She had no home before the Worlds but for Tianna Bartoletta a bronze was worth the pain

Tianna Bartoletta picked up her third World Championships medal in London this month, claiming the bronze in long jump. Memorable as the outcome was for her, the medal-winning finish had deeper significance for the 31-year-old American athlete.

The three-time former Olympic gold medallist shared on her social media account that she has had been homeless for the last three months even as she began preparing to give it her all in London.

Bartoletta’s ongoing divorce proceedings with her husband John Bartoletta, whom she had married in 2012, have been the reason for her to leave her home.

An unexpected change

“This [World Championships] bronze medal is the most special medal I have ever won,” termed Bartoletta. She also added, “I took a huge gamble blowing my life up in such an important year for me career-wise. But it was about time for me to see that I was worth it. It was worth it.”

“I lost my personality. I felt that I became a stranger to myself,” shared Bartoletta in an interview with the BBC. “I didn’t trust myself to make the right decisions. It felt like I was just getting broken down and I just couldn’t take much more of the negativity.”

Adding that she had even briefly contemplated suicide, Bartoletta mentioned that she felt as if everything was piling up on her – both professionally and personally. It was at that point, she stated that she felt she started to reconnect with her family and friends.

“It was one of the hardest calls I had to make because I had to ask for help from people I didn’t think were necessarily going to be there for me, because they hadn’t been in the past,” Bartoletta said. “When I first reached out, it wasn’t to leave - it was just for the emotional support, to get a second opinion whether this was normal or if other people were going through this.”

Sharing: The road to Bartoletta’s recovery

This decision of Bartoletta also saw to it that she opened herself up before the world as well, going on to share her experience through her blog and social media pages. “This has been my therapy – sharing this story with you, sharing the Instagram post, blogging. It has kind of been my way of healing,” she said.

Opening herself up then, in a way, also re-kindled her focus and re-directed her priorities – towards preparing for the World Championships. Terming her decision to throw herself head-on into her preparations as compartmentalising, Bartoletta said she knew that she ‘could put all of this in a box and deal with it later.’

Now, post the World Championships to which Bartoletta referred to as her “finish line”, it’s time for Bartoletta to return back to her pre-World Championships routine.

“I’ve been focused on so much till now, I’m a little bit lost again. Because I don’t have that routine to fall back on but I’m figuring it out,” she said.