Rebecca Wiasak is one of Australia’s best road cyclists. She’s the current world champion in track cycling. Many people have called Wiasak an ‘overnight’ success after she seemingly came out of nowhere. But in this column she explains why that’s very much not the case.
It’s been suggested that I’m an overnight sensation. I won a World Championship, on debut, at age 30. I can see how some people could be mistaken for thinking that I came out of nowhere. I have never even won an Australian Championship.
I’ve had an unconventional path to becoming a World Champion. I lived my life in reverse – getting an education, starting my career, and then becoming an elite athlete. I was never a teen prodigy. I have always dreamed of going to the Olympic Games and had some success as a young runner, but I had to be sensible – and realistic.
When I moved to Canberra in 2003 to study a double degree in Sports Media and Law, I walked into the office of renowned middle distance coach Dick Telford at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) in Bruce and asked to join his squad. Most of the runners were development athletes on full scholarships who had competed at the World Junior Championships and some were already Olympians. I had grown up in Geelong and began Little Athletics in under-12s. I won my first and only state title in athletics in the under-20 800m. I had also made the final at the 2000 Pacific School Games in Sydney in the 800m. I didn’t belong, or deserve, to train with the AIS squad. But I was welcomed and treated like any of the athletes.
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