Brianna Throssell survived 12 years of elite sport — 5am starts, eight-hour training sessions most days and two weeks off a year — without injury.
So it’s not lost on the Olympian that it was taking up running after she retired in 2024 that finally stopped her in her tracks.
The pain in January started as niggle. A twinge of discomfort in her left hip that didn’t feel quite right.
After finding herself with stretches of free time post her gold medal win at the Paris Olympics, she’d thrown her newfound energy into running.
Across her career there had been a blanket rule that swimmers shouldn’t run, so Throssell — a self-professed really, really average runner — obeyed, albeit a short jog here and there.
Now, she was addicted. Setting goals, rising to a challenge, the endorphin rush: it was everything Throssell loved about being a professional athlete.
“Once I’d finish running, I felt incredible. I just felt on top of the world and I love that feeling,” she says.
Slowly 2km became 5km, which built up to 10km before she ticked off a “Christmas Eve half” with her cousin. Perhaps it was the runner’s high, but they decided their next goal would be a marathon.
They picked a course — the flattest they could find — which ended up being the Gold Coast Marathon.
After training for 12 months across rainy Melbourne and sunnier Perth, to everything from ACDC, Elton John and High School Musical tunes, in July 2025 she ran her first marathon in three hours and forty minutes. Not bad for a really, really average runner.
“It was a relief,” she says of crossing the finish line that day. “But reflecting back now, I’m actually just so much more proud — probably than what I was in the moment. I think it takes a lot to get to that start line.”
Unknown to Throssell, though, the long distances on a strong body that was accustomed to gliding weightless through water was catching up with her.
Returning to Melbourne after a summer break in Western Australia, Throssell decided to do something about the persistent ache. She had an MRI for what she assumed would be diagnosed as a hip impingement.
The results caught her off-guard.
“You need to go to your local chemist right now and get yourself a set of crutches, you are non-weight bearing for six weeks (they said) because I had fractured 40 per cent of my femur,” she recalls of the call.
“I was so shocked to have that result, I associated fracture with a lot of pain whereas I wasn’t in that much pain. I was still getting about my day, with a little bit of an achy feeling, but I just thought a fracture would be very, very painful.”
Throssell was stunned, she’d gone injury-free through intense training and global competition. But now, she was being told to slow for the first time — and six weeks before her wedding too.
It’s now been six months since Throssell received the call, and she’s still unable to run.
She did however still have the best day at her nuptials to Josh Milner in the South West. A few adjustments, such as changing from heels to flats after the ceremony, ensured she could still hit the dance floor with their loved ones.
The crunches at first were tough, and the change to a routine that she was thriving in. But slowly, Throssell has found peace in the stillness. She’s tapped into the healing benefits of nutrition and sleep — eating and resting more than she ever has.
“It is like a blessing in disguise,” she says. “I’ve learned that I probably need to just slow down a little bit more and have more rest days, and listen to my body that little bit. I love pushing my body to the limits, that’s what I did, and that’s what I knew for 12 years of my life.”
She’s even back in the pool, something her skin and hair didn’t miss, but her body welcomed.
“I think my body loves to swim, it’s all it’s all it knew for almost 12 years of my life, so my body very much enjoyed being back in the pool,” she says.
We pick up our chat from the last time that Throssell was on the cover of STM in September 2024 in the wake of her retirement, glowing in a gold dress at, and in, Scarborough Beach Pool to commemorate an incredible career. She’d won gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics, adding to the gold and two bronze medals she won in Tokyo, 2021.
Throssell had reflected on the experience of announcing her retirement and the publicity it garnered, and considered what her future might look like, particularly after finishing a business degree with a major in management.
The degree, and her predisposition for routine, have proved invaluable in her role working in corporate strategy in Melbourne.
Throssell may have swapped a swimsuit for an actual one but what’s happening under the surface hasn’t changed.
“I love structure, I feel like that is when I perform best,” she says. “I get the most out of myself when I have a structure and a routine to follow. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a really strict structure . . . but just knowing exactly what I need to do, why I’m doing it is certainly how I get the best.”
There are moments that she misses her past life. The squad she trained with. Chasing a massive goal day in and day out. Knowing exactly why she was showing up to the pool everyday.
Yet she knew that she was ready to close that chapter and embark on the next phase of her life. And part of this new era will also include starting her own family with Milner.
The transition has also allowed her to let go of some of the pressures on her body, of not feeling like she has to be super strong in the gym.
“If I don’t want to get up and go for a run or go to the gym in the morning, I don’t have to,” she says. “That actually took a long time to sort of come to terms with — I’m not going to the gym to win an Olympic gold medal, I’m just going to the gym for a bit of movement before work, before I sit down all day behind a computer.
“Understanding that I don’t need to do this, and it’s just a choice that I’m making was definitely a big shift, and I’m definitely still trying to learn that now. To just become a little bit softer around exercise and chasing goals all the time.”
Whether she’ll run another marathon is up in the air. For now, Throssell is looking forward to the day she’ll lace up her runners again and hit the pavement, working her way back up from 5km.
For the first time in her life, slow and steady will win the race.