SHE’S revered as one of Australia’s golden girls of the pool, competing at three Olympics in 1980, 1984 and 1992, and winning multiple medals at three Commonwealth Games and world swimming championships.
But since retiring from the pool, Lisa Curry Kenny hasn’t hung her togs out to dry: she’s been spending more time on the water than in it – having won four world championships in outrigger canoeing, and one World Solo Long Distance Canoe Championship in 2007.
It was while training for this year’s gruelling event that Lisa, now 46, discovered she had been suffering from an irregular heartbeat, a condition known as myocarditis, which could have resulted in a heart attack if left unchecked. It’s believed her heart muscle was injured by a viral infection which may have been compounded by her rigorous training program.
This led to heart surgery in March, during which her cardiologist implanted a cardio-defibrillator which will stay with Lisa for the rest of her life.
How is she feeling now? “I’m good. I can’t do some of the things I used to, but I’m slowly adapting,” Lisa says, speaking to “CityNews” from her Sunshine Coast home, where it was a “chilly 18 degrees”.
As part of the recovery process, the former Olympian and world champion had to surrender her demanding training schedule of four to five hours daily, in favour of rest and recuperation. She kickstarted her fitness regime in July with daily one-hour sessions, far less challenging than the champion has been used to for most of her life.
“I miss what I was able to do,” she says. “It’s a different type of training. The new regime doesn’t challenge me. For elite athletes, training is about the challenges it brings and the satisfaction of achieving goals.”
These days, fitness is about wellness. “It’s a holistic approach and about having balance in your life,” she says.
Having lived in Queensland for most of her 46 years, Lisa spent two years in Canberra in the early 1980s training at the fledgling Australian Institute of Sport.
On August 8, she will be making a welcome return to the capital, joining fellow Olympian Tatiana Gregoriava as guest speakers at the Beijing Olympics Opening Day VIP luncheon and race meeting at Thoroughbred Park.
Lisa participated in the Moscow and LA Olympics in 1980 and 1984, then in Barcelona in 1992.
“I was commentating at the 1988 Seoul Olympics with an English girl who had also retired. We both looked at each other and said ‘we could be down there’ and we both made comebacks.”
Even now, when she watches athletes performing at the Olympics, the desire to be there with them still burns in her heart and soul. “It never goes away.”
“As an Olympian you always miss being there – the atmosphere, living in the village and sitting next to a gold medal gymnast from Romania or a champion runner from Africa. There’s nothing else like it,” she says.
“It’s an amazing feeling when you know you are one of only 10,000 athletes in the world who has earned their place there.”
Married to another elite athlete, champion ironman Grant Kenny, since 1986, the couple has three children, now aged 21, 17 and 13 (born around Olympic commitments?)
She is former chair of the National Australia Day Council, a media personality, a motivational and public speaker, author, and was director of a successful swimwear label, Hot Curry, for about 10 years, letting go of that in 2002.
“It was a good fit, but it wasn’t my passion.”
And she’s adding another string to her already well-strung bow by undertaking a full-time fitness leader’s course.
Obviously a superwoman, how does she do it all?
“I’m really, really organised, but sometimes it falls off the rails. And Grant’s fantastic,” she says.