On 31 August, she will line up for the Sydney Marathon, which has officially joined the Abbott World Marathon Majors as the first event of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere.
Bryant first discovered diving after seeing it on television as a child. “I just thought, that looks awesome, I really want to give that a go. So I started when I was 10 and then dived for the next 17 years until I was 27,” she recalls.
As one would expect of an Olympic-level experience, Bryant says competing at the 2008 Beijing Games remains unforgettable. In fact it was “probably the most incredible two weeks of my life,” she explains.
“Being in the village, being part of such a big Australian team, and seeing all the famous people in the village… just absolute insanity,” she adds. “Obviously, super stressful and nerve-racking, all those things. I watch the footage now – we watched it last year when I went and spoke at my kids’ school – and I thought, how am I so calm? I felt stressed watching it, even though I know how it ends!”
Her composure, she says, was a result of preparation and experience. “Melissa and I had trained so much together that we had all our timings perfect. We were really confident. It was just about the execution of the dive – getting as vertical as possible on entry,” she explains. “Because we’d done a lot of comps together in the lead-up, we tried to think, this is just another comp, and downplay the seriousness of it. We’d competed at World Championships the year prior and won a silver medal, so we told ourselves, well, it’s just like that. So we tried to bring it down a bit, and focus on doing exactly what we did in training. We didn’t need to do anything new – just the same.”
Eventually, though, Bryant decided to step away from professional diving. What came next was a new sporting challenge, born partly out of practicality.
“When I was diving, a typical afternoon session was three and a half hours. So when I finished diving, I just wanted to keep fit, and I thought, what’s the most time-efficient way to keep fit? That’s running. I’m also stubborn – once I set my mind to something, I go straight ahead,” she says.
“So I stubbornly took up running. I’ve only recently stepped into the marathon space, but what drew me to it was the challenge – that self-challenge. It is kind of crazy to run 42 kilometres in one go. It was about saying, can I do it? Am I mentally that tough? Running’s such a big part of my life – and my whole family’s life – that it would seem weird not to have it. It feels like a necessity. And as a family, we do Parkrun every week.”
Motherhood has only deepened her relationship with running, giving her the opportunity to maintain a strong sense of wellbeing, but also some quality time to herself.
“Running was two birds with one stone: exercise and mental health, plus some time to myself where I wasn’t being asked a million questions,” she says. “As a former elite athlete, I also love a challenge and to be competitive. Doing Parkruns and then building into marathons has been really healthy for me. In our family, we prioritise running because we know how important it is for each of us to get that time and those endorphins.”
And if that was not enough, Bryant has also kept an unbroken streak of running at least five kilometres a day for more than one thousand consecutive days. “Maybe 1,044 today,” she laughs. “It started in Melbourne during lockdown. It was supposed to be six weeks, so I thought, I’ll run every day for the lockdown. Then it got extended, so I kept going. When it finally ended, I was close to 100 days, so I thought, may as well keep going.
“I never set out to do a thousand days, but here we are. Maybe the day after Sydney Marathon I’ll take a break – but don’t hold me to it.”
Top photo – Pictured: Briony Bryant, Source: Instagram/bree.bryant