“You have to believe in your bones”
Fourteen years after her unforgettable victory in the 100m hurdles at the London Olympics 2012, Olympic champion Sally Pearson reflects on the conviction behind her greatest race, the memories she keeps tucked away at home and the lessons she hopes to pass on to Australia’s next generation.
At Sally Pearson’s Brisbane home, some of the most significant pieces of Australian sporting history are not displayed in a trophy room.
They are tucked away in her wardrobe.
Her Olympic medals sit alongside race bibs, front pages and other keepsakes collected across a career that established Pearson as one of Australia’s greatest athletes.
“It’s actually my wardrobe,” Pearson laughed.
“The reason I store everything in there is because I can still enjoy it without putting too much pressure on my kids to see it every single day.
“At the end of the day, it was my career before they came along, and I want them to be able to dream their own goals.”
It is a characteristically thoughtful approach from Pearson, whose career was defined by fierce ambition on the track but who is now focused on family, new professional challenges and helping others pursue goals of their own.
In the opening episode of Australian Athletics’ 2026 Under the Surface series, created in partnership with Rio Tinto, Pearson revisits the moments, mindset and memories behind her extraordinary career.
At the centre of her story is the women’s 100m hurdles final at the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Pearson arrived in London carrying the weight of expectation, much of it placed on her own shoulders. Four years earlier, she had won silver at the Beijing Olympics. By 2012, she was no longer hoping to contend for gold. She expected herself to win it.
“I think the difference between the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and four years later in London was that I was going there to win,” she said.
“I told the public, I told the world: this is what I wanted to do.
“If I prepared well and my body held up, there was no reason I couldn’t win.
“I was in the best shape of my life, and there was no way I could lose.”
That confidence had been hard-earned.
After her breakthrough in Beijing, Pearson entered the 2009 World Athletics Championships in Berlin believing she could win. A back injury two weeks before the championships disrupted her preparation, and she finished fifth in the final.
The disappointment strengthened her resolve. Over the following years, the goal of becoming Olympic champion shaped almost every decision she made.
She trained for it, planned for it and allowed herself to believe completely that it was possible.
“It may sound arrogant, but I think if you are going to face the fastest in the world, you have to act like you are the best in the world,” Pearson said.
“That’s kind of how I was.”
For all the noise surrounding an Olympic final – the packed stadium, the pressure and the millions watching around the world – Pearson remembers feeling most at peace when she stepped onto the track.
“It also helped that I loved competing,” she said.
“My favourite place in the entire world was on the competition track.
“It was the quietest, most peaceful place for me to be.
“Even if I was in front of 100,000 people, it was like my happy place. This is where I wanted to be.”
Pearson crossed the line in an Olympic record of 12.35 seconds, securing the gold medal she had spent years pursuing.
The victory became one of the defining moments of the London Games for Australia, but Under the Surface looks beyond the result to explore what it took to reach that moment, and how Pearson now views it from a different stage of life.
Today, she lives in Brisbane with her husband, Kieran, and their two children, Ruby and Harry.
Her decision to keep her career memorabilia somewhere private reflects the balance she is trying to create. She remains proud of everything she achieved, but she does not want her children to feel that they must follow the same path.
Instead, she wants them, and young people across Australia, to feel free to identify ambitions that are their own.
With Brisbane preparing to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2032, a new generation of Australian athletes is already beginning to imagine what competing at a home Games could look like.
Pearson’s advice to them is simple: decide what you want and commit to believing it can happen.
“You have to believe in your bones that you can achieve it,” she said.
“It doesn’t matter what the goal is, whether it’s to win at Nationals, whether you want to run a personal best or whether you want to win an Olympic medal.
“You just have to feel it and believe it.
“Live that goal, however long it’s going to be.”
That message sits at the heart of Under the Surface, a 12-part short-form series exploring the people, experiences and relationships that shape Australian athletics beyond competition day.
Alongside Pearson, the 2026 series will feature athletes including Olympic pole vault champion Steve Hooker, Australian distance-running great Steve Moneghetti, emerging long jumper Delta Amidzovski and a range of current athletes and coaches.
Together, their stories connect Australian athletics’ past, present and future while providing audiences with a closer look at the preparation, setbacks, support networks and communities behind elite performance.
For Pearson, life after competition has involved discovering new ways to apply the same work ethic and focus that drove her athletics career.
She is now building a career in media, including presenting national iHeart Women in Sport updates across the ARN network.
“It’s great to be able to lift women’s sport up,” she said.
“I think what the nation and the world are doing with women’s sport is fantastic, and we have to keep doing more.”
Pearson has also continued to connect with the broader sporting community, including through recent work with Rio Tinto at the Brisbane Marathon.
She was particularly impressed by the way Rio Tinto employees embraced the event, with approximately 150 members of its run club taking part.
“I love working with people,” she said. “I discovered that in my post-athletics career.”
Her competitive days may be behind her, but the qualities that carried Pearson to Olympic gold – clarity, conviction and an unwavering willingness to do the work – remain central to the life she is building.
The medals may stay inside the wardrobe, but the lessons behind them are still being shared.
The first episode of the 2026 Under the Surface series, featuring Sally Pearson, is now available on Australian Athletics platforms.
To watch the episode, link HERE
By Luke Dennehy, Australian Athletics
Posted 24/6/2026
