Walking back to happiness
GILLIAN O’SULLIVAN is all set to return to competitive race walking in time for next summer’s World Championships in Helsinki but with a whole set of new targets and a different outlook on life.
Silver medallist in the women’s 20k walk at the worlds in Paris two years ago, she was one of the medal favourites for last year’s Olympic Games in Athens.
But all that ended in heartbreak. Prolonged injury, fought with the courage that has always been the hallmark of her character, forced her to return to Ireland the day before she was due to break camp and depart for the Athletes’ Village and the most important assignment of her career.
The pain, frustration and disappointment were compounded by the fact that nobody could find the cause of her problem - hours of treatment on the tightness in her lower back that caused pain down her leg when she walked and ruined her technique were getting her nowhere.
Yesterday the smile was back on her face when she revealed that she was back training and insisted she would be ready to take her place on the line in Helsinki next August. But she admitted that it will be a long road back.
“I’m back training but it is very slow and I know it will be slow for a while,” she said. “But at least I am making progress. I started 10 minutes, then 15-20-25 and I am up to about half an hour now.
“It sounds like nothing to what I would normally be doing, but there is no pain and I can build on it. The first three months are going to be slow and boring but then, hopefully, I will be able to get back to something resembling what I was doing before the injury - maybe not the same intensity.”
It may be one short step on the way back to full fitness but in terms of relief and relaxation it is a huge leap forward - just the fact that she was able to get a positive diagnosis.
“I had done MRI scans, x-rays, ultrasound - everything - and they were saying there was nothing showing up,” she recalled. “I was getting a lot of treatment from my own physio, Michael Cotter. He was treating me and treating me but he felt there was nothing happening.
“We had been in touch with Gerard Hartmann during the summer and he suggested going to Dr Muller in Munich in Germany, who treats the likes of Paula Radcliffe - a number of international stars from a whole variety of sports go to him. He was able to sort out an appointment for me. Mark Carroll was actually over a few days later.”
She went to Munich desperately looking for something that would tell her where she was at or where she was going, if anywhere. It was the last chance saloon.
“He took an X-ray and he was able to tell me that it was more a nerve problem in my lower back. It took a while but at least we now had it pinned down,” she said. Relief!
Treatment began immediately. He treated her with the homeopathic remedies for which he is renowned - treating all the different muscles, joints and nerves in the middle to lower back. It was intensive stuff.
He works in conjunction with a chiropractor who was able to tell her that there was also a problem with her hip, that it was slightly misaligned - not even millimetres - but it made a huge difference.
“So I was with him for about five days,” she said, admitting that they were probably amongst the most important five days of her career.
“I am actually going back at the end of the month and he will be able to see if things are still OK and what kind of training I can do.
“The training I am doing at the moment is obviously very light - it is more kind of rehab work to build up the muscles. It will take a while but it is great. Sometimes I am still cautious about the whole thing - I almost can’t believe it after all that I have been through.
“Hopefully by the end of February I will have progressed a good ways and I am hoping for no more setbacks or anything like that.”
Never having had an injury of any great consequence before, this had come as a huge shock to the system. The fact that it happened in Olympic year when she expected so much from herself and so many expected so much from her was devastating.
She had done so well the previous season, when she won her silver medal at the world championships and the overall Race Walking Grand Prix, which is decided by races across the world.
“The way the race went in Athens made it even more frustrating,” she admitted. “I mean it could have been anybody’s race. It was just there for the winning. It was so unfortunate.
“But you have those things in life. I went through days when I felt it would be easier to just give it all up and go back working. But then, the next day, I would say that’s not the way to do it. You know you have just so many years that you can do it any way and you might as well make the most of those.
“Now I am back again. The main thing is to get to the world championships. Maybe I won’t win a medal, but I know I can still do well. Being up there is the important thing right now.”
She admitted she will come out of this a stronger athlete having been through so much heartbreak and pain.
“And Dr Muller has given me so much belief in myself again. He does not just treat you. He is so positive that he instills great belief in you. He told me he had seen the problem before, that it was not a big problem and that I will recover. He told me I would get back training and that he would see me in Helsinki and that was so positive.
“I had gone to see him as a last resort. I thought I was going mad trying to explain the problem to people, that it was going down my leg, and trying to get a handle on it myself. Then to be told I could get back training was such a relief. I could hardly believe what I was hearing.”
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