Melissa Breen | Finding Purpose

For Melissa Breen 2020 began like any other year; coiled into the blocks at the top of the straight, ready to launch herself into the final year of a four year cycle. 

Her eyes were fixed on the finish line - the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, which was to be her third Olympic Games and the final chapter of her elite career. 

But when the Olympics were postponed, no thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, Breen’s future was immediately in limbo. 

The Australian record holder’s career had been defined by defying the clock, but on this occasion the clock posed an insurmountable challenge - even for Breen. 

“I never thought I would be happily sitting here in 2020 having not gone to the Tokyo Olympics but life is funny like that,” she said.  

“There’s things that have happened where people just always seem to land on their feet all the time, and that’s not through luck, that’s through managing life and life choices.” 

But it wasn’t without consideration. 

“I thought in the beginning it would be great to have more time to train and get better, but 11.15 seconds was the qualifier and I had run that mark twice in my entire existence on one day,” she said. 

“I’m not delirious, I’m a realist.” 

For the first time in over a decade Breen had been stripped of what she thought was her purpose and identity - but not for long. 

Her illustrious career started with an appearance at the World Junior Championships while Breen was in Year 12.

“I was so determined and I had the belief that I would run really fast, make millions of dollars and never have to do anything else,” she said. 

“That was a little insane looking back now but with youth comes naivety and ignorance, and at times that was actually quite helpful.” 

A six month stint at university proved to be nothing but a distraction for the gifted athlete. 

“I had seen a lot of other athletes do a course because they thought they had to or just for the sake of doing it, and I have never been a person who does something just for the sake of doing it,” she said. 

“If someone had told me at the time that I needed to think about life after sport, I would have thought why would I have a ‘Plan B’ when I was so certain ‘Plan A’ was going to work.” 

It’s a mindset that Breen describes as ‘stupid’, but she admits it is one that ultimately contributed to her success. 

“I’m an all in girl,” she said.

“If I truly believe something is possible then I will put all my eggs in one basket and find a way to do it.” 

The Canberra product trained double days for six months leading into February 2014 when she would break Melinda Gainsford-Taylor’s Australian record running 11.11 seconds over 100m at the AIS track. 

The breakthrough came with strong publicity and spurred the next phase of her career. 

“I started networking pretty early on with companies that aligned with me and the brand of Melissa Breen,” she said. 

What is Melissa Breen’s brand? 

“Melissa Breen the brand is not afraid to tell it like it is, will always stand up for the little guy, and so wholeheartedly believes in herself that by the end it was so enjoyable to prove people wrong,” she said. 

“The relationships I developed through sport helped me with life after sport.” 

So much so that former ABC Grandstand commentator Tim Gavel will emcee her wedding to Olympic coach Matt Beckenham next year.

Richard Rolfe of Audi Canberra has also given Breen the security of a nice set of wheels for life, but the biggest and most meaningful break came in 2015, when she became an ambassador for Lifeline in Canberra. 

This connection became critical after the 2018 Commonwealth Games - a time which Breen reflects on with brutal honesty, declaring that she knew she was ready to hang up her spikes. 

“I had so much vision and hope to be a medalist at the Commonwealth Games and I knew I should have been in the prime of my career,” she said. 

“When something becomes a reality it can be really hard because in our mind we have an idea of what something is going to be like but reality hits you smack in the face.

“From that point I thought that my time in sport was done, there was always the carrot of the Tokyo Olympics and retiring after that knowing that it would have been the holy grail of finishing my career.” 

Breen was struggling with nerve issues at the time and was on heavy medication, saying that treatment was essential but far from ideal. 

“There was just this lingering pull on my heart and my mind that maybe I wasn’t capable of running that fast again,” she said. 

“When you’re a sprinter you want to be neurally firing all the time and I was taking medications for four months that suppressed any good neural pathways I had going on. 

“After that I started working at Lifeline Canberra, at any other time I would have said no but it was time to put things in place so that I had a job when I retired.” 

Retirement is a word that has never sat well with Breen, who says that in 2015 it “wouldn’t even be in the realm of conversation.” 

But after a two year battle both physically and mentally, compounded by the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, Breen knew that it was time. 

“I remember the Wednesday I spoke to the doctor at the AIS and then I went to do blocks in the afternoon, and then that night I said that I was done,” she said. 

“It’s cruel to ourselves to expect to capture a similar feeling to walking into an Olympics in another aspect of life but it’s important to have purpose in your work and make a difference in other people’s lives.” 

Instead of dwelling on what she had lost, Breen was hell-bent on focusing on what she still had. 

“So many traits that we have as athletes will help us in life after sport,” she said.

“Punctuality, diligence, doing the extra one-percenters, finding a way and being tenacious will all help us in life.

It’s a component that has defined Breen’s transition, and one that she says more athletes need to recognise. 

“Athletes need to take more credit for the skills they have,” she said. 

“If they wrote a resume of all those traits that they developed through their career - any workplace would sign that person up!” 

Australia’s fastest woman is now thriving in her role at Lifeline and has a newfound appreciation for the little things in life. 

“In the beginning I was psyched to wear clothes that weren’t track clothes, I got to go shopping for normal people clothes and it was like a whole different shift in identity,” she said. 

“At school I hated public speaking, I used to wait until the end and hope they forgot about me. 

“But being an athlete and being thrust in front of the media, you have to speak and you learn to get messages across, so if I can use that skill to help others through challenging times in their life then that’s where my path leads.” 

Breen is confident in forging a long career with Lifeline and is particularly invested in assisting in their programs in school-based settings, where she hopes to convey key messages on the topics of resilience, failure and success. 

The track star is well equipped to do so, with her career at the elite level in athletics providing her with invaluable experiences. 

“There are way more hard times than good times,” she said. 

“There’s one moment of one particular day, of one particular year, of one particular minute  where you have to perform at your best, and you haven’t slept at home in four months. 

“There’s so many things athletes go through for that one moment, when you’re in it it's so consuming.” 

Breen has also learnt the importance of perspective. 

“Success isn’t a goal medal,” she said.

“For me in Rio it was making a start line because for what my team and I went through to get that tracksuit no one will ever really know but for the people in that team it means the world. 

“When you’re younger and you’re trying to walk but you fall over, you get encouraged to get up and keep going, but as an adult you fail at something the consensus is that you should stop doing it.” 

“Was I doing it because it was what I had always done? Or was it because I wanted to do it? It was because it was what I had always done, which is not a good enough reason,” she said. 

Her initial reaction to retirement? 

“I can breathe,” she said. 

Breen retires as the fastest Australian woman in history and her legacy will stand for many years to come. 

Her career may well be remembered for her success on the track, but that would be unjust representation of the person, and brand, that is Melissa Breen. 

The Melissa Breen that leaves the athletics scene is a happier and more open-minded version than the one who entered all those years ago - and one that is now ready to give back to others after finding her purpose and passion at Lifeline. 

By Lachie Moorehouse
Posted: 29/10/2020