The extraordinary rise and sudden fall of Jessica Peris

IT was the stuff of movie scripts. The wayward daughter of a former national hero gets her life on track and follows in her mother’s footsteps.

Sprinter Jessica Peris has tested positive to a banned substance.

LIKE every parent Nova Peris was encouraging and excited.

With every race she would hit social media, retweeting footage of her daughter Jessica winning races.

The fairytale story was on track.

It was the stuff of movie scripts. The wayward daughter of a former national hero gets her life on track and follows in her mother’s footsteps.

SHOCK: Olympic legend’s daughter in doping scandal

Nova’s crowning moment of her career was at the Commonwealth Games in 1998 where she pulled off a unique moment in Australian sporting history.

Two years earlier she’d become the first indigenous athlete to win an Olympic gold medal as part of the Hockeyroos.

She then switched to track and field and won gold in the 200m and 4x100m relay in Kuala Lumpur.

Sprinter Jessica Peris has tested positive to a banned substance.

From that point Nova was a star and one of the most recognisable faces in Australia.

She also had a remarkable ability to never be far from the headlines, even in retirement which included a three-year stint in federal parliament.

Her daughter also inherited that headline grabbing ability thanks mainly to a messy court case in 2016 with her former lover, NRL star Shaun Kenny-Dowall.

Jessica didn’t come out of it very well with the magistrate hearing the case describing her as an unreliable witness and dismissing all charges against her ex-boyfriend.

After that she retreated back to Darwin and sought solace in the place that had made her mum famous — the athletics track.

She’d been a good talent as a teenager but didn’t handle the pressure of being Nova Peris’ daughter so she turned her back on the sport.

Motherhood then became her calling at the age of 20.

Solid run today from my daughter @jessica_peris in the 200m running another PB of 23.11sec (+3.1) - An awesome 2018 opener, looking forward to the @AthsAust meets in the coming weeks 👍🏾 #ThisIsAthletics pic.twitter.com/YXqeY0iZkY

— Nova Peris OAM OLY (@NovaPeris) January 7, 2018

A stint in America training with Nova’s former coach in 2015 was the way to kick-start athletics again and in 2016 Jessica was around the fringes of the Australian set-up.

She made the extended squad for Usain Bolt’s Nitro series early in 2017 and was then part of a national relay camp.

Great run from my daughter @jessica_peris in the 100m (Lane 5) running yet another PB of 11.41sec (+2.1) today, just shy of a @CommGamesAUS B Qualifier of 11.40sec 👍🏾❤️ pic.twitter.com/WK9CqFX9Qx

— Nova Peris OAM OLY (@NovaPeris) January 6, 2018

A good solid athlete was how she could be described ... until this summer.

Personal bests in the 100m and 200m in December had people taking notice of the new improved Jessica Peris.

A Commonwealth Games B-standard in the 200m a week before Christmas had her mother very excited on Twitter.

But the best was yet to come.

On January 6 at the Glynis Nunn Shield in Queensland Peris clocked another PB of 11.41sec but it wasn’t just the time that was impressive, it was the way she took care of rising star Riley Day.

Jessica Peris was making people in Australia’s athletics community take notice.

Day was left floundering in Peris’ dust and suddenly she was the name on everyone’s lips in the sport. No social media PR campaign from mum was required, she had people’s attention,

Jessica competed again in Canberra on January 20-21 and then disappeared.

The regular training and race updates by mother and daughter on social media stopped. The silence told the story.

When Jessica was a no-show at the weekend’s Commonwealth Games selection trials the whispers started about a positive drugs test.

Behind-the-scenes Nova was distraught, allegedly even threatening legal action if her daughter was prevented from participating in the trials.

But this was one battle she was never going to win. ASADA doesn’t muck around, a positive A-sample is enough for them to take away your spikes.

Athletics Australia were desperate for the drug scandal not to impact the positive publicity generated from the selection trials and there were plenty of good stories.

None better than the inaugural Betty Cuthbert Medallist who ironically was the same athlete Jessica Peris had made look second-rate six weeks earlier . . . Riley Day.