How they train: Laura Zialor

We speak to the British international high jumper about the steps she has to take on her arduous road back from serious Achilles injury

“Perspective is everything,” says Laura Zialor. “If something is hard, I remember how far I’ve come.” It’s been 18 months since the 2022 British indoor high jump champion first ruptured her Achilles while competing for Great Britain and Northern Ireland at the European Team Championships in Poland. It’s been 14 months since an unfortunate training accident led to a second rupture on the same tendon, eight months since she started jogging again, and two months since she returned to high jumping in training. 

Realistically, her return to full competition could take two years in total. It’s been a frustrating process – heartbreaking at times – but gratitude and a glass-half-full perspective have helped her deal with the mental and physical pain.

“As an elite athlete everything revolves around your sport, so when it’s taken away from you, you lose a part of yourself,” she explains. “It’s almost a mourning process.” 

Zialor, who made her international debut at the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Oregon, is an overwhelmingly positive person, but when her Achilles re-ruptured it turned her life upside down and threw her whole belief system into question. 

“I felt lost and hopeless…I was in a really dark, sad place for the first week or so post-rupture,” she wrote on Instagram after it happened. “But…I decided I’m not going to spend the next six months of my life being miserable, feeling sorry for myself or wishing time away. Life is too short for that. Life is too precious. We can’t control what happens to us, we can only control and choose how we act on it and move on from it.”

With a focus on the present a plan with task-based goals, and a realisation that there are many things to be grateful for in life, the 26-year-old is proud of how she managed the psychological side of her injury. “I always try to look at the positives, for example it gave me time with my family that I wouldn’t normally get,” she says. “Everyone has their down days, but most of the time I was taking it in my stride because I was focused on what I could do. My mindset shifted to a point where negative thoughts didn’t really enter my space. Each day I was just trying to be my best self.”

The Birmingham-based primary school teacher – who tutors, models and coaches to boost…