Basketball star Lauren Jackson has expressed her frustration with various sporting organisations for failing to support her through her retirement.
Jackson spoke with fellow sporting greats, Barry Hall, Libby Trickett, Matthew Mitcham, and Jana Pittman on Insight, explaining that she hadn’t heard from a single sporting body since she left the basketball court.
“When I retired, it’s really interesting, it felt like I was put out to pasture,”
“I’d been one of their greatest resources and … then all of a sudden it was over, you don’t hear from them,” Jackson told Insight host, Jenny Brockie.
I’d been one of their greatest resources and … then all of a sudden it was over, you don’t hear from them.
“The whole depression thing, I was on antidepressants during my career, so getting off all that stuff, I just didn’t have that support.”
“When you’re a really elite athlete there’s a lot to gain from having you,”
“Whether you’re a coach, you’re an administrator, whatever, you need to get the best out of your athletes and when you’re not … then you move on.”
Jackson retired from basketball at the beginning of 2016 after a series of injuries eventually took their toll on her body.
Although being told she could no longer play sport professionally was devastating, the four-time Olympic medallist said she was glad that the decision was taken out of her hands.
“There was this tiny little bit of relief when I was sitting in the room with everybody because, you know, in my heart I think I knew it was over,”
“[But] I could not actually make that decision myself, I had to be told. And then within five minutes I was bawling.”
The two-time WNBA Champion told Insight that the first few weeks being away from the court were “really difficult” for her.
During her 20 year career, Lauren Jackson has been called "Australia's greatest basketballer". Source: Getty Images Europe
“I did go into a shell. I stayed with my parents, I didn’t leave the house, and they really just took care of me.
“Without them I hate to think what would have happened.”
Jackson joined the AIS when she was just 15, but says she’s wanted to play basketball her whole life.
“I remember when I was four telling people that I was going to play in the NBA, you know, and mum and dad never said: ‘No, that’s for men.’”
Both of Jackson’s parents are accomplished basketball players themselves.
Maree Jackson, Lauren’s mother, is a former Opal, while father Gary played for the Melbourne Boomers in 1975.
“My mum, the story is she had me naturally and two weeks later was back on a basketball court.”
Just over a year since she announced her retirement, Jackson has become a mum, herself and says she’s happy in the new chapter of her life.
“I’m glad that I retired because I feel like a more whole person now that I’ve found myself, you know, away from what defined me as a human being for so long.”
Insight looks at how Australia's most skilled athletes have coped with life after sport | Game Over - 11 and 18 April, 8.30pm SBS
Catch up on both shows now. Part I:
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And Part II:
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