Jane Larkin on grief and growth

For many elite athletes, life is measured in milliseconds – a finish line, a medal, a season, a single defining moment. But what happens when the race is over for good? When the identity you’ve built, trained for, and sacrificed for suddenly no longer exists? 

Former elite sprinter Jane Larkin knows that grief intimately. Once a national-level athlete representing Australia in international competitions, Jane’s life revolved around the track. Her identity was woven tightly into being fast, disciplined, and driven. But when it came time for Jane to step away from professional sport, she faced a loss she never expected: grief for the person she used to be. 

“It wasn’t just about missing the competition,” Jane shared in conversation with Griefline and Outside the Locker Room (OTLR). “It was about losing who I thought I was – the person who ran every day, who had a purpose, who people recognised as ‘the athlete’. When that disappeared, I didn’t know who I was without it.” 

It’s a story many athletes can relate to. The end of a sporting career; whether by injury, retirement, or transition; can trigger profound grief. There’s the loss of routine, community, structure, and validation. The silence after the cheers can be deafening. 

Jane’s journey through that grief became the foundation for a new chapter; one that allowed her to channel the discipline and resilience she honed on the track into a creative life in film and storytelling. Today, she’s an accomplished actress, writer, and filmmaker, known for her feature The Edge – a powerful exploration of mental health, identity, and the unseen struggles of female athletes. 

“I realised I didn’t have to erase that part of myself,” she said. “I just had to find a new way to express it. The lessons from sport – the persistence, the mental grit – they didn’t disappear. They evolved.” 

Jane’s reflections echo the work that Griefline and OTLR are doing to broaden the understanding of grief; helping athletes, coaches, and sporting communities recognise that grief doesn’t only follow death. It can accompany any significant change or loss, including the end of a career, a shift in identity, or a fracture in connection to a team or sport. 

OTLR works within sporting environments to normalise conversations about mental health and emotional wellbeing. And Griefline provides a safe space to help people navigate loss in all its forms. 

Together, we are reframing grief as something that every athlete – and every human – encounters at some point.  

For Jane, that understanding has been liberating. 

“Grief doesn’t always mean something tragic has happened,” she said. “Sometimes it’s just the natural process of change. I had to grieve the version of me who ran – so I could become the version who creates.” 

Today, through her work in film and advocacy, Jane Larkin gives voice to the emotional truth of sport – the triumphs, the pressures, and the quiet moments of loss that often go unseen. And in doing so, she reminds us that every ending, no matter how painful, holds the potential for reinvention.