn’t believe in myself anymore. I wasn’t sure I wanted to keep doing it.”

Covid was her saviour.

“Covid actually kind of gave me that travel time back in my day, gave me a little bit of a breather,” she says.

“I started working with my coach now Angus McEntyre and that kind of just worked a dream. I don’t think I would have qualified for the Tokyo Olympics (she finished 8th) without Covid and the delay.

“And so you know, that’s why I tried to just be grateful for every opportunity I have because that was one that I might not have originally gotten.

“So I guess, for that period of time, I almost stopped. Now it’s been kind of from strength to strength and Angus and I do work really well together.

“I think in large part because he understands that that part of me outside of athletics a little better than other coaches.”

Mackenzie Little and her coach Angus McEntyre. Picture: Andrew Heil.

The partnership between Little and McEntyre blossomed with a silver medal at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games and then hit paydirt in Budapest at the 2023 world championships when Little nailed her final throw on the way to bronze.

A beaming Little took her place on the podium, shed some tears and promptly returned to juggling sport and studies. She sat her final medical exams only weeks after and will spend the lead-in to Paris honing her competitive edge by making fleeting trips overseas between shifts at Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney.

It is one of the more remarkable balancing acts in Australian sport. Doctor by day, gold medal hopeful when time allows it. One minute saving lives, the next hurling a javelin into the night sky.

Little wouldn’t have it any other way. It takes enormous disciple and dedication, but she isn’t the type to obsess over her sport once she leaves training. Little doesn’t really have the time.

“They are really mutually beneficial for me at this point,” Little says.
“There are so many doctors who have phenomenal careers in research and keep themselves fit outside. Every kind of health professional is doing an incredible juggling act already.

“In athletics, people have to have hobbies outside. I think we’re just a country that embraces that juggling act. I am working full-time this year. That will be different from university where I was able to pop over to Europe on the weekend.

“I am actually really lucky that I have qualified already for Paris. When I’m outside of training, I’m not the kind of person who obsesses over videos and technique. I leave that to my really helpful coach Angus.

“So I kind of come to training (and) I’m really focused on that. But outside of training, I can be my doctor self. I think that gives myself a break from each thing really nicely.”

Little works at Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

She may not obsess over her craft but that doesn’t mean she hasn’t contemplated what it would be like to stand on the podium in Paris.

It’s a genuine possibility and Little breaks into a broad grin when asked whether she has pictured winning an Olympic medal.

“I see my friends and family there and my coach right behind me,” she says.

“I know that they are outrageously supportive. They have been for so many years and I kind of want to do well for them.

“I want to show them a good show. Each year as I’ve become more established and more confident in that kind of elite environment, I am more aware of the fact that even athletes who win medals, even the ones you idolise, they’re still human beings, and they can have a bad day just as you can have a good day.

“So really, there’s no one that I can’t beat when I’m on and that’s a new fun feeling to grapple with.”

Originally published as Mackenzie Little on juggling the demands of medicine and medal chasing