Great Southern Olympian Sonja Johnson eyes Games return in Paris after winning coach of the year award

Great Southern equestrian stalwart Sonja Johnson is eyeing an Olympic Games return in Paris as she recovers from a horrific leg injury and reflects on her award-winning 2023 season, but as a coach. Living and working on her family farm in South Stirlings nestled in the Great Southern, Johnson was overlooked for selection in the Olympic Games in Tokyo back in 2021 but is determined to once again represent her country. The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games silver medallist broke her leg at the end of 2022 and while recovering in rehab in 2023 began coaching young Great Southern equestrian riders. Her unwavering devotion to improving the skills and developing the sport’s talents garnered her selection as the WA equestrian coach of the year for eventing. Now fully healed, the 56-year-old is preparing a late bid for a spot on the Paris team with her new competition horse Parkiarrup Showtime. Johnson has called upon the young nine-year-old with her previous campaigner Misty Isle Valentino no longer fit for competition after sustaining a serious leg injury. “I will head off to the Adelaide three-day (event) in April to go and have a crack at that and then hopefully again in Melbourne the second weekend in June,” she said. “Selection comes down to those performances but the horse that I’m aiming for the games with this year is only young, he’s only nine. “It’s probably come around a year too early for him but the horse that I’d hoped to be preparing for Paris copped a significant injury.” Johnson made a comeback to competition last year but did not get the results she had hoped for and has focused solely on getting her body right for the upcoming Paris selection events. “I was out for six months because I had to have a pin plate and someone else’s leg bone in there and I have now got to the age where you don’t just bounce back from injuries, you actually lose your fitness,” she said. “I discovered that I wasn’t fit enough, I wasn’t sharp enough, I wasn’t good enough and I let my horse down quite badly which has certainly put me behind my potential Paris selections. “I’m fortunate that I’m a scholarship holder with the WA Institute of Sport and so I went to see them and they’ve given me a strength and conditioning program.” After sustaining her crippling leg injury, Johnson turned to coaching as a way to stay connected to the sport and guide up-and-coming athletes and won the coach of the year gong after some impressive results. “Two riders I coached travelled to New Zealand to represent the nation in a young riders component of it and one of the girls that’s on the team, I started coaching her when she was about eight,” Johnson said. “There’s another girl from Tasmania, who’s now moved to WA to live and base with us here on the farm for more training and I’ve trained her for the last eight years as well. “(Coaching) certainly helped with staying connected to the sport, having someone on the farm helped mentally because I had that constant mental stimulation, there was someone to help with coaching. “I have a lot of fun working with young people and just helping them to get better at the sport.” Johnson said she is blessed to have been able to draw on people she has met through her time at the elite level to help with her coaching over the past year. “I’ve been really lucky because of the level I’ve competed at and everything I have done, I have an amazing network of contacts throughout the world. and so I’m able to draw on those,” she said. “I’ve been able to use my contacts worldwide to and then use Zoom and things like that to bring them to the West Australian riders so now they’re getting opportunities that I could only dream of when I was their age. “I’ve been really enjoying using my experience my knowledge and my contacts to help people in WA develop their goals in the sport.”