Canadian track stars can’t catch Jillian Richardson’s records

By Regan Lauscher
Photo by Charles Hope

Sixteen years after a collision on Deerfoot Trail in Calgary ended her track and field career, three-time Olympian Jillian Richardson-Briscoe still describes the memories of her shortened career as painful.

Despite three months in intensive care, the 400-metre specialist was determined, much less convinced, she would regain her second place world rank status. 

However, after months of rehabilitation and a progressive return to training, Briscoe recalls how she watched her times become slower and slower. In the end, it was a quote from her coach she read in the newspaper that seemed to seal her fate and send her into retirement.
“[He said] I looked like a broken down car.  That the timing is off,” she said.  “That quote really sunk home . . . it was apparent that I wouldn’t come back.”

Briscoe, who still holds the Canadian outdoor (49.91) and indoor (51.69) records at 400 metres, candidly admits the struggle she endured in redefining her new identity. 

Finding it hard to muster the motivation to do something she felt would never surpass what she accomplished as an athlete, Briscoe dug up something from her past and unlocked the key to her future. “I thought I’d pick up on my second love and that was interior designing,” she said. “I had (design) magazines from all over the world that I’d collected (as an athlete) because a lot of times when you can’t speak their language you try to find something that you can understand.” Interior design has not only proven to be a lucrative living for Briscoe, who is opening her own business called Jillianna Designs in Toronto, it’s proven therapeutic as well.

“After the accident, I was still lost basically. I renovated houses. I would break down walls. It was really nice to have a vision and have a plan put together.”

Briscoe tried her hand at coaching about six years ago after a young boy she’d met at a school event struck her in a way she couldn’t describe. 
In a revelation she calls ‘cosmic’, it turns out they had more in common than him simply reminding her of herself as a child. “Almost the exact day I had my accident was the day this kid was born.”

Now, a growing business and raising three sons of her own — Sterling, 20, Paris, 16 and Trey 12 — the days of running and coaching track are behind her.

Having been inducted into the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame in 1997, Briscoe says she’ll need another 10 years to digest what that honour truly means.
“I remember when I did get that recognition and its like ‘oh my God . . . you know you’re old when you’re inducted to something’.  So it was kind of bittersweet!” she laughs.

September/October 2011