By Justin Flynn
Ocean Grove’s new Commonwealth Games silver medallist was told he would never walk normally again after a freak accident playing American football.
Marty Jackson, an arborist for City of Greater Geelong, allowed himself one day to process his thoughts then immediately set about figuring out what sport he could try next.
Four years after taking up athletics he now has a Commonwealth Games silver medal for the F38 shot put.
“Anything that I’ve taken up I’ve committed 100 per cent to it,” Jackson said.
“My life revolved around gridiron and chasing excellence. They day after I suffered the injury they explained that there was a good chance I might not walk properly again, so I let it sink in and the next day I was looking for something else to focus on.”
A founder of Geelong Buccaneers gridiron club, Jackson was its star player until an accident during a game left him with a knee dislocation that led to partial paralysis of his lower left leg.
“I needed to set a goal to recover,” he said.
“I went from the top of my sport right down to the bottom but self-pity doesn’t do you any favours.”
Jackson’s preparation for the games couldn’t have gone worse. Jackson described his form the week before “horrible”.
“It was the worst performance I’d ever put together.
“I was over-thinking things. There had been times when the mental pressure had gotten to me in the past whereas in team sports it hadn’t.”
A shift in Jackson’s mindset paid off.
“I walked into that stadium knowing this is what I was going to do.
“The first four throws in the Commonwealth Games I couldn’t hear a thing – I was that focussed.”
Jackson said and gold medallist Cameron Crombie were good mates, calling themselves the Shot Put Twins.
“I’m Danny DeVito and he’s Arnold Schwarzenegger,” Jackson laughed.
“It’s been a pretty incredible experience. It was a hugely emotional moment (standing on the dais) and I thought I’d probably fall apart up there.”
