and I’ m still doing PBs and medalling after six Games, with a child and handling everything.
“ I think balance is something everybody needs to re-evaluate and make sure that they have … and I think you just really learn to enjoy it more.”
Despite missing out on a medal, the period leading up to the Games and the years that followed did deliver gold of a different sort for Christie, and Andrew, in the form of a pair of wedding rings.
The couple began dating in 1999 and moved in together in the lead-up to the Games. In 2001 they shifted base to Newcastle and a year later they were married. Christie gave birth to the couple’ s son, Charlie, in 2011.
“ After Chris moved to Sydney we saw each other more frequently and it just grew from there. We moved in together in 2000 and then did the Olympics," Andrew said.
But after 2000 we came up here( Newcastle) for a while on weekends to visit Chris’ mum and agreed it would be good to get out of Sydney, so we just decided to do it.
“ I had to travel to Sydney probably three times a week for the first few years because I was still coaching athletes in Sydney and then gradually I got the athletes to realise that this was a better training venue and they moved up here as well, which was good.”
Kurt was among those who made the move from Sydney to the Hunter and Christie said it was a testament to both Andrew’ s skills as a coach and the fantastic training opportunities available in Newcastle.
“ I think Drew has a really lovely coaching style. He’ s coached a lot of athletes over the years with very different personalities and he always seems to know how to just hit the right spot with each athlete and I think that’ s something that’ s very hard to do.
“ I’ ve seen a lot of coaches over the years who have very distinct styles, and they won’ t change them for anyone, and they’ re very hard. You don’ t want to spend one session under their guidance let alone 20 years so I think that speaks volumes.
“ And the fact that athletes stay with Drew for so long, Kurt Fearnley and other athletes that come on board just stick with him because he’ s very good at what he does.
“ We’ re also really lucky in Newcastle in that any session I want to do, track, hills, flat or fast stuff, we can get in on our driveway and just push out the front door, and within 10 or 15 minutes you’ re on your training course.
“ When we lived in Sydney we’ d get up 4 o’ clock in the morning, drive an hour to Penrith from where we lived in North Sydney, have to train, drive an hour or an hour-and-a-half back in traffic – it was hard.
“ And by the time you got home you’ d eat, shower, sleep and you’ d have to get up and go to your next session and that would take 45 minutes to get to Homebush, maybe an hour to get home. It was hard and exhausting; this location just makes life so easy.”
In more recent times it has been the promising young Paralympian Rheed McCracken who has also made the trek from his home in Bundaberg, Queensland to Newcastle – on a more temporarily basis – to be trained by Andrew, who is also the head coach for the NSWIS and Australian wheelchair track and road squads.
“ I coached him prior to London( Paralympics in 2012), but he was still at school. Again when he finished school he moved down here,” Andrew said.
“ He didn’ t have a lot of money either, so before the World Champs he came down for three or four months, then after the World Champs he probably spent six months here before Rio, and now he’ s succeeded pretty well in Rio, he’ s got a bit more funding, so he’ s going to come back down.
“ He’ s only 19, so he’ s got a big future ahead of him. Again, he’ s a great kid, and that’ s what keeps me motivated to keep going because I want to see how sport can develop him too.”
Rheed picked up one silver and one bronze medal in Rio in what was just his second Paralympics, adding to the pair he secured in London four years earlier.
Kurt also won two medals in Rio during his Paralympic swan song, capping off an incredible career that has seen him collect three gold medals, seven silver and three bronze from five Games.
Christie rounded things out for the Newcastle-based athletes by bringing home a silver medal in the women’ s 4 × 400m relay( T53 / 54).
This was the third Paralympics in a row where she had medalled, after securing her first silver at the 2008 Beijing Games in the 4 × 100m T53 / T54 relay before following it up with her first individual medal at the 2012 London Games( bronze in the women’ s 5000m T54).
And while Rio represented her sixth time at the Paralympics, the mother-of-one said she has no plans to retire just yet. She said, as with anything in her life, her sporting future will come down to that need for balance.
“ I think that’ s what’ ll be the main thing. If you don’ t enjoy it and you’ re not motivated to get out of bed and train every day- and it’ s not just sport, it’ s anything – if you don’ t enjoy it, don’ t do it,” Christie said.
“ Our income doesn’ t depend on it, we don’ t get a lot of funding or anything like that, I do it purely because I love it, it keeps me fit and healthy, it’ s just good fun.
“ Four years seem like a long time but really by the time you fill it in with World Champs, Commonwealth Games, the marathon majors, it really comes around again pretty quickly.”
“ I’ m 36, and I have competitors who are 45, so you know, I could have another two or three left in me realistically. But I’ ve also got to remember my body’ s got to carry me through my entire life, not just your athletic career, so you need to be mindful of that.” www. intouchmagazine. com. au | 51