When Sally Met Sally

World-champion hurdler Sally Pearson, perhaps Australia’s greatest track-and-field athlete, talks to Lizzie Wilson about the father she refuses to acknowledge, her battle with anxiety and why she handed over the coaching reins to the person she trusts most – herself.

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Self-doubt is one of modern life’s most debilitating curses. Even for those who have scaled the heights of greatness, anxiety is sometimes so powerful it can lay them low with a sideways glance, a raised eyebrow or even a friendly word from a complete stranger.

For world champion hurdler Sally Pearson, who has suffered from anxiety most of her adult life, one of those crippling moments came most recently at her local supermarket.

“I was at the local shops. This lovely lady called my name and I froze. On the track, with sometimes 80,000 people in the stands, I’m completely in control. Put me at the checkout, where I’m just little old Sal, and it comes over me like a tsunami and it’s far greater than shyness – I feel like a deer in headlights!”

Sally, as focused and ice cool as she appears, makes her living overcoming hurdles. Her ongoing battle with anxiety, something she rarely speaks about, is just another hurdle for this champion. She privately struggles with its incapacitating side-effects every day, yet manages to take it in her stride, never allowing it to affect her ambitions both on and off the track, or her dogged determination to be number one. 

Nevertheless, Sally, 31, doesn’t shy away from the topic as she outlines the extraordinary transformation she’s made over the past two years in preparation for the upcoming Commonwealth Games in her home town of the Gold Coast.

“I know what people say about me and understand why they think I am a little odd. I’m really open to talking about it, because I get better with it every day. I suffer from a condition known as social anxiety, which has been at times more debilitating than any of the physical injuries,” she explains. “I’m not great in situations where I’m out of my depth or feel I have to talk to someone and have no idea what to say.”