Journey of an Olympian. Chapter 21

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Chapter Twenty-one: Another Training camp in Melbourne

After two weeks of no or minimal overhead work I was snatching and jerking again, although at medium weights, just in time for the start of our training camp in Melbourne, prior to heading off for Manchester. Plus, my weight was slowly starting to come down and my strength seemed so far, relatively intact.

The Sydney crew arrived in Melbourne on Sunday 7th July ready to start our two week training camp on Monday. This was a good opportunity for the team to all train together and for the coaches to get to know us better. It was especially beneficial for those who were on a Senior Australian team for the first time. Whilst it is an individual sport, teamwork still plays a big part, so it’s important we all get along well when we go to national and international events and we all support each other. The full team heading to Manchester consisted of 7 women and 8 men plus 4 coaches and a manager – the largest team to ever go away. Most of us had been on senior teams before, for the 2000 Olympics or World or Oceania Championships. For such a large team it would be a test, but we all had a common goal: to bring home as many medals as possible.

Similar to our experience in our training camp before the 2000 Sydney Olympics, the section of the team that lived in Melbourne didn’t reside at the motel or eat with us for all meals. It was a shame for them as I think they missed out feeling a part of the team to some extent and to me this seemed to defeat the purpose of having a team training camp. Besides, if the rest of us had to be taken away from our family why shouldn’t the Melbourne lot! However, unfortunately it all came down to money. It saved the AWF money to have 6 athletes and 2 officials (half the team) not staying with the rest of the team. It was unfortunate that the AWF had to tighten its belt, since the sponsorship deal with Telstra ended in 2001 and so we had to make do with limited funding from the government and other sources such as the Australian Sports Commission, Australian Commonwealth Games Association and Australian Olympic Committee.

We received our first lot of Commonwealth games team uniforms quite early in the camp. In fact our formal uniforms arrived on the first day and our Adidas training gear arrived on the second day. It all fit me ok considering I was losing weight, except everything was too long as usual. Some of it I thought was nice but the formal clothing wasn’t the sort of stuff you could wear again.

I continued doing my three sessions a day, although the head cold I arrived with wasn’t getting better. Quite the opposite, it took a turn for the worse and on the second day of the camp when I was coughing up green stuff, Luke stopped me from training. I was starting to panic slightly – I didn’t want to miss any training at this crucial time when I was coming back from an injury. The AWF and Australian Commonwealth Games Association president Sam Coffa personally took me to see his personal doctor to get some antibiotics. The doctor also gave me an “intravite” (vitamin) injection while I was there and I couldn’t sit down for a while.

By the next day, Wednesday 10th July, three weeks to go before my competition, my cold started to feel better thanks to my visit to the doctor the day before. My shoulder was getting better, good enough to manage 82.5kg snatch, although my jerks were still down and it was hurting after training. Ice and voltaren became my best friends. My bodyweight was coming down, I was now at 57.2kg, so I was beginning to feel more positive.

Although gees, I was grumpy. Poor Meagan, who I was sharing a room with, for having to put up with me. I was sticking to my diet but the food situation for me was difficult – I wasn’t always able to eat exactly how I wanted, and was concerned the weight drop wouldn’t happen as planned. I even took my own food (chicken and rice) on the flight to Melbourne. I tried not to be too moody, but it was hard.

On Saturday 13th July, halfway through our camp, the coaches had a meeting and Luke told them all I was dropping down to 53kg. They all agreed it was the right thing to do. Once everyone found out I was dropping weight divisions, they understood what I was going through. It is very hard dieting when you have everyone around you eating normally, especially the Supers who eat more than most! I was craving things like bread, pasta and pizza (let alone the chocolate cake which was brought out for Chris Rae’s birthday) and mostly everyone around me was eating all this – and all I could do was try to avoid the aromas, while I ate my meat and vegetables! (Can you hear the violins!)

Halfway through the second week, on Wednesday 17th July, and a few days before we were due to leave for Manchester disaster struck for Meagan. We were training partners and while we were snatching, as we got up to 80kg, she dislocated her shoulder. I freaked out a bit, but had to keep training, while Meagan was taken off to hospital for x-rays. While I kept on training, all the while I was wondering what she had done. All I knew at the time was that she said she had felt her shoulder pop out and back in again, and no one knew how bad it was. I felt really bad for her, hoping she could still compete in Manchester. Plus she had arranged to come on holiday with us afterwards. I was hoping they wouldn’t pull her out yet, and would give her the chance to see if it came good.

Luke was feeling guilty and responsible for her injury. He was blaming himself, for making her go heavy, and said if he hadn’t pushed her to 80kg it wouldn’t have happened. But I said to him, “that’s training…. you have to push us, that’s what training is for…” She had been in a bad mood all day, her period was due and subsequently her technique that day was pretty bad too. (The extra things women have to deal with – I was always hopeless the day mine arrived – being on the Pill I played with my schedule to ensure the arrival didn’t coincide with competition) I couldn’t help thinking how Meagan is her own worst enemy. She was so determined to go heavy that even though she wasn’t feeling good she wouldn’t tell Luke that she wasn’t feeling well because she knew he would back her off. She was trying to ‘save’ every lift from going behind, rather than miss it, even when she knew that by trying to save it and getting herself into awkward positions she risked injuring herself. Even when she was in the bottom of the 80kg snatch with her shoulder popping out she still finished the lift and stood up with it.

Eventually it was diagnosed as a dislocated shoulder and she was put in a sling. It was decided she would still come to Manchester as there was a chance it would come good for the day. She seemed in good enough spirits, but she was putting on a brave face. They all decided that because her arm was in a sling and she would need help, and me being her room-mate, I would have to help her. No problem I said. Steve Tikkanen said I would have to help her wash and dress herself. Then Meagan reminded me it was the wrong time of the month! No way I said !! Even facing a really bad situation we could still find a way to laugh.

Seriously though, we all tried to be positive for her and supportive but deep down I think we all knew the outlook was gloomy. Meagan’s injury gave us all a scare. For me personally I felt guilty because although I felt really bad for her I was kind of relieved that it hadn’t happened to me.

To cap off our bad luck, there was an Australian doping positive found out by the media (not someone in our team). My Steve rang me on Thursday 18th July saying my name had been mentioned in the paper as being outspoken on the subject, saying I had previously threatened to boycott the Games (this was actually a misquote) and now Australian weightlifting was narrowly escaping a ban.

To cheer ourselves up we decided to decorate our room. I remember reading about the beach volleyball girls doing this before the Sydney Olympic games to inspire them to win their gold medal and so suggested we do the same. We cut phrases out of magazines and stuck them up all over the walls and mirrors in our room – examples were “Aussies on top”, “Gold Fever”, “lose weight fast”, “Princess”, etc. We were all laughing and having so much fun we were late to dinner.

Towards the end of our camp, I started having nightmares. I dreamt I was at the Commonwealth Games at the competition and we missed the call and got timed out on all my snatches. I tended not to sleep well anyway, when strictly dieting. This made me constantly tired which wasn’t great for training.

My last Friday night heavy session in Melbourne was terrible. My shoulder was hurting. Worst of all my bodyweight was stuck at 56.7kg. I could only snatch 80kg, missing 82.5kg twice. Then I Clean and Jerked up to 95kg. As my shoulder was hurting, when I got to 100kg, I just cleaned the weight without the Jerk but it was shocking to look at – all round backed, rough and ugly. I felt really embarrassed. I should have been doing more weight with better technique. After the embarrassment left, then I felt depressed. My hopes of snatching 82.5kg and clean & jerking 100kg at the Games seem a bit faded considering I didn’t seem be able to do it now and I still had another 4 kg to lose. I just hoped with more tapering I would be fresher on the day, plus would have the adrenalin to help.

On Sunday 21st July, at our last major training session before leaving Melbourne, I had another shocker, missing snatches on 80kg twice, then missing 82.5kg. The more down I felt, the more my energy levels fell and the weaker I felt. After training, I felt so down, I wanted to walk back to the motel on my own. Along the way I ended up feeling quite dizzy and my vision went blurry, so I stopped at a shop and bought a protein bar to eat, which made me feel a bit better. Overall though I was feeling really grumpy and depressed. I was so sick of dieting, I just wanted to eat normal food again. To top it off, my back was hurting on and off, as well as my shoulder.

What a way to finish our training camp, feeling tired, weak, negative and generally down in the dumps.

2002 Australian Commonwealth Games team, about to leave for Manchester

Coming up next – Chapter 22: Arrival in Manchester