A SMILE and nod let Kathy Tallent know her son is feeling strong and confident at the 40-kilometre mark in London. She says the last 10km is the most crucial part of the race where, if you are near pace with the leaders, you make your play.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Jared Tallent captured Olympic silver that day in the 50km walk, his pet event, after media questioning his form a week earlier in the 20km walk.
In the four years since, Jared has become a vocal leader for justice in athletics knowing he was beaten that day by a Russian doping cheat. He launched a social media campaign, calling on the International Olympic Committee for action on the Russian athletics program.
In late June this year, Jared was finally awarded Olympic gold and will enter Rio as defending Olympic champion.
Kathy still worries about him but is so proud.
“He was pretty quiet and pretty shy growing up,” Kathy said. “Most times he’s been beaten (on the world stage) he can tell if it has been unfair, but it’s still a bit of a surprise to see him speaking out how he has.”
Growing up on a farm, Jared was the youngest of four brothers in a family of six children, and Kathy said he would always have a go at competing with his brothers – now he was the tallest, but still the skinniest. The Tallent boys went to tiny Dean Primary School where Jared was one of two pupils in his year.
Jared was exempt from school music lessons because the only instrument pupils learned was the recorder, not that it seemed to faze him, because he had lost part of his right index finger in a farm accident as a two-year-old.
When a little older, Jared would delight in playing tricks to younger kids with his partial digit, sticking it in his ear, or up his nose.
His finger captures public interest each time personal story is told through media in major events. The accident happened in a potato sorting machine. Kathy had put him down briefly to have a break from carrying him, and he moved lightning fast to curiously put his finger in a hole in the machine.
Doctors could not save the top of his finger. Kathy said she would never forget the look on Jared’s face when the doctor removed the bandaging. “You broke finger”, were the only words out of his mouth and he kept wearing bandaging for weeks.
Kathy pondered whether that was a little glimmer of Jared speaking up for what he believed was fair and right.
JARED TALLENT’S DRIVE TO DELIVER HIS BEST
OLYMPIC race walk champion Jared Tallent was dropped from the Victorian Institute of Sport in his late teens.
Officials viewed his 20-kilometre time as below par but at the time, Jared was still racing under-20s in which standard race distance was 10,000 metres.
Jared’s mum Kathy Tallent said coach Brent Vallance had urged him to apply for an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship anyway and at 19 years old, Jared moved to Canberra.
He arrived at the AIS lacking the core strength of most scholarship athletes.
A strong junior swimmer, triathlete and cross-country runner, Jared took up race walking relatively late about 13 years of age. Ballarat race walk coach Daryl Biggin introduced Jared to race walking through athletics.
“What turned it for me was when Jared represented (Ballarat) High in Geelong and clocked seven and a half minutes for 1500 metres – no kids do that,” Biggin said. “When he went to all-schools he got a medal for third and was unhappy because a kid raced past him on the last lap. The following year, it was gold, gold, gold.”
Jared edged his way up.
In 2001, Jared contested the IAAF World Junior Championships, finishing seventh in the 10,000m. His parents, unable to make the trip to Hungary, quickly book flights to world youths in Jamaica a year later in case it was the last chance to see their son compete on an international stage.
“He’s certainly committed and he’s always wanted to do the best he can,” Biggin said. “Jared likes to work as a team and has a good team around him. He is driven, but has passion for what he is doing.”
Jared will get Biggin on the bike when he is back training in Ballarat, and he will always make time for junior athletics. Biggin said Jared stayed true to his beginnings.
