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Genevieve Gregson’s career was on life support after a horror fall at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.
Competing in her third Games, Gregson ruptured her Achilles after falling at the final water hurdle in the 3000m steeplechase.
It was her 32nd birthday, and she ended it in a wheelchair facing months of rehabilitation and an uncertain future in the sport.
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“It’s crazy to think that that was so long ago now. More so because I feel like I have done so much since then,” Gregson told Nine’s Weekend Today.
“The recovery has been pretty much as smooth as I could’ve ever hoped for. I have had the most magical last few years.”
After months of rehabilitation, and after some time off for the birth of her first child, Gregson was inspired to switch to marathons to continue going after her dreams.
“To see footage like that [of the injury] used to be so triggering and heartbreaking to re-watch but I can honestly say that is a part of my life that I’m so grateful it happened,” she said.
“I feel like it’s just put me on a totally different trajectory now, and life honestly feels better since that moment.”
Moving from middle-distance running to the steeplechase, Gregson has battled the track for most of her life. But this injury did not just break her body, it shattered her spirit.
“With track running, especially the steeplechase, so much pounding goes through your body. The aggression of wearing spikes on the track with the sort of training you have to do can really break your body down,” she said.
“I was 32 [years old] in that clip of me falling at Tokyo and 32 doesn’t seem that old but my training age felt like it was much older.
“Waking up in the morning, everything ached, everything was sore.
“When I did that injury, it was kind of like, ‘Is this the end of my road for running?’. I had fought so many injuries, I had rehabbed so many different times. Mentally I didn’t know if I was ready to do that all again at that age.
“At the time, I was also so desperate to start a family. I’ve wanted to have a big family for as long as I can remember … So, to be 32 and have no kids, was weighing down on me.
“I didn’t know you could be an elite athlete and have a family at the same time. Initially, I thought this was an opportunity to start a family but then along that recovery process, I was like, ‘I know I can have both and I’m going to try’.
“To say that I see that footage and say that I’m glad [the injury] happened, is because it allowed me a window to fall pregnant, have our baby boy, but also, work on my body and make sure that it was at a point where it could get to that elite level again and continue chasing my dreams.”
Gregson believes her pregnancy with her son Archer healed her body and empowered her to come back to running stronger.
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“I used to look at other sports and see so many mums, whether it was netball or soccer or team sports and I thought, ‘I wish I did a team sport because I feel like I could then have a baby and still get back to a certain level,” she said.
“But with distance running, I honestly didn’t believe they would go together so well.
“I have so many amazing role models in the sport that are mums and are running so well. So that obviously helped. But there was something about the process — and it wasn’t that I stopped training when I fell pregnant — a lot of people are like, ‘Maybe the break got you back’.
“But I trained just as hard through my whole pregnancy, just in a different way, whether it was bike riding, cross-training or swimming. I was always doing something but I had this mentality that there was something bigger, there was more purpose to what I was doing because I was finally achieving something that I wanted to do for so long.
“I was growing a baby in my stomach and it was like everything was worth it.
“To go and cross-train for four hours but then come home and know that there was something way bigger that was about to happen, just gave me this different perspective.
“Even now that I’m back racing and competing, I take my family with me everywhere because the result is important, but to come home to Archer and my husband is just like this whole other feeling that has taken the pressure off this elite level.”
Now, having made the move to marathons, Gregson is eyeing a fourth Olympic Games with a place on the Australian women’s marathon team for Paris 2024.
Earlier this month at the Valencia Marathon, Gregson recorded the third fastest marathon time ever run by an Australian woman to turn the selection battle on its head.
“I’m really proud of myself, more so because when I ruptured my Achilles in Tokyo, I did an interview three days later and I was heartbroken. I could barely speak. But I remember saying on camera that it wasn’t over for me and I was going to use this time to get back and move to the roads and try to make another Olympics,” Gregson said.
“I think I said that because part of me believed it but there was so much of me that thought that was impossible and so now, to have slowly chipped away and finally been given a really, really big opportunity…
“The race two weeks ago was so important and it was my one chance to knock it out of the park and I did it.
“I remember speaking out loud during the race saying, ‘You’re doing it, you’re doing it’. And so cross the line, you can see on my face, I was really proud and happy and it was a pinch-me moment.”
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