Jemima Montag is an Australian Olympic Race Walker, the current National Record Holder and a dual Commonwealth Games Gold Medallist. We’re really proud to have Jemima on board as part of our Premax team, and we’re so glad that our products can be there as part of her essential race kit wherever she is competing in the world.
Off the back of an amazing year of success in 2023, we got the opportunity to sit down and chat with Jemima about the delicate art of 'balance' and understanding that ‘having it all’ requires patience and prioritisation. We also talked about the importance of mental resilience in endurance sports and the pivotal role skincare plays in maintaining peak condition.
Randall Cooper:
Now, you've had a massive few years with some amazing results. Talk us through that, how you're reflecting on it now looking back, and did you meet your expectations?
Jemima Montag:
So this year I got my first big medal at a world championship, and I guess reflecting on the six years that led to that, I finished school, I'd always been a sporty girl, but really had a sense of low self-esteem, not really sure if I had what it would take to get to the Olympic level, and slowly but surely I made that first Commonwealth Games team and then each year we've sort of gone one better. I was 10th at my first World championships in Doha in 2019, sixth, then fourth, and this year I really wanted to be on that podium. And to walk away with a shiny silver medal, it felt so, so rewarding and I've really tried in the months since then to savour this feeling.
Randall Cooper:
That's awesome. You mentioned before that you had lower self-esteem and then clearly you're in better shape at the moment. Was there a moment, was there something that triggered it? What got you to that next level?
Jemima Montag:
There was a moment and we were on a family holiday in Tokyo at the end of year 12. I'd had a challenging couple of years as most adolescent boys and girls do. I'd really sort of lost sight of that Olympic dream and we were walking around Tokyo, the year was 2016 and my sister said, "Oh, the Tokyo Olympics are in four years. How cool is this city? Make that Olympic team for me and give the family an excuse to come back here one day!". And it was such a simple comment by my sister, but just sometimes having someone younger who believes in you and sees something in you that you perhaps don't see when you're struggling with confidence, that really lit a little bit of a fire and suddenly it just felt really, really exciting to try and earn that green and gold uniform.
Randall Cooper:
It's so cool that it came from your family!
Jemima Montag:
They've played such a huge role in the journey as well. My endurance event is one that takes a lot of hours and my sister who said, "how about the Tokyo Olympics" often rides the bike or runs next to me, my parents as well. So they play a huge role and it's so nice when big medals or records do happen and to see how excited they get.
Randall Cooper:
Yeah, that's great. You've got a big year coming up. It's Olympic year next year, and because of the success you've had in the last little while, I'm sure that the pressure's building within a little bit and also externally outside as well. So how are you feeling about all that?
Jemima Montag:
It's an exciting feeling. Always in an Olympic year, the energy lifts a little bit, particularly down at training at the Victorian Institute of Sport. We've got our little countdown going. I think anytime you are a silver medalist leading into an Olympics, there's going to be talk of, surely you want to upgrade that silver to a gold and of course that is the goal, but I always try and be value driven. So at the end of the day, if I walk away from Paris having been willing to put everything on the line and done absolutely everything I can in training, then I'll be proud of myself. But we want that gold medal. That would be amazing.
Randall Cooper:
You mentioned values. What are your values?
Jemima Montag:
My values are dynamic and ever changing, but at the moment I love the word 'willingness'. And I love 'the pursuit of mastery' and particularly that line because it feels like a process. It's not mastery in itself, but it's the pursuit of, so I love the feeling of constantly working on the one percenters, putting puzzle pieces together to create a better product. To work hard at an event that's so technically challenging and challenging from a physical and mental perspective. To stay safe by the judges, and to get a one up on the other women in the world who are training hard.
Randall Cooper:
You've got a busy life because not only you a race walker, but you're also studying medicine. How are you striking the balance? You've got a big degree, but you've got some big goals with your sport as well. How do you make sure that one's not dominating the other?
Jemima Montag:
I'm going to say something controversial and I think balance doesn't exist, at least in the way that most people imagine it. So I think when most people think about balance, they think you have everything up on the same volume at once, and ultimately that leads to chaos and crumbling. And I know this because last year I actually failed a year of medicine by just 2% and it led to an absolute breakdown at the end of the year, and I didn't know whether to give up and what to do next. But what I've learned in doing the year over and trying to get balance better is that at any one point in the year, I have one thing as my focus. So yes, I've got five or six things going at any one time, but in the lead up to a benchmark event training is all that matters and the other balls I'm juggling often fall to the ground. So I'm not such a great family member and I'm not such a great friend and I'm not studying as much as I'd like to. And then as soon as August is done and the benchmark event is over, training comes back down and I can bring other things up to a higher volume. So I think in terms of balance, it's about creating that dynamic graph throughout the year where you know what your priority is and letting those other balls drop because we can't be excelling in everything at all times.
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"I think something really important I heard around the age of 18 was you can have it all, but you can't have it all at once. So yes, there's times in the year where there's exams and we'll train less or there's an Olympics and we'll study less, but not all at the same time."
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Randall Cooper:
Race walking is notoriously tough on your body, particularly your hips and your feet. So what are some of the things other than just being sensible with your training, what are some of the things you do to make sure you stay injury free?
Jemima Montag:
I swear by eat and sleep, those two are the keys. Try and eat in abundance and all of the good foods and sleep 9-10 hours. And I'm really lucky to be tied in at the Victorian Institute of Sport with regular physio monitoring and physiology and training loads as well. My coach is super experienced. He's coached Olympic gold medalists in the past, like Jared Tallent, and I think he does an excellent job of erring on the side of caution in terms of our weekly kilometers. And the other thing that most people may not know is that strength and conditioning also plays a huge role for race walkers. So not too many times a week, but twice a week with not too much weight on the bar, we are in the gym ensuring that all of those race walking specific posterior chain muscles are really strong.
Randall Cooper:
Any endurance sport can be a grind when you're training & competing for so many hours. What are some tips you've got for people who are battling for that motivation, to help them grind it out the way you can.
Jemima Montag:
A few things. I think endurance sports are 90% mental and yet people think it's 90% physical and they might spend 10% of their time on the mental work. But when it comes down to it on the start line of an Olympic games, the physical side's no secret. Everyone's done the same physical training and those that have spent the time on their mindset and those psychological strategies are the ones that end up on the podium. So I use a few different strategies. The first really important thing I've been using since the Tokyo Olympics is ACT, which is Accept and Commit therapy. And that's just the idea that whenever uncomfortable feelings, pressure, nerves, anxiety, physical discomfort come around rather than fighting them, judging them, wishing they weren't there, it's cognitive expansion. It's making space for those feelings and just accepting them and then committing anyway to the tasks that you set out to do.
And I think understanding a bit about pain science as well, knowing that pain or physiological discomfort is often just a little knock on the door, that there's some metabolic activity going on. Our legs aren't so thrilled right now, but we don't always have to see it as danger or a threat. So understanding the science behind discomfort is also helpful. And the last thing I'll say, in order to stay on track, be motivated, be resilient, is you've got to nail your why factor. It's talked about a lot in sport, but for me the key difference was learning that we can be motivated by fear or we can be motivated by our values.
So I was always motivated by fear growing up. I think it was a natural thing for someone who was quite sporty from a young age and motivated by fear means that we really want to do a good training session or a great race because we are terrified of what'll happen if we don't. We're terrified of what our coach might think or what it will feel like if we get beaten by so-and-so, what it will feel like if we have an embarrassing time on the board. And ultimately fear-based motivation never really gets us that sense of fulfillment and happiness and joy. You just feel relieved when your fears aren't met and it's not sustainable. Whereas when we are motivated by the pursuit of our values, we see our sport and what we do as simply a vehicle through which to explore those values. And it means that win, lose or draw. we're always feeling like we have a meaningful training session or race and we feel really fulfilled and it is sustainable.
So for me, I wake up in the morning, I'm motivated to inspire the next generation of young girls. I'm motivated by that pursuit of mastery, that feeling of always improving and that feeling of being on track to whatever we're building towards at the next Olympics.
Randall Cooper:
Chafing is a big issue in all sorts of endurance sports, but race walking I'm sure is something where people can get chafed really bad. Whether it's your experience or other athletes that you've seen experience when chafing goes bad, what can happen?
Jemima Montag:
I think the worst thing in race walking is that you'll alter your gait. So often if people have some painful chafing under their arms or between their legs, they'll actually actually start walking differently to reduce the pain. And then you might be at risk of disqualification because the judges are out there watching you and potentially giving you red cards. So that's probably the worst thing that can happen. In a training session it might mean having to cut the session short by an hour just in too much pain from chafing. Sometimes it will bleed, it will ruin clothing and it will just be super uncomfortable and means you can't concentrate on what you need to do.
Randall Cooper:
As a race walker, what other conditions of the skin can affect you and also have a negative impact on performance?
Jemima Montag:
I think spending so many hours out in the sun training along this beautiful beach path, it can lead to damaging amounts of sun exposure. So also looking to the Premax range in the sun protection skincare area is super duper important as well as those weather defense products. We've got harsh winds, sometimes harsh sun, harsh rain, bouncing off all of these surfaces. And it's really important that over these hours and hours as young people that we're training, we are thinking of the health of our skin in 10 years time, even if we can't see it now.
I mean, you see retired athletes getting melanomas removed and what can happen down the track and the skin's one of our biggest organs. People don't think about it like that, but it is and it takes in a lot of information and we really want to reduce that chemical damage and that chance of malignancy down the track. So it's really important.
Randall Cooper:
One of the products you use often with our brand Premax is the Anti-Friction Balm. So just give us an insight about when you apply it, where you apply it and how it works for you.
Jemima Montag:
I swear by the Premax Anti-Friction Balm and have for a number of years now, I always put it under both arms and between my thighs and it has never let me down. Never ever have I chafed with it on. And there are so many times where I've been heartbroken because I've forgotten to put it in my bag and I know the training session is going to be a problem. So I've taken it all over the world with me, and particularly when we're in really hot humid conditions, which we tend to be. We've had world championships in Doha, in Tokyo, Oregon, Budapest, it's always boiling hot. And when you are out there for an hour and a half and you've got sweat and you've got that hip jiggling friction mobility, it has been the key.
