Many of us dreamed of becoming a world champion as a kid. Our guest in this episode made that dream come true! And that’s because Emma Carney is hard wired: hard wired to win.
Emma takes us through all of the stages that make up her amazing race.
It’s full of big beautiful dreams, torturous training, drama and politics, gut wrenching loss and blatant unfairness to world domination and athletic performances that may never be repeated.
Emma is amazing, a brutal competitor who was prepared to suffer more than all of her competitors in order to get the job done. She is authentic, raw and always, always tells it like it is.
She is an inductee of the Sport Australia Hall of Fame (2016), the International Triathlon Union Hall of Fame (2014), and the Triathlon Australia Hall of Fame (2012).
On your marks, get set, go….
Want to buy Emma’s book?
DM Emma on Instagram to arrange a signed copy of her book.
Visit Readings in person or online to buy an unsigned copy.
Part A of our interview with Emma Carney
Part B of our interview with Emma Carney
Partial transcript of our Interview with Emma Carney
So my book is called hardwired life, death and triathlon and the two options I had is a title was either hardwired because that’s the way my brain works. And as it turns out, I mean ended up hard wired with the defibrillator in Manchester. But that’s another storey or it was going to be no Plan B. So it was. The Storey is about my life. I’ve kept diaries for most of my life and about a dream from very, very young age of being an athlete that represents Australia and as my career and my life sort of, I suppose, unfolded for me and I was living it. I was actually quite disappointed, and it wasn’t until I wrote the book and put everything together that I’ve actually gone. Hey, you know, people have read it and said that Sze exhausting. That’s not the first time I’ve heard that, and it’s It’s actually been really rewarding to write and put everything down and give my account off my life
because there is some, well, absolutely will cover this off as we talk through it. But, um, moments in your life that have been really, really difficult not only from a personal perspective, but from a professional perspective, and we’ll talk about the 2000 Olympics shortly. But it is, I didn’t realise, like outside looking in your watch, you on the telly, screaming down the towards the finish line minutes in front. And you know, the sponsorship that accolades and you think what? Cracking life. But you read the book and it’s bloody hard work.
It’s funny, I say the dream for May, and it was always, you know, I always take things very seriously, and I’m probably 110% into everything I do. If I decide to do it. Eso like when I went to university that wasn’t didn’t really want to do it, so I didn’t pass s that’s there for two options, either really good or really bad, but yet to be the best in the world. It was about being great in Australian sport and to be remembered in Australian sport. You had no choice. You had to be the best in the world. You had to be a world champion and you had to dominate. And travellers not wasn’t like one of the top sports for recognition. So I had to dominate and that was that was my idea. And that was my dream. And yes, some people don’t share that with you. And you have to have these people in your career because they might be running a national federation or they might be administrator or they might be a selector or, you know, they might be a journalist. Just doesn’t like you. So you do have situations where people aren’t sharing your dream, but they’re still part of it and, you know, keeping diaries and very detailed sort of documentations of the time. It’s actually lead for quite uninterested Storey of what actually goes on for an athlete,
it’s so muchmore than I want this world championship in 95. And this one it’s so much more than that. And well, at the end of the recording will tell everyone the best place. Tio, get your book hard wired. So you’re the number one translate across the globe. In 95 96 97 you had 19 international Trifon Union World Cup starts listening this Nick 17 wins, one second one did not finish and then for you to your world championships off which you want to. You came second in one which you were crook, and then you came to seventh and you’re also cook like a staggering career. This and we’ll talk about that in a minute. One thing that we need to clear up you were actually born in England.
Yes, Big secret. I was born in England and fortunately, my father when he was 11, he went to the movies with his granddad, all the pictures. I think they called it anyway. Before every major movie. There was a little bit of an advertisement movie, and it was it was on Australia on, my dad said. He just sat there and just looked at these images and said to his grandad, What is that? And his grandad said all that That’s a country called Australia. If you ever get the chance, you could live there. So from then on Dad wanted to live in Australia, and he met Mom had us and Mom was destined to live here because her name Sheila.
Of course it was always going to happen. So you moved over here and you actually started living in a beautiful southeastern suburb of Melbourne called Glen Waverley. We both share that place where we grew up and you went to my most primary school on DH listeners. It’s a little known fact that Emma is actually the second greatest athlete to come out of my most of primary school. I was, in fact, that the greatest athlete That is not true. You would not even remember me because I was just so far back. Tell us, what was it like in the carny household? As a kid growing up with you two sisters,
I think, I suppose, in comparison to other families, we’ve may have been a little bit odd. What do you mean by that? So I’m one of three girls and obviously mum and Dad David Sheila and came out to live in Australia, and, you know, Dad wanted to have the rial off the experience. So we did settle England wave Li, and that’s sort of always been a bit of outdoorsy person and mom’s very alternative. She used to sell pottery on ST Kilda Market to pay our school fees. So I ended up buying a block of land out in Eltham and we built a mud brick house. That’s right. So that kind of behaviour, I don’t think is completely normal. Especially when you’re going to a top tier school and you’re covered in model weekend building a house, mom selling pottery. And you know, Dad’s career was also heading into the sports industry. So who is it? Andy Dash? And then he was one of the guys that Mikey and I sort of started to getting exposed Teo Sport and athletes and what they could achieve. And so it was very, very. It was a very positive environment as well, because everything was always possible to achieve. And I think that was a really rewarding part as well
as you are rolling around the suburbs of Glen Waverley hanging out with your sisters, Was it clear to you that you wanted to bay an athlete as a teenager or you wanted to go and do something else?
we live? Clem waved me when I was about six. So you know, then we went out to Eltham and I wanted Teo remember sitting in Dad’s office and he was it added us. And so that must have been about 78 79. And I remember I saw Rob de Castella come in and I said, Oh, what’s that guy doing? Because I came in and he got all this stuff and he walked out when he came in, every eye was like, Well, you know, there’s a big stellar and like a big legend of all that would be nice if you go somewhere and everyone’s really excited to see you And then I think a little bit later on, I saw him on TV, running and winning something. And I think there’s a guy at your office and Dad said, Jerry’s he’s like his Napoli And I said, Really, I said, Can you do that for a job and does said, Oh, yeah, you got to be the best in the world, though. And so from then on, that was sort of the way I was going to go, and unfortunately I was really exposed to sport a school. There was a very strong support programme. I went toe. I’m allowed to speak about the school. I went to Wellesley College and they’re just gone coed. So it was an environment where the school was highly encouraging women and girls and it was environment where it was really, really good time. You know, if you had a passion for something as a girl, you were really backed. And so I was the first girl to run a PS cross country on Saturday mornings for me was all about seeing how many boys I could make cry because I had never realised. I have never realised that it was bad to be beaten by a girl because I came from a family of girls. Dad was always really positive about everything, and I started doing races. And remember, one day I came third ID and there was so many people from Xavier crying, and I thought I could really get into the Oh,
