Mooloolah Valley’s Louise Pearce has essentially given up on her Olympics dreams, after struggling to return to training after a leg injury in 2020.
The 29-year-old was touted as a contender for a shot-put berth at Tokyo after finishing second at the national championships in 2018 and 2019 and fourth at the Oceania Championships in 2019.
But a torn quadricep muscle in the lead-up to this year’s Aussie meet proved to be a turning point.
When she tried to return to track and field mid-year, it didn’t work out.
“I found it really hard mentally to go back to training …. I just couldn’t go back after the injury.”
“And I didn’t see the Games going ahead (because of COVID-19). I didn’t want my heart to be broken and decided not to roll the dice anymore.”
The injury, and her decision to step back from the sport, hit hard.
“I was devastated for quite a while and I took it really hard,” she said.
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“In hindsight it didn’t matter if I qualified or not because the Games didn’t end up going ahead this year and I don’t know physically if I would have been able to pull another season out of the bag (to get to a postponed Olympics in 2021).
Pearce returned to work, as a teacher at Meridan Plains.
“I was (initially) supposed to have the year off to train in Australia and overseas but Coronavirus wiped off those options. I cancelled my leave and went back to work.”
Playing team sports helps
Her quad has since recovered and she’s enjoying playing touch rugby league and social netball.
“I’ve gone back to team sports which I’ve really missed (in recent years),” she said.
“Growing up, I played a lot of team sports along with athletics and I think going back to the team sport environment has really helped me mentally through the year.
“It’s helped me, having good support around me.”
Pearce immediately had success at touch rugby league, and she competed at the national championships.
“It was good getting into a bit of high level TRL,” she said.
And while it seems she has given up on future Olympics, Pearce hasn’t ruled out some sort of return to track and field.
“I think long term I probably wouldn’t mind going into the masters’ competition,” she said,
“Probably just in shot put. The heptathlon is so tough on the body and I’m a bit old to be getting back into that.
Pearce is looking forward to “what life has to offer after athletics”.
She and her partner are looking to start a family in the next couple of years and she’s enjoyed relaxing during this summer instead of training.
Pearce’s personal bests are 13.97m for shot put and 4919 points for heptathlon, achieved in 2019.
