Jamaican sprint legend Veronica Campbell-Brown has opened up about the devastating injury that shattered her dream of competing at a record sixth Olympic Games.
The three-time Olympic champion has shared intimate details about her final days as an elite athlete and the painful transition to life after track.
Veronica Campbell-Brown, who made her Olympic debut at the 2000 Sydney Games as a wide-eyed 18-year-old, had envisioned the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics as the perfect swansong to her illustrious career.
“I attended five Olympics, actually, I was hoping to make it to six. Right before the Tokyo Olympics, two weeks out, I got injured. I was feeling good in training and I believed maybe I could make the relay team”, Veronica said in an interview with Yendi Phillips.
“I was pushing too hard and suffered a hamstring injury. That’s when I realized, two weeks out, and that’s when I retired, four years ago. I think that injury was a sign that I had had enough and maybe it was time for me to move on.”
Veronica Campbell struggled to accept she could no longer post the blistering times that made her a global sprint queen.
“My body had had enough but mentally. It’s so hard for us as athletes to retire because I had run track and field for the whole of my life. The first two weeks were tough but after that, I moved on and accepted it,” she confessed.
Campbell-Brown described identity crisis as a disease faced by many elite athletes.
“I had to think about a new routine since I had practiced the same routine for so many years. My body was ready to retire and as an athlete, I knew it – it was just tough to accept it.”
Since retiring, the sprint legend has embraced motherhood, entrepreneurship with her VCB FIT brand, and philanthropy through the Veronica Campbell Brown Foundation.
“Everything was to come to an end. But new beginnings await.”
