Jess Trengove started her sporting career as a wrestler.
Looking at the country kid from Naracoorte, standing at 166cms and weighing just 52kgs, it’s impossible to guess that she was a wrestler until she was 21. Her sister Abbie was also a wrestler.
In 2022, Jess Trengove was named as the AIS Female Athlete of the Year. But the award was not for wrestling.
She in fact also played netball and basketball – and after graduating from University of SA, became a physiotherapist and Pilates instructor.
From a young age, she was a cross-country runner and began to specialise in distance running. At age 23, she entered the 2010 City-Bay Run and won.
In her first ever marathon in 2012, she qualified for the London Olympics in a time of 2 hours, 31 minutes.
Leading into the Olympics, her Adelaide-based training regime under coach Alan Didyk, required her running 160kms each week.
In a very credible result given a genuine lack of familiarity with racing one of the most challenging distances on Earth, she finished 39th, then four years later she moved up to 22nd at the Rio Olympics in Brazil. She was selected for the Paris Olympics as well.
But at the 2017 World Championships she ran her personal best to take 9th in a time of 2:28:59.
It was in 2022 that many South Australians watched in their living rooms as Jess Stenson stole the show at the Commonwealth Games, winning marathon gold for Australia.
She is a fine example of combining elite sport with parenthood. It does not necessarily come easy though, she says. “The perspective you gain, the freedom you sort of feel when you’re out exercising as a mum, it’s this moment to yourself to be free, and you really make the most of those times because it’s pretty hectic at home.”
“I just think you learn to become very wise with your use of time and very efficient and you make the most of every opportunity.”
Jess Stenson missed the Tokyo Olympics due to a back injury, but with her 2024 selection for Paris, she became a triple Olympian, finishing the women’s marathon in 13th place. Jess’s time of 2:26.45 is the second fastest for an Australian at the Olympics behind Lisa Ondieki’s silver at Seoul 1988.
