Ellie Beer is a dual Olympian but the pressure of being in the spotlight almost ended her running career. (Getty Images: Cameron Spencer)

At age 16, 400 metre runner Ellie Beer was exceeding expectations.

She was the new kid on the block in Australian sprinting, smashing her personal best (PB) time and making history.

But maintaining that level of performance was all-consuming.

"It was just spotlight moment after spotlight moment," Beer tells ABC Sport.

"I remember feeling the pressure of what others were thinking.

"I felt like I had to rise to the occasion, like every race I had to run a PB and that it would be good enough."

It took another five agonising years for Beer to beat her 2019 PB of 52.53 seconds.

"There were moments where I was like, 'Will I ever get better?' I [felt] like maybe I peaked at 16," Beer says.

"I had thoughts of wanting to give up and not pursue it anymore."

Ellie Beer competed for five years without running a personal best. (Getty Images: Andy Cheung)

The transition from a junior to a senior athlete, from about 17 to 19 years of age, was particularly hard.

"I had set my standards so high that I had to run consecutive 52 second runs, but I wasn't getting close to that time due to the pressure," Beer says.

She started overthinking her races, predicting what would happen before they had even begun.

"I would be worrying about the lactic [acid] hitting the last hundred. 'How am I going to run down that back straight?'

Source: Read the original article on www.abc.net.au

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