'The saviour': Why Genevieve Gregson is dreaming of Paris Olympic Games

Lying in a Tokyo water pit with a ruptured Achilles, a golden girl of Australian athletics figured her career was over. Not much else to do now, Genevieve Gregson thought, but start a family.

But there was, and still is, so much to do. Like rehabilitating an Achilles rupture while pregnant, undergoing surgery on the other Achilles which had been nagging at her for years, having a baby boy that emerged as a "saviour" in the struggle, and sliding in behind husband Ryan on a long run, picturing herself in a marathon at next year's Paris Olympic Games.

When Gregson's Achilles went during the Tokyo Olympics, a nation's collective heart went with it. Tears rolled down her face as she was taken from the track in a wheelchair, her steeplechase ambitions snapped in a split-second.

Yet on Sunday, the 33-year-old writes another chapter in a stirring comeback story.

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Gregson is pushing for a place in the Australian team for the world athletics cross country championships, with national trials under way at Stromlo Forest Park on Sunday morning.

As you delve into what it means to toe the start line again, whether she makes it to worlds or not feels purely academic.

"Right up until Tokyo, running was everything. It determined my mood daily. A good run made me really, really happy. A bad run made me depressed. It was the pure indicator of how my life would unfold," Gregson said.

"Now, as a mum, the only thing that matters is my family and being a good mum, making sure Archer is happy, healthy and living a really good life. Running is always second to that now.

"It's strange to have that. I will cut a run short if it means Archer needs me to be home at a certain time. I will skip cross-training session if I feel like Archer needs a bit more attention from me, playing on the floor.

"Sometimes my strength was my weakness, in going too far and pushing too hard and ultimately breaking my body. With Archer, it definitely lets me take an edge off and know there is something more important than all of those goals."

Gregson admits it took a while to wrap her head around what the next few years would look like after that heartbreaking fall in August of 2021.

She'd gone from thinking she was about to finish her third Olympic final - potentially in a top eight position - to thinking "my career is done" in the blink of an eye.

But rarely could she have figured the journey would pan out quite like this.

She was ticking off every milestone in rehabilitation while pregnant. She even had a Commonwealth Games qualifying time up her sleeve, wondering - if only for a moment - how it would feel to go to Birmingham.

Then another Achilles flared up. Think about a flat tyre in peak hour traffic, times it by a thousand, and you might land somewhere close to where Gregson was.

"It's the reason why I ruptured my right, the left has been a problem for five or six years. Going back down into surgery for that felt a little frustrating, because it was two steps forward, one step back," Gregson said.

Yet on Sunday morning in Canberra, she runs pain-free.

For the first time since 2016, Gregson can go for a jog, do a track session or a long, hilly run, and wake up the next morning without hobbling out of bed.

There are times she looks back at what she has been through and wonders how she did it, like when a cricketer called about a month ago, searching for advice after rupturing her own Achilles. Gregson's head started spinning when she opened her training diary alongside her physiotherapist and strength and conditioning coach.

"It was tiring to look what at what we'd done. It was five days a week, three or four hours every morning of rehab from September 2021 onwards. I thought to myself in my head 'This is so hard to tell this poor girl everything we did', because it looked overwhelming," Gregson said.

"But at the time I remember not feeling that. I was pregnant and I knew in nine months' time I would have a baby to show for it all. I just remember feeling so motivated through my training, just purely because I was about to start a family.

"It took away all that tedious, mind-zapping training and gave me a pep in my step. That's something I haven't really had with running before, it's an individual sport, it's very selfish.

"This time it was rehabbing, but also looking after yourself because you've got a baby growing and a family to provide for.

"That was the saviour in all of it."

Gregson admits her track days are limited. Wearing spikes flared her Achilles injuries and ultimately led to a rupture. It's not that she would never entertain the steeplechase again, but she knows her future is on the road.

Which is why she constantly wonders how it would feel to reach the Olympics for the fourth time, only this time in a different event.

"You have to set goals like that to keep you motivated and to keep the fire in your belly," Gregson said.

"I will remind myself how special it would feel so often. Sometimes I'll be doing a long run with my husband and I'll tuck in behind him and envision being in a marathon, even at Paris.

"You're constantly envisioning what it would feel like. I don't think I'll ever really know until I do it, but it would be close to one of the best moments in my life, behind having a child."

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