Jana Pittman
Two times world champion, four times Commonwealth champion - in the sport of athletics, Jana Pittman personifies resilience and determination. When continual injuries hampered her athletic career and could have signalled retirement, she swapped the track for the ice, joining the Australian women's bobsled team and becoming the first woman to represent Australia in both a Summer (2000, 2004) and Winter (2014) Olympic Games.
Off the track, Jana completed a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery at Western Sydney University in 2019 (graduating with First Class Honours and the university medal) and is now a Registrar in Obstetrics and Gynaecology.
She completed a Masters of Reproductive Medicine at the University of New South Wales in 2020.
This busy woman is proud mum to six children: Cornelis; little sisters Emily and Jemima; Charlie; and most recently, twins Quinlan and Willow.
She has also found time to write two books, her first autobiography: ‘Just Another Hurdle’, and her second: ‘Enough’.
Having experienced her own personal scare with cervical dysplasia, Jana became an ambassador for the Australian Cervical Cancer Foundation. In 2021, Jana was a participant in the gruelling television show SAS Australia on Channel 7. She made it to the last day of the course and was the final female standing among the 18 celebrity recruits, despite having given birth only five and a half months previously. Jana was also a participant on the Amazing Race Australia in 2023, teaming up with her eldest son Cornelis.
Jana’s story as an Athlete
Jana Pittman created Australian Olympic history by becoming the first female – and second athlete overall – to compete at both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games. She represented Australia in athletics at the Sydney 2000 Olympics and the Athens 2004 Olympics before switching to bobsleigh at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics.
“Dream big and bold”
Jana’s international journey began at the 1999 World Youth Championships where she become the World Youth (U18) Champion for the 400 metre hurdles. The following year, Jana qualified for her first Olympic Games, a home games in Sydney at just 17 years of age. Later that year, she competed at the World Junior Championships in Chile, where she won gold in both the 400 metre hurdles and 400 metres.
After two years of commitment and intense training, Jana won gold in the 400m hurdles and 4x400m relay at the Manchester 2002 Commonwealth Games. At 20, she became the youngest 400m hurdles World Champion (male or female), winning gold at the Paris 2003 World Championship in a personal best time of 53.22.
Unfortunately a badly timed injury to Jana’s knee hindered her chances of Olympic success at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. However a testament to her determination and resilience, Jana underwent surgery and was back on track just 15 days later, producing an admirable performance in the 400m hurdles to finish fifth.
Jana went into the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games as the reigning champion and favourite. She successfully defended both titles from 2002, securing gold in the 400m hurdles in a time of 53.82 as well as gold in the 4x400m relay.
In 2007, eight months after giving birth to her son, Jana won her second World Champion crown when she won gold at the Osaka Japan World Championships in a time of 53.31.
Her hopes of an Olympic medal were dashed in successive Olympics when ongoing injury issues cost her the chance to compete in Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012.
However Jana wasn’t content to let her Olympic dream die. Instead, she teamed up with her former hurdles training partner, Astrid Radjenovic (Loch-Wilkinson), to train for the women’s bobsleigh for the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics.
Pittman, as brakeman, and Astrid Radjenovic, as pilot, qualified for Sochi, finishing 14th at her third Olympics. That performance etched her name into the history books as the first Australian woman to compete in both Summer and Winter Olympic Games.
Jana also had the distinction of being one of only nine athletes to have won a World Championship at youth, junior, and senior athletic events. That feat puts her in rarefied company, alongside the likes of Usain Bolt, Valerie Adams, Dani Samuels and Veronica Campbell Brown.
Jana was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 2021 as an Athlete Member for her contribution to the sport of athletics.
“Belief goes a long way if you just let yourself dream and throw fear to the wind”
Jana’s story as a Doctor
Off the track, Jana completed a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery at Western Sydney University in 2019 (graduating with First Class Honours and the university medal) and is now Registrar in Obstetrics and Gynaecology.
She completed a Masters of Reproductive Medicine at the University of New South Wales in 2020.
Jana is incredibly passionate about her medical career, and believes that had she won at the Olympic Games in athletics, she would not have been looking for an alternate career path and would likely have settled into a coaching or TV career, and therefore not become a doctor.
“That failure was my greatest blessing.”
Jana’s story to becoming a doctor was not so straight forward, nevertheless it highlights how fighting for something you want can be better than having it handed to you on a platter.
After her Olympic heartache, Jana was initially unsure of where to go next, she filled her time with cycling, rowing, and boxing, contemplated opening a personal training business, coached kids at a school, and started giving keynote speeches. However she didn’t quite feel she was on the right path yet.
After overhearing someone talking about sitting the medical entrance exam in a café, the forgotten spark Jana had let slip by the wayside since childhood rekindled. Becoming a doctor was the one goal she had coveted since she was a child, parallel to being an athlete.
Jana booked in to the next medical entrance exam (a prerequisite for anyone wanting to study undergraduate medicine in Australia). Unfortunately Jana scored terribly in the exam putting a temporary halt to her medical aspirations. However after a turbulent year, Jana registered to sit the exam again. This time Jana passed with flying colours!
“In one solitary moment of bravery, every single thing changed.”
Jana thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of medical school, and being the incredible woman she is, managed to juggle it with being a mum and her bobsled training, as she bid to become the first Aussie female to have competed at both a Summer and Winter Olympic Games.
“How you proceed depends on your attitude: it is just a mind shift. The only person who can stop you, is you.”
Jana’s story as a Mum
Jana always wanted to have 5 kids, motherhood was one of her dreams along with sport and becoming a doctor.
She believes above everything else she has ever done, her greatest achievement is her family. This is a quick look into how she ended up as a mother of six and a half kids, mostly as a single parent, and all while either competing or studying to be a doctor.
“There is no point in waiting for the perfect time, place or partner to build your dreams”
Jana’s first child, Cornelis, was born in 2006 in the middle of her sporting career to her ex-husband Chris. In an incredible feat, Jana managed to win the World Championships the following year, only 8 months after giving birth to her son.
Jana unfortunately suffered several miscarriages and failed relationships, however an off-hand comment from a single mother she met at a charity event who had used a sperm donor, lead her to consider going through IVF to grow her family she so desperately wanted.
In an initial cervical screening test (‘Pap smear’) before starting her IVF journey, Jana found out that she had grade II cervical dysplasia, only a few steps away from cervical cancer. Jana’s cervical dysplasia did progress to grade III, but in 2023 she finally got the all clear, some 8 years after her initial diagnosis. This diagnosis lead Jana to join the Australian Cervical Cancer Foundation (ACCF) which aims to teach women about cervical dysplasia and cancer and how to prevent the disease. She has now been their ambassador for over 5 years.
Jana continued to pursue a second child through IVF and an anonymous donor. Her first daughter Emily was a B-grade embryo, who Jana had the pleasure of delivering herself.
When Emily was about 6months old Jana felt that she wanted to add to her brood. Opting to follow the IVF route for a second time, she again only had one embryo that made it to day five and transfer. Like her big sister, she was classed as a lower grade embryo however she was stubborn and robust, and Jemima was soon born.
Jana has also donated her eggs to help others experience the joy of motherhood. She is the biological mother (through her egg, she did not carry the baby) to a daughter of two of her lifelong friends.
Throughout the following years Jana proceeded to have 3 more children with her now ex-husband Paul, Charlie, and twins Quinlan and Willow.
Jana truly believes family is what you make it. In her words “We are a mishmash brood of imperfection, but we all love each other dearly, albeit in different ways.”
“We are the perfect rainbow family.”
“I am my own hero, and you can be yours”