Steph’s had her battles, too. But one of her great talents has been to make it look all sunshine and unicorns.
Most of her challenges have come from feeling rejected by her peers, which naturally occurs when you’re a consistent champion. The people you compete with start to retaliate and band together to fight against the domination. It can be scary. It can be really hard.
But Steph also knows that there are things she does that separate her from the rest. They are the types of things that enable you to win seven world titles. You have to do more. You have to go above and beyond to be the best. That means doing emotional work, delving deeply into one’s own psyche, training harder, focusing harder on skill, fine-tuning equipment and investing deeply in knowledge around that equipment – these are the things that make a champion. These are the things that Steph has done. It’s about taking full responsibility for your performance.
People don’t see the crap you go through. They see the end result and think it was easy. Steph’s really good at making it look easy, even though it’s been an arduous battle for her. I caught up with her at the end of last year in Malibu and we had a really insightful conversation. It was fascinating to hear her doubt herself and hear some of the self-criticism she was going through. It astonished me. But that’s what champions go through.
ELEMENT OF FUN
Steph exudes joy when she paddles into the waves, she always has a genuine smile on her face. But the intensity in her is never far below. When we were competing in Brazil and she was right in contention for her world title – either her first or second one – she looked intense and it didn’t suit her. We were riding home on our bikes after doing a press conference on the beach front.
They have these little drink stalls along the beach and I convinced her to stop and have a drink with me to loosen things up a bit. When I retired later that year, I asked all my competitors to get up and say something about me. She got up and said, ‘I’d like to thank Layne for showing me that it’s OK to have a drink the night before I compete.’
I like to bring an element of fun and humour to tense situations. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that it’s meant to be fun. These days, when life gets really hard, I look for inspiration in Steph. She inspires me to keep things graceful, as I inspired her to have more fun.
I always thought of myself as the master and Steph the apprentice. But I think we’ve been pretty good for each other. Way back in 2007 – I think it was her first fulltime year on the tour – she asked me for advice. ‘What’s the best way to perform through all the expectation and the pressure?’
I said to her, ‘Surf through your heart, not through your head. Get back in touch with where the love comes from and what’s important to you. Just focus on that.’
I got knocked out of that event by Carissa Moore, who was 14 at the time and I was so upset. I remember Steph coming up to me and giving me a big hug afterwards.
‘Why didn’t you surf through your heart?’ she asked. I couldn’t really say anything. All I could think was that sometimes we teach others what we really need to learn ourselves.
Steph’s been a really good honesty barometer for me. A positive reminder of grace, ease and gratitude. She is a ‘smiling assassin’, but she’s also been very gentle, kind and supportive.
I feel incredibly proud of Steph for winning her seventh world title and proud of the sport. Everything that me and my generation fought for over many years has paved the way for her to flourish and bloom into a remarkable athlete and role model. She’s a great human as well as a great champion.
More about: Layne Beachley | Mick Fanning | Steph Gilmore | Women's Sport | WSL
Load More
