I want gold at London: Pearson’s masterplan
April 22, 2012
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‘‘An admirable person’’ … Sally Pearson exudes confidence engendered of ability. Photo: Steve Christo
Hurdler Sally Pearson is more than comfortable flying to the UK carrying the hopes of Australian track and field on her shoulders, writes Daniel Lane.
As the raging favourite to win the Olympic 100m hurdles, Sally Pearson has the eyes of the world fixed on her. But could anyone have watched her every move more intently than the 13-year-old girl who sat in the grandstand at Homebush and absorbed all she could as her idol warmed up before showing a clean pair of heels at the Sydney Track Classic?
The strut was hard to miss, a point that would have pleased Pearson who purposely defies the trend of other athletes who talk incessantly about the need to fly under the radar and crave underdog status.
“There is a confidence from being the best,” she told The Sun-Herald. "And a confidence too in walking out on the track, shoulders back and standing tall; knowing people have to chase … you.
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"You definitely don’t want to do it in an arrogant way, it has to be done in a certain way, and you also want to be able to back up what you’re portraying. I want to win gold at London and I want everyone else to know that.’’
Pearson is the big hope of Australia’s track and field team at London. Medal predictors have her earmarked as a certainty to win gold; a portfolio of blue-chip companies have invested heavily in her so they can celebrate their role in her expected triumph; Athletics Australia acknowledged long ago that in a footy and cricket-obsessed society she is its big-ticket item.
The pressure doesn’t end there. When the London Games organisers released an extra 3000 tickets for the August 7 night session, which features the 100m women’s hurdles final, scores of Australians rushed in with $915 each to secure what they expect to be their trackside seat to a green-and-golden moment.
In this unnatural climate, where everyone wants their piece of Brand Pearson, Team Pearson and Sally Pearson, the most innocent ingredient in the mix was the likes of teenager Clementine Landels, who represented NSW in the 80m hurdles at the Little Athletics National Championships in Hobart yesterday.
In one excitable breath, Clementine was happy for the world to know Sally Pearson was top of her pops; a wonderful role model, a supreme athlete, a fighter and personal inspiration. And while the 25-year-old does things Clementine insisted were beyond mere mortals, she sees a realness in the reigning world champion. “I think she’s a good role model because of the way she’s come from Queensland and made her way from the bottom to the top; she’s an admirable person,” Clementine, whose PB for 80m is 12.77, said.
"I went out to Homebush just to watch her at the Sydney Track Classic and I was amazed by how she cleared the hurdles and finished so far ahead of the others.
“The way she puts her lead-leg down is amazing; it is as if she’s stepping over the hurdle. Every hurdler’s dream is to step over, not leap, but she snapped [her lead-leg] down. It’s ridiculous.”
There is plenty Clementine, and others like her, can learn from Pearson’s ascent from a fiercely independent girl raised by a single mother on the Gold Coast who would sometimes catch up to three buses to attend training sessions.
Pearson could tell them besides never missing a training session, watching Cathy Freeman win the 400m gold medal at the Sydney Olympics had a profound impact - it shaped her life and made her believe in herself. ‘‘Cathy Freeman inspired me with what she did in Sydney,’’ she said. ‘‘Though I always got motivated by myself. [My message to young athletes] is to be inspired by your sport and to be enthused by it.’’
Success, however, has not come as effortlessly as the way Pearson can clear a hurdle by mere millimetres at full speed. She needed to overcome injury and despair - who can forget when she fell flat on her face at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games - and a training regimen that she once said provided an insight into “death” because it was so painful.
And she knows few people still fully appreciate the hell an athlete, a boxer, swimmer or triathlete endures to become champion of the world. ‘‘I still don’t think a lot of people get it,’’ she smiled. ‘‘I tell them how much I train and get asked ‘do you go for long runs’, and I don’t. Everything I do is quite hard. It’s not just about doing the hurdles, it is the stuff I do beforehand.’’
However, one of the rewards from her tough training is a good night’s sleep.
Mentally and physically, Pearson said she was primed to shine in the English capital. ‘‘The training has been hard and will get harder,’’ she said. ‘‘I don’t stress about things out of my control. When I went to the world championships [last year] I slept well every night because I was so confident about running. I think that’s what’s going to happen at London.
‘‘When I went to the 2009 world championships I wasn’t in the best shape and it took me ages to get to sleep. I’d hurt my back, I had a tear in my disc and it put me out. I was walking like this [impersonates an ironing board] for three days straight.’’
With her world championship gold, Olympic silver and bag full of Commonwealth Games titles, she has already fulfilled the faith the national selectors showed when they blooded her in 2003 as the 16-year-old “baby” of the Australian world championship team that competed in Paris, the city, Pearson said, of dreams and desire.
“I learned in Paris what it takes to be the best athlete in the world,” she said. "I didn’t even know what to do before then. I trained three or four days but I learned you’re in this sport for a long time and to be patient. I learned to be patient with the achievements. I realised it was important to enjoy the ride because it takes experience and determination to be the best, especially in track and field because it is a tough sport.’’
Paris was also an important turning point in Pearson’s life education.
‘‘I’ve travelled since I was six months old,’’ she said. ‘‘So being in Paris on my own at such a young age was nothing new to me; I was such an independent teenager, I could do anything. I think a lot of kids are babied a little bit too much … I was 16 and in Paris by myself and [knew] I could look after myself.’’
Athletics is a lonely pursuit, even when everyone wants their piece of a champion, and Pearson acknowledged her husband Kieran, her Helensvale State High School-yard sweetheart, as a constant source of strength. ‘‘Some individuals need to know it can be very lonely,’’ she said of the life of an international athlete. ‘‘You don’t get much support and you really need [the] comfort of someone you trust. If you can afford it you take that person with you. It’s important to have someone you can tell everything to and realise it’s not going anywhere.’’
When Sally met Kieran he liked everything about her, especially her rare brand of determination.
‘‘She’s determined at everything she does,’’ he said. ‘‘It doesn’t matter what it may be, she is focused. I’m proud of her and everything that has come her way is well deserved.’’
However, in what appears to an outsider to be a loving and healthy relationship, Keiran acknowledged he had accepted long ago that training would be his wife’s first priority. ‘‘We do everything around her training, you have to work around training,’’ he said. ‘‘Training is what’s going to get Sally to where she wants to be.’’
While Pearson nominated confidence as an all-important ally, her manager Robert Joske, who formed his alliance with a 16-year-old then known as Sally McLellan, remembered a teenager who was shy and quiet away from the running track.
‘‘She’s confident on the track,’’ he said. ‘‘But at 16 she wasn’t all that confident in the corporate space. Now she’s the consummate professional and making every post a winner. [Sponsors] see in Sally the opportunity to be natural and they also see in her youth and exuberance, professionalism and a winner.’’
The very traits, it seemed, that inspired a 13-year-old girl to attend the Sydney Track Classic a few months ago to watch and learn from someone who seems destined to be remembered as the athlete of her generation.