Lumen Winter 2016 - Flipbook - Page 13
story by Kelly Brown
It was in 1998, during her second year
of her social sciences degree majoring in
psychology, that she joined the Adelaide
University Boat Club. This was the move
that provided the transition she was
desperately seeking into elite rowing.
“It was the perfect transition – the
Adelaide University Boat Club and the
University Games were exactly the level
that I needed to compete at for a few years,
and I was lucky enough to go to the World
University Games in 1998, representing
Australia and also the Adelaide University
Boat Club,” says Amber.
In 1999, Amber made her first Australian
team – the under 23’s – but it was only in
2002 when she was in a winning boat at
the Senior World Championships that the
Olympics seemed a possibility.
It was the same year that she returned
to the University to commence a second
degree, a Bachelor in Media.
While for some, taking on a media
degree at the same time as trying to
make an Olympic team would seem
unmanageable, Amber was accustomed
to setting big workloads and this became
a trademark of her success.
“Looking back on it the key was to do
something really hard and difficult and
use that as your reference point, so that
you can always refer back and say, ‘oh
look, I did year 12 and I was training every
morning down at West Lakes and I still
got to school on time every morning, so
surely I can do XYZ now because I’ve
done this really hard thing in the past
and been successful’,” she says.
Amber became a regular on the
Australian team, representing her country
at the 2004 Athens Olympics – the same
year she completed her media degree –
and also Beijing in 2008 before retiring.
It was after the bitter disappointment
of not winning a medal at Beijing that she
decided to set aside her rowing oars and
took up another sport – cycling.
“We always did cycling as cross
training as rowers, and rowing makes you
strong for pretty much anything, so it just
wasn’t that hard for ‘my rowing engine’
to transfer to cycling,” she says. “The
hardest thing was picking up the skills
and the tactical knowledge.”
Amber enjoyed quick success. In
2009 she won the Tour of New Zealand
followed by an Australian National
Championship in the time trial event. Then
in January 2011 her professional cycling
career was cut short when she came off
her bike in a life-changing accident in a
support race at the Tour Down Under.
Amber has no memory of the race.
She was told that she rubbed wheels with
someone, fell awkwardly and landed on
her temple, just below where the helmet
protected her head. The impact resulted in
a severe traumatic brain injury which put
her in hospital for two months followed by
six months of out-patient rehabilitation.
It took some time for Amber to come
to the realisation that going back to sport
at an elite level would not be possible.
She likens this period to waking up in
heavy fog where you don’t have much
perspective on how things really are.
While recovering in hospital Amber was
brought back to her interest in human
psychology. She spoke to Carmen Rayner
in the University’s School of Psychology,
and found out about the Graduate Diploma
Psychological Science. Amber was also
keen to get into Honours; however the
first test would be whether her brain could
handle the Graduate Diploma.
“When you do a Graduate Diploma
Psychological Sciences you basically do
a three-year undergraduate degree in one
year, a heavy load for anyone never mind
someone who is in recovery from a severe
traumatic brain injury,” she says.
“It was like jumping in the deep end
of a pool. You would either sink or learn
to swim and luckily I learned to swim.
I worked incredibly hard that year and
made Honours – and that was a new
point of reference for me.”
The research component of her
Honours whet her appetite for research,
and Amber is now completing a PhD
in Psychology under the Supervision
of Professor Deborah Turnbull in the
University’s School of Psychology.
“Yes, it was a bit funny actually. I just
like exceeding expectations – you know
pretty average school rowers aren’t ever
meant to get to the Olympic Games and
similarly people with brain injuries aren’t
meant to do a PhD, so of course that’s
what I wanted to do,” Amber says.
In her PhD she is investigating
how positive education can be done
better so that it is more accessible for
young people. Positive education is a
scientifically-based way of teaching the
skills of psychological health, resiliency
and adaptive functioning to young
people, and it shows promise as a way
to counter mental illness.
Amber has also had a baby, adding
another major role to her responsibilities.
But with lots of experience in balancing
big workloads, combined with great support
from the people around her, including the
University, she continues to succeed.
Top left: Amber in action before the accident
Top right: Amber Halliday (R) and Sally Newmarch (L)
compete at the 2004 Athens Olympics
The University of Adelaide | Alumni Magazine 11
