In the lead up to the Tokyo Olympic Games beginning this weekend, it was wonderful to hear from one of Australia’s former Olympians, Jamie Pittman. As part of the Olympics Unleashed Program, Jamie shared his journey, as a proud Indigenous athlete, to the Olympic Games and beyond with our Year 4 students.

Jamie explained that he started boxing as a form of rehabilitation when he was ten years old after falling though a window which left him with more than 50 stitches in his arm. His presentation inspired us to continue to set and achieve goals and to do our best. While Jamie had a number of huge set-backs, like missing out on Olympic selection for the Sydney Olympics and then missing out on an Olympic medal at Athens, he never gave up. Jamie’s goal now is to see the younger athletes that he coaches do their best. Jamie spoke about resilience, his favourite word.  Jamie told us that he loves a challenge and left Year 4 students with added motivation to set their goals. Jamie credits his sporting success and achievements to Mrs Short, his first ever Boxing Coach, who Jamie said never gave up on him. Jamie shared a number of interesting and funny stories, including one where he received boxes and boxes of fan mail only to find out they were actually for Australian Olympic runner and hurdler, Jana Pittman! On the bright side, this embarrassing news was delivered by one of his sporting heroes, Keiren Perkins!

What did our Year 4s say about Jamie’s visit:
“I liked that Jamie Pittman was very inspiring and how he persisted to reaching his goal. I learnt to never give up on your dreams and that hard work is everything.” (Sami)

“He told us that when he lost he decided to make a program to train people for the Olympics and become a coach and that was very inspiring.”

“I liked Jamie Pittman’s back story of how he became a boxer. He was very kind and answered all of our questions. He was very funny, like the story of how he was stuck in an elevator!” (Scarlett)

“Jamie Pittman taught me that you should never give up on your dreams.” (Isobel)

Students at Campbell Primary School will be about the right age to participate in the 2032 Olympic Games in Brisbane as an athlete, coach, administrator, doctor, physiotherapist, sports scientist or a number of other roles. How exciting is this!