Brooke Stratton - The Hidden Struggles of a Professional Athlete

Brooke Stratton is competing at the 2020 Jandakot Airport Track Classic. Come and see her or watch her on the livestream. 

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Brooke Stratton - The Hidden Struggles of a Professional Athlete

By Tim Rosen

Elite athletes are like everyone else and contend with numerous day-to-day life challenges.  Balancing these issues with what is required to be an elite athlete is something Brooke Stratton knows all too well. Brooke is a very private person, who is reluctant to discuss many of her personal battles via her various social media channels.  2019 was a difficult season for Brooke.  After returning home from Doha and reading news articles describing her result as disappointing, it was time to speak up and discuss the physical and mental journey she's had to endure throughout her blossoming career.

Over the past six years, Brooke has discovered she is Celiac, battled Hashimoto's Disease (an underactive thyroid condition), and last year dealt with a bout of Glandular Fever. "Being Celiac is more than just being on a gluten free diet. It makes eating at restaurants hard, travelling becomes more difficult and I have to strictly monitor my diet day in, day out.”  As for the thyroid condition, Brooke has been on medication to get her thyroid levels to where they should be. Something that has been an enormous challenge over the past few years. "Struggling with various things to do with my health is especially challenging as an athlete because you need to ensure your body is 100% good to go if you want to get the results you're after.”

Season 2019 was always destined to be a difficult one with the set-back of Glandular Fever to kick off the year. 2019 was jam-packed for Brooke;  chasing qualifiers and ‘over competing’ throughout the domestic season, finishing her undergraduate degree, searching for a house to buy, all while trying to fit in a training load that would see her competitive at a world championships held very late in the year.  "It was a long season. It was a long year! I was consistently jumping 6.60-6.70m to begin with but I know I'm better than that. I was finding it so hard being out there competing and was over thinking everything. My body and mind just needed a rest and I was hanging onto the hope that things were going to get better. No matter what is going on in your life, AA still expect good results. In saying that, Craig (Hilliard AA Head Coach) has been very supportive of me through it all.”

All of this led to the mental challenge that comes with having a season that didn't meet her own lofty expectations. "I can't really think of the last season I underperformed before this one. I started developing quite bad anxiety and put a lot of pressure on myself and was worried about external opinions of my performance. Everyone expects me to be jumping 7m at every competition since I did it, but I've only ever jumped over 6.80m three times in my life and I think people need to remember that. I'm not saying I can't do it again, because I know those big jumps are there, but I just haven't had the perfect build-up and perfect day since. At the end of the day, I know I didn't jump what I'm capable of in the final at Doha. But I still came 10th. And if this is my bad season, well then it could've been a lot worse. I went in ranked 22nd based on season bests, so I actually performed a lot better than my season had shown up until then.”

Brooke has sought the expertise of VIS sports psychologist Mark Spargo to help her deal with the mental side of athletics. "He has been absolutely fantastic to work with. We just need to find strategies around how I can get rid of all that external pressure I've created in my head. It has been hard trying to live up to the expectations of the breakthrough season I had a couple of years ago. I'm a people pleaser. It's just my personality. I want to do the right thing by people. Hopefully one day I can get to the point where I can just be happy with what I've achieved, whether I jump far or not, and whether I win a medal or not. I never go out there and have a half-arsed approach. I always give it my all.”  Brooke is also working on achieving better balance in her life, working part time at a sports retail store, to give her something else to focus on. Brooke and her partner Nathan, have also recently added a Golden Retriever, called Winnie, to their household, and are loving every minute of it.

From here it is all about creating the perfect lead up to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. "We (Brooke and coach/dad Russell Stratton) have mapped out a plan of competitions leading into Tokyo. I will be starting the season a little later than normal. I am having an extended break now for a few weeks and then will build back into it slowly. There is no set time frame just yet. I'll know when I'm ready to get back into training. I really need to rest my body so that I can go into the next season feeling fresh, both physically and mentally. I haven't really had longer than one week off in the past few years.” There is no doubt Brooke will give absolutely everything she can to perform on the biggest stage of all next season, and with her goals for the upcoming season being a PB, and more importantly a medal in Tokyo. Exciting times lie ahead for Australia's greatest ever female long jumper.

The article is from the latest edition of Australian Athlete, a magazine bought to you by Runner's Tribe and Athletics Australia. To get the latest edition - go here: https://australianathlete.org/