MOST Olympians would select their own participation as their favourite ever moment in the Games – but not Southend’s former sprinter Sarah Jolley.
Under her maiden name of Wilhelmy, she competed in the 4x100m relay at the Sydney Games in 2000.
But that meant she was also inside the Olympic Stadium when more than 100,000 Australians roared Cathy Freeman to victory in the final of the 400m final.
“Being there that night is the one major thing that has stayed with me from Sydney,” said Sarah, who is now aged 32.
“The pressure on her was just massive and I just don’t know how she was able to deal with it.
“There were huge billboards with her face on everywhere, she was on the side of every bus that went past you, she lit the Olympic flame at the opening ceremony and it’s just hard to explain what it was like.
“David Beckham is probably the closest thing we have to it in this country but it was even more intense for her.
“When she won she didn’t seem able to take it all in but just being there for something like that and hearing the noise was just an unforgettable experience.
“So was the fact that I actually stayed in a caravan during the Games because there wasn’t enough rooms.
“But they were quite stylish caravans!”
Sarah took to the track just days after Freeman’s success and ran the third leg as Britain’s sprint relay team made it through the opening round.
And the sprinter remembers being more nervous than usual for the race.
“It was a morning session so there weren’t as many fans in the stadium as there were for Cathy Freeman’s race but I remember being quite up tight about it,” said Sarah.
“When you’re in the relay you’re racing for the other girls so you don’t want to let them down and thankfully we were able to get through to the next round.”
Britain finished fourth in a time of 43.26 seconds to advance to the semi-finals.
But at that stage, the selectors opted to leave Sarah out of the team.
“I obviously would’ve liked to have run again but I wasn’t that upset about it to be honest,” said Sarah, who won three English Schools titles and six AAA championships at various age levels during his career.
“I hadn’t expected to run at the Olympics that year because I only decided to run at the selection trials about two weeks before they took place.
“Because of that it was a huge bonus for me to even be there at all and I also just presumed I would have other chances to compete at the Olympics again in the future.”
However, a succession of injuries halted Sarah’s progress and eventually led to her retirement at the age of just 22 in 2002.
“I had troubles with injuries all the way through my career, even when I was about 13,” said Sarah, a former Southend High School for Girls pupil.
“You name it I probably injured it at some point and eventually it was discovered it was all because of my back.
“It was frustrating because 2001 was a really good season for me and I competed at the World Championships but I was unable to build on that.
“It wasn’t a nice time because I was getting sponsorship money and funding and I wasn’t able to do anything with it because I couldn’t train or run.
“We tried everything we could to get me back fit but in the end I had to stop competing which was a real shame.”
After that, Sarah completed a degree at Essex University and it was during that time she met her now husband Steve.
They married in 2005 and have three children – Emma, six, Ben, five and Jessica, two.
Most of Sarah’s time is therefore spent caring for them but she will be tuning in to watch the London Olympics this summer after now being able to watch athletics once again.
“When I first retired I wasn’t able to even tune in if athletics was on television,” said Sarah. “But I can now and I actually prefer watching it on TV because you can see more of what’s going on.
“A few of the athletes I know will be there like Marlon Devonish, Christian Malcolm and Phillips Idowu and of course I wish I was running because it would be amazing.
“However, I don’t have any regrets and never really look back and wonder what could have been.”
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