Insight mental health awareness: Sally Pearson reveals the uncomfortable side of fame

Sally Pearson the hurdler found comfort racing in front of screaming strangers. For Sally Pearson the person, fans at the local supermarket induced extreme anxiety.

It was where Sally Pearson was in her element.

In a stadium packed with tens of thousands of fans screaming her name as she hunted a major title, hurdles star Pearson was in her comfort zone.

Her ability to perform under enormous pressure, to execute the skills she had spent years perfecting and to block out that external buzz is what made her an Olympic, world and Commonwealth champion.

But put Pearson in her local supermarket and have a random fan call out her name and she’s likely to turn beetroot red.

The Gold Coaster, who has made the transition from elite high-performance sport to motherhood and a media career, suffers from social anxiety, a condition that makes her uncomfortable in unfamiliar situations.

“When I’m Sally off the track, I like to just be the person and that’s impossible to do because people know me as Sally Pearson the athlete,” she said.

“If I was ever out at an event, or out and about, people recognised me and that’s when I didn’t like it - because then you have all eyes on you.

Sally Pearson’s comfort zone came in front of 100,000 fans. Picture: Jamie Squire/Getty

“I love doing stuff on stage or I love doing stuff on the track, but being the centre of attention just in the general public, I didn’t like. It made me very uncomfortable.

“It has gotten better. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a lot better now.

“But there was a time where I just didn’t like doing what I did because I didn’t like the attention that it brought just in everyday life.”

For most of us mere mortals, it’s the other way around.

The idea of being in the cauldron at the Olympics as a gold medal favourite, as Pearson was for the 100m hurdles at the London Games in 2012, is enough to induce a panic attack.

But it was where Pearson - who went on to win gold there as well as two world titles, one of them coaching herself - was most at home.

“It’s like a comfort zone,” she said of the big race environment.

“I’ve always been competitive. I’ve always loved to race other people, I’ve loved that excitement ever since I can remember.

“Probably when I was six is my first memory of being competitive - and I loved it. I loved that fire it gave me, it was just a comfort zone for me.

Sally Pearson after winning gold at the London Olympics. Picture: AAP/Tracey Nearmy

“On the big stage, in front of 100,000 people, it was like a drug. It was just so exciting, it gave you that energy and that buzz that I always strived for and had worked so hard to achieve.

“It was it was like I was somebody else. Someone that I love to be because I was doing something that I was so passionate about.”

Seeing Pearson’s fierce race persona in major events, people would think they knew her off the track.

“At the height of my career, that’s when it was the hardest,” Pearson said.

“They would just assume that I’m that person outside of the track. And yes, I am. I’m very laid back and easygoing and a very happy person when I’m around people that I’m comfortable with.”

But when people would make a scene in a crowded place, it made Pearson extremely uncomfortable.

“I remember being in Coles once and someone’s like, ‘hey Sally’, yelled out in front of everyone - and wondered why I looked at them strangely.

Sally Pearson. Picture: Nigel Hallett

Sally Pearson. Photo: Hannah Davies

“Do you have to do that right now? And do you have to be so loud? And everyone obviously turned and then I got embarrassed - and I don’t like that feeling.

“No one likes that feeling.”

Pearson has learnt to deal with the issue over the years and now she’s not in the spotlight as much as she was when Australia’s darling of the track, she’s not as likely to be singled out.

But at the height of her fame, the now 37-year-old admits she avoided some situations to avoid the public glare.

These days though, Pearson is most likely to be found running around after her two children Ruby, 3, and Harry, 1, as well as the talented crop of athletes she coaches on the Gold Coast.

Making the transition has been difficult but as both a coach and sports presenter at Seven on the Gold Coast, Pearson is kicking goals.

“People who have been to the highest levels of their career always say, you probably won’t find exactly what you had,” she said of moving on.

“Let that be who you were in the past and move on from there and find a job that you like at least and then work on that and it will give you some sort of buzz.

“It might not give you exactly what you had in athletics because that was your life. That meant everything to you.

“I struggled for a little while, I still do. I still miss it terribly. I wish I could go back to it and be an athlete forever but it’s just not the case.

Sally Pearson with her athlete Hannah Jones. Picture: Supplied

“I still struggle with it day to day.”

But Pearson is getting some rewards as a mentor now too.

Having famously coached herself to a second world championship gold in 2017, Person recently placed an athlete on the world championship team and sprint hurdler Hannah Jones hopes to be in Paris next year to make her Olympic debut.

“She didn’t go as well as we would have hoped but she learned so many lessons and if she is to go to Paris next year, we’re so thankful that she had this chance at the world championships beforehand,” Pearson said of her charge, who finished third in her heat to be run out in the preliminary rounds.

“She learned lots of lessons over there and we achieved a lot of things in that race, which I’m really thankful for.

“Watching her on the world stage was nice because I felt like a little part of me was down there with her as well with all the work that we’ve put in together.

“I felt like I was standing right beside her which was nice.”

Back in her comfort zone.

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Originally published as Insight mental health awareness: Sally Pearson reveals the uncomfortable side of fame