Just two years ago, Alyssa Conley had given up on athletics, but now she’s a double South African sprint champion who’s about to start her build-up to the Rio Olympics.
Conley surprised some observers by beating SA 100m record-holder Carina Horn at the national championships in Stellenbosch last month as she grabbed victory on the line in 11.36, with Horn second in 11.37.
She cruised to the 200m title the next day as none of the competitors came close to her personal best time of 23.01, which was also an Olympic qualifier – she also reached that goal in the 100m earlier in the season with an 11.29.
But getting to this point almost didn’t happen for the 25-year-old from Johannesburg. Conley was a junior star who came sixth in the 100m at the World Youth Championships in 2007 and had the world at her feet.
Two years later, though, Conley tore a hamstring at the African Junior Championships in Mauritius, which signalled the beginning of her injury problems. After rehabilitation, the next season wasn’t up to standard. “My season was just pathetic – running wasn’t comfortable for me, and I started losing, and I wasn’t used to losing! I didn’t even make the finals sometimes…” Conley told Independent Media.
“Something was just wrong, and I saw 10-15 doctors in various fields – physiotherapists, biokineticists, psychologists, orthopaedic surgeons… No one could figure out what was wrong with me, but I just wasn’t performing.
“Then my physio at UJ, Eli (Young), she was in a lecture the night before and the orthopaedic surgeon had spoken about the exact symptoms that I had, and I should go and see him. So I went to see him and he discovered that I have a cam bone in my right hip.
“That’s just when the head of the femur is a bit too big to fit in the socket, so hip flexion and extension would be very uncomfortable, which obviously as a sprinter, you need to do. That’s when I went for the hip operation at the end of 2010, and 2011 was just nine months of full rehab, getting back (into shape).”
The next two years were spent getting back into top shape and improving her times steadily, and Conley emerged from a difficult time to win the SA 100m title in 2013. But during a forgettable European season, she hurt both her knees and was out for the rest of the year.
That led to Conley – who also holds a degree in sports psychology and an Honours in sport management from the University of Johannesburg – virtually quitting the sport in 2014.
“In 2014, it was just a complete break from athletics – I didn’t think, speak or eat athletics. There was just no athletics in my life! But at the end of 2014 I started missing it, so I started searching for a coach. I went through a few coaches, but then I eventually found Morné (Nagel, former SA 200m record holder),” she said.
“So we had a full year of training in 2015 – no competitions, just 12 months of training. So with Morné as my coach and (sister) Simoné as my biokineticist, we worked as a team, just to get myself back out there.
“I’m extremely blessed and humbled to get the opportunity to chase my dream again as there were lots of times when I was doubtful, and people around me as well, (were asking) ‘Are you ever going to get back? Just give up on your dream’. So ja, it’s been a journey.”
But all of that is behind her now, and having won the sprint double in Stellenbosch, the Olympics is the ultimate goal. And the start of the process will happen on Sunday, when Conley lines up in the Fanny Blankers-Koen Games in Hengelo, The Netherlands.
She will take part in her preferred 200m race, where she will come face-to-face with Dutch world champion Dafne Schippers, who has a personal best of 21.63 – an astonishing time that ranks her third on the all-time list behind Americans Florence Griffith-Joyner (21.34) and Marion Jones (21.62).
All but one of the participants have faster personal bests than Conley’s 23.01, so she is hopeful of breaking through that magical sub-23 barrier on Sunday. “It’s an amazing opportunity and I am very excited to race against the world’s greatest athletes. I can only run a better race. I haven’t had many challenges in 200m races this year in South Africa, so I’m really looking forward to seeing what I can actually produce in the 200m in an amazing line-up,” she said.
“Apart from Dafne, there are great athletes running, so it’s going to be a fast race and I’m looking forward to it. I am definitely confident of breaking 23 seconds. I am looking for a PB, and I think the times I’ve been running myself, having that push and stepping up to a whole, another level, I think I will break that barrier.”
The SA record of 22.06, held by Evette de Klerk, was set 27 years ago. Conley is nearly a second off that mark, but she feels that can get there one day. Who knows, it could happen in Rio in August.
“That’s achievable (breaking the record one day). You can run a time now, you could improve by 0.5 seconds tomorrow or Monday. My goal as an athlete is to hold the SA 100m and 200m records before my career ends,” she said.
“2012 (London Olympics) was my target, but when it didn’t happen, eventually when I started believing in myself again, I always said ‘2016 is my year, and I’m gonna make it my year’. So I have been saying that to myself for a good two to three years, and that helps.”
@IndyCapeSport - Independent Media