Thrown beyond her comfort zone, forced to adapt within a completely foreign environment, Melissa Wu’s outlook was transformed.
Having struggled for years to cope with the pressure to perform amid such high expectations, the Australian diver appreciated she needed to be challenged differently if she were to ever evolve.
Melissa Wu competes in the women’s 10m platform at the Tokyo Olympics.Credit: Getty
It took her to SAS Australia last year, and the four-time Olympian believes the experience will prove a launchpad for success towards Paris 2024.
The Tokyo bronze medallist will return to competition in Brisbane on Sunday for the World Aquatics Championships trials, competing as an individual for the first time since the postponed 2020 Games.
Wu’s time on SAS was headlined by confronting scenes in which she collapsed unconscious due to tear gas exposure, before suffering a career-threatening back injury which forced her to withdraw.
Yet as she plots a historic fifth Olympic Games appearance, the 31-year-old has emerged to see the benefits of such an experience.
No longer burdened by a desire to control things beyond her control, the three-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist believed it has shaped her into being a more composed competitor.
“I’ve been pretty open with this in my career, but I struggled a lot with folding under pressure with the pressure I put on myself, and then just not really having the skills in the bank to be able to cope with that sort of thing. Training quite young, you’re expected to perform,” Wu said.
Charli Petrov and Melissa Wu won gold at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.Credit: Getty
“I actually learned a lot [on SAS], just little things I wish I had in the tool kit earlier as a younger athlete in terms of dealing with things you’re not prepared for. Coping in stressful situations, decision-making, and I think just backing yourself.
“As an athlete, you prep for so long, and you know you’ve done however many hours … but being thrown in the deep end and just winging whatever is thrown at you can be scary. I think facing fear a little bit and in uncomfortable situations was a really cool experience.
“I wanted to get out of my comfort zone and test myself in a completely different scenario. Basically, it made me realise you can’t always prepare for everything, and I was very much having to learn along the way.
“There’s only so much you can control … I could tackle things as it came my way, but as you get older and more injured things are out of your control.”
Wu’s comeback in Brisbane follows a period in which she feared her back injury may tarnish her Paris ambitions.
It kept her sidelined for a year, missing the last World Championships.
Yet, the time away from the pool seems to have rejuvenated her, and she has refused to consider her 2024 bid a swan song.
While Wu admits that in the past she had struggled to take a step back from training and competing, the amount of pain she was inundated with made it a far easier decision to put on the brakes.
Australian divers Charli Petrov and Melissa Wu.Credit: Getty Images
Whether she can continue beyond Paris and push for berths in Los Angeles 2028, or even Brisbane 2032, she remains uncertain.
As it stands, Wu said she was thinking no further than qualifying for the World Championships – with the trials beginning on December 3 – and her pursuit of an elusive Olympics gold medal.
“Having done such a long year we did a lot of travel – on and off a plane, compete, and I was in a lot of pain when I came to the Commonwealth Games,” Wu said.
“It was almost a relief it was over because it was such a long time of travel and competition leading up to it, and my back was just done. It took a while for the pain to go, and I was worried it wouldn’t.
“The process of getting to your peak is long and hard on the back of an injury, what seemed super easy a year before feels a lot harder.
“Last year it was very much compensating for that injury, and I couldn’t focus on technique, but having recovered it’s been more focused on rebuilding the technique I felt like I had going into Tokyo.
“Being able to qualify for Paris is a big goal, and I think about that more being long-term for me, and then I set goals for these major competitions. It takes a long time to get there, and you have to be really focused and do all the right things.”
