What an incredible morning having the opportunity to hear from our Olympic Medallist in the 200 sprints! Melinda Gainsford-Taylor AM.
I found her story absolutely inspiring and felt welts of tears building throughout her story today.
Sharing her work life balance with being a busy mother, how she knew from a young age of 8 that she wanted to be a runner, she took ownership of this and personally found & called a correspondence coach which ended up with a wonderful 23 years of achievement together.
She didn’t always have a smooth road ahead. Melinda had a tough time personally seeing her mother battling multiple cancer challenges till she lost the fight 3 years ago.
Although harnessed her energy for the greater of her running. When injuries occurred (as they do and will) she had a Plan B and altered the route to keep achieving and knowing when to listen to her body, slowing it down and picking it up again at the right time. This astonishing sprinter even completed her first Marathon, yes the 200 mtrs is a tad shorter than 42km some would say.
She certainly had people making judgement at times throughout her teenage years and I love that she didn’t let this take over and damage her career, resilience and coming back from hardship is tough to do.
She is an advocate for if you want to achieve something you need to put in the time, energy and have the resources around you.
One of the many benefits of having her marvellous coach was for self belief, those times when your confidence is lost, they are there to pick you up and she never, never gave up on her.
Lesson's to be learnt:
- Try rather than not try at all, even if it’s Plan B - Put the hard work in and you will eventually achieve - Have the right support crew around you - Reduce negative influences in your life - How sacrifices in social engagement when young can be a greater reward when you hit those highs later in your career.
Rarely in life to we achieve on our own, she made many comments on her coach. The team around us give us the energy to keep going, work, social, sport it’s all relevant.
Truly a magical speech today. So blessed to have been there. Thank Melinda for sharing.
International Women’s Day #PressforProgress 2018