Janelle Morrison back training after horrific car crash

By Regan Lauscher
Photo by Chris Cornett

It’s tough to break an athlete’s spirit. That insatiable desire to achieve. To overcome. To win.

And for professional triathlete Janelle Morrison, not even a head-on collision that left her hovering above death can change that. “I’m not saying there weren’t tough moments, but that’s all they were . . . moments,” says the Penticton, B.C. resident who recently returned home from a training camp in Utah with coach Paulo Sousa. “Negative or doubtful thoughts were never welcome in my mind, so they didn’t stick around.”

Last November, Morrison broke nearly every major bone in her body in a car crash near Revelstoke, B.C. Doctors feared for her life and kept her in an induced coma for a week. Now, after a remarkable recovery in barely 10 months, the tenacious 33 year-old is inching closer and closer to a racing return.
Working on her self-admitted weaker swim, running five days a week for 50 minutes and cycling nearly every day, Morrison is literally taking everything in stride and patiently waiting for the cue to perform.

“Once the scar tissue and adhesions work their way out of my lower leg, I will be ready to race again.  I am training like a professional athlete, just waiting for when my body tells me it is ready for go time.”

Morrison, who holds degrees in psychology and elementary education says living through a near death experience has changed her mental game, more than her physical one.
“Training as a professional triathlete is hard work.  Always has been, always will be,” says Morrison. “What’s different is that I am even more dedicated to my goals.  I want it more.” Morrison admits she’s battling less with her inner demons and self-doubt and more with the doubts apparent in others.  

“I have learned to block this out, or at the very least, disregard it for the wastefulness that it is,” says Morrison. “An athlete with a dream, who is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve that dream, is not easily broken. In fact, it may well be one of the toughest things to break in the world.”

Motivated by the inspirational stories from athletes such as footballer E.J. Henderson, runner Serena Burla and cyclist Lance Armstrong, Morrison says she learned that anything is possible. She hopes to meet all three one day. With a documentary currently being filmed about her own story of recovery, they may feel the same way about her.

September/October 2011