Olympian Brooke Buschkuehl recently visited Notre Dame College for a Q&A session with students, where she also shared her life’s journey.
Coinciding with international Olympic Day, on Friday, June 23, Mrs Buschkuehl arrived at the college aiming to inspire and encourage the students to explore their passion for sport and achieve their goals.
“Today I’m really here to just show the students and speak about my journey so far as an Olympic athlete and be able to celebrate the journey that I’ve been on,” Mrs Buschkuehl said.
“I want to encourage the students here today to have a go at the sport that they’re passionate about and hopefully be able to follow their sporting goals and achieve some pretty incredible things like I’ve been able to."
Born in Melbourne, Mrs Buschkuehl began her athletics journey at a young age, following in the footsteps of her older brother.
She has been committed to the sport ever since, specifically the long jump event, representing Australia in the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. She is also the Australian women’s record holder, with a leap of 7.13m.
A bright star in athletics, her path hasn’t always been smooth.
Mrs Buschkuehl said she has been challenged by health issues, being diagnosed with coeliac disease in 2013 and Hashimoto’s disease in 2017, and facing numerous injuries, including a stress fracture in her back in 2014.
“There’s definitely been some challenging times along my athletics journey,” she said.
“But it’s definitely taught me resilience and how to be able to bounce back when things aren’t going so great.”
Mrs Buschkuehl said it was her passion for long jump and a clear vision of what she wanted to achieve that had kept her motivated.
“Just having some pretty solid goals, both short-term and long-term, that I’m really focusing on keeps me motivated and keeps me showing up every single day,” she said.
Key to her journey has been her father, Russell Stratton, who has been coaching her since she was 10.
Mrs Buschkuehl said her father’s constant support has been instrumental in her success.
“I’m very grateful to be able to travel the world with him and be able to share all the highs and lows with my dad,” she said.
“I feel like it’s a pretty special relationship that we have.”
Her resilience, hard work and dedication in the face of adversity has inspired many, and she hoped that her story did the same for the students at Notre Dame College.
“For me, there’s been plenty of challenges on my journey,” she said,
“And I’ve never given up.
“I’ve continued to chase after my dreams and goals.
“I think being resilient, as I spoke about earlier, is something that I’ve really learned along the way and hopefully being able to share my journey of overcoming adversity will inspire the students to do the same thing.”