Podcast extra: Jana Pittman extended interview
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How did Jana Pittman's early love for athletics shape her Olympic ambitions?
This is an ABC podcast.
Hi, Lynn Malcolm here with an All-in-the-Mind podcast extra for you. You may have heard some of my conversation with Jana Pittman in the most recent episode of All in the Mind, in which we looked at the challenges we face when we go through changes and transitions in our lives. Jana Pittman was an Olympic athlete for Australia in both athletics and bobsled. She's a two-time world champion and four-time Commonwealth champion in the 400m hurdles events. She then transferred to a new career in medicine and now she's a junior doctor at Blacktown Hospital in Sydney. In her autobiography called Just Another Hurdle, she tells her compelling story of how she's overcome many hurdles in her life, both physical and personal.
We begin by talking about how her passion for athletics began.
I mean I loved athletics and I certainly loved the opportunities I had to represent my beautiful country all over the world and have a a wonderful career in sport. But in all truth, as a young, young person, actually all I wanted to be was a doctor. So it was almost like a sidetrack career pathway to go down that sports avenue. And and and I think a lot of it was because I really enjoyed the accolades my parents gave me and um and I really loved, you know, dad taking a day off work to come and watch me run. So I think it was a lot of extrinsically driven aspirations. But, you know, I always wanted to make the Olympics and I remember when uh I was only like nine years old when they announced the Sydney Olympics would be in Australia and I thought that would be pretty incredible.
But obviously not really having any idea what that meant and how hard it was to actually become an Olympic athlete. Probably wasn't till I was about thirteen or fourteen that I set the goals of actually making the Olympics and then soon they became you know, winning the Commonwealth games and then winning the Olympics and it sort of escalates, I guess, as you progress up the ladder and start, you know, desiring certain levels of athletic achievement.
Mm. You've been so incredibly motivated. Um and just just a a little example along the way, I think before the two thousand Olympics, you ran in a race with Kathy Freeman and she was a an idol of yours and you were devastated to lose. What did you take away from that experience?
You're right. I have always been very driven by goals and achievement and certainly pushing myself really hard in a lot of areas and and seeing where your limits lie. Um, because obviously, you know, I was never gonna have a chance of beating Kathy Freeman. You know, she was the greatest athlete in our country and I don't think it was actually being beaten her. I think that's sort of been uh to some degree probably inflated. It was more that I didn't want her to, you know, to be so far ahead of me, I was embarrassed by it. So even in that context, like who would be embarrassed if Kathy bit you by a hundred metres? It's Kathy Freeman, for goodness sake. But I was I yeah, I didn't want to look like a fool, but
It was wonderful being in the same
era as her.
What challenges did Jana face balancing school, the HSC and elite sport?
And you got into the Australian Olympics team when you were seventeen, I think, and you were doing the HSC at the same time. How did you juggle that and persevere with both aspects of your life?
Uh it's interesting you say that because I really feel like you know that old saying you give a busy p a job to a busy person and it'll get it done and I actually talk to a lot of young schools about this, uh young women in uh particularly in high school, uh, around the fact that sometimes having the distraction of one job allows you to be better in both because it's almost like if you put all your eggs in one basket and you you're you know you're so driven and you're trying so hard to achieve in in one particular area, say for example, sport, it makes it incredibly hard t when you do fail or if you do not quite reach the goal that you were hoping for. Whereas I feel like whenever I had one area not going well, I could therefore focus on the other.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
How did Jana Pittman's early love for athletics shape her Olympic ambitions?
0:02–3:00
2
What challenges did Jana face balancing school, the HSC and elite sport?
3:00–5:59
3
Which moments does Jana consider the highlights of her athletics career?
5:59–8:13
4
Why did Jana decide to transition from sport to a medical career?
8:13–10:28
5
How did Jana cope with the loss of her sporting identity and grief?
10:28–12:33
6
What does Jana say about building resilience through failure and emotion?
12:33–14:42
7
How is Jana applying her drive and resilience in obstetrics and future uterine transplants?
14:42–16:37
8
What legacy does Jana hope to leave in medicine compared to sport?
16:37–18:22