Olympics: Lauren Ryan’s career saved by Bill Knowles via Facetime

Lauren Ryan holds the national record for both the 5000m and 10,000m on the track, however she almost walked away from the sport entirely.

Jessica Robinson

@jessrobinson_96

4 min read

July 24, 2024 - 6:00AM

News Sport Network

Australian track star, Lauren Ryan his headed to Paris thanks to the magic of a world renown specialist. Picture: Supplied

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Australian track star and national record holder, Lauren Ryan is about to live out her Olympic dream in Paris, however three years ago she considered walking away from the track entirely.

The then 22-year-old had just recorded her best cross-country year in college, was preparing for her senior year and the indoor season was just getting started.

As she would on any given day, Ryan had hit the gym and completed her workout but this time pulled up with a bizarre pain in her knee. Pain that wouldn’t go away. Pain that almost cost her her career.

“Unfortunately, as we went into indoor season, I did this workout and had this knee pain and I didn’t think anything of it,” Ryan told Code Sports.

Lauren Ryan was coming off her best cross-country season before injury hit. Picture: Supplied

“The next day I was just extremely sore, and we battled with this pain. We tried everything, a quarter zone injection, took a few weeks off, massage, shockwave therapy, strengthening my hips, tried everything under the sun and for some reason nothing would work. It got to the point where I couldn’t even walk pain free.”

IT Band Syndrome – to sum up shortly, is caused by excessive friction and overuse of the knee – had Ryan sidelined for weeks, barely able to walk, wondering if this was the moment that she would throw in the towel on her competitive dreams.

“It was extremely painful just walking upstairs, just in everyday life. What more could I do than just step away from the sport and let my body recover,” Ryan said.

Ryan’s dad, a marathon runner himself, was adamant to not let his daughter throw it all away and scoured the internet for hope.

Enter world renown Philadelphia based specialist, Bill Knowles, a master reconditioning coach known for having worked with the likes of Andy Murray, Tiger Woods, Peyton Manning, and local names including Nic Naitanui, Sam Docherty, Christian Petracca and Ryan Papenhuyzen. Ryan says Knowles “truly saved my career.”

Melbourne Storm’s Ryan Papenhuyzen one of many to have worked with specialist Bill Knowles. Picture: Supplied.

At a time when the world was shutting down amid the global pandemic, Ryan- who relocated back home to Victoria- was virtually rehabbing with Knowles.

“Bill Knowles is regarded as one of the best knee specialists in the world and we connected with him via facetiae throughout covid. We worked through pool sessions for hours virtually, gym exercises strengthening my hips. He saved my career by taking things back to basics of just running biomechanics,” Ryan said.

“Then covid was a blessing in disguise, all competitions and races shut down as well, so it gave us a lot of time to build up that strength and get over that injury 100 per cent rather than trying to rush back.”

“We could start from ground zero and work our way back up, so I’m really fortunate for him.”

It was then, as the world opened back up and competitions started coming back, that the Geelong Grammar alumni pushed full steam ahead. She set PB times at every distance – 1500m, 5000m, 10,000m – across the 2020/21 and 2021/22 seasons and capped off the stellar run at the end of 2023 when she won the Australian 10,000m title, an event that was also an Olympic trial and sparked an idea in her coaching team.

Ryan made a remarkable recovery to set two national records. Picture: Supplied

“I won that (10k Olympic Trial) and my coach was like ‘if you run the time you’re guaranteed a spot.’”

“I was like, ‘it’s crazy hard, I don’t know if it’s possible,’ and then this year my coach convinced me literally two weeks before to do it (Olympic Qualifier).”

Ryan not only competed in the qualifying event, but she broke the 21-year-old Australian 10,000m record, racing a 30:35:66 time, that also secured her spot at the Olympics.

A result that was “such a shock” for Ryan herself, she never imagined she’d not only be racing the 10,000m in Paris but also be the only Aussie to do so.

“I knew I was really fit and a lot of the training being a distance runner doesn’t really change that much depending on the distance but I didn’t know I was able to run what I did,” the 26-year-old said.

“I had no idea that this might be my event but I did say to my coach, if I was going to do the 10k, I was going to go all in and see what we could do.”

FLYIN' RYAN ðŸ¤¯ðŸ¤¯ðŸ¤¯

Reigning national champion Lauren Ryan becomes the Australian record holder to take third place at Sound Running's The TEN in San Juan Capistrano, clocking 30:35.66 to qualify for the Olympic Games and eclipse Benita Willis' mark of 30:37.68!#ThisIsAthletics pic.twitter.com/OlkpNHWVpR
— Athletics Australia (@AthsAust) March 17, 2024

The 5000m her speciality, the Under Armour athlete set the Australian record for the indoor 5000m, running 15:15:79 to launch her 2024 campaign and then a month later in February became just the sixth Australian to run under 15 minutes on an oversized track (14:57:67).

And to think as she grew up in Melbourne, she wasn’t fully convinced running was for her.

“I loved sports, lived and breathed it. Earlier on, I was decent at running but I wasn’t the star of the show or anything but I feel like I knew out of all the sports I did, that was what I was best at.”

“It wasn’t until I went over to America that I tried the 5k and felt that that was my sweet spot.”