Growing up, former Army medic and Brisbane local, Chelsie Clayton, lived to swim.
Getting up daily at 4.30am and hitting the pool for 10 sessions each week was business as usual for almost a decade.
But as the years went on, high anxiety around competing intruded into the now 27-year-old nurse’s consciousness.
Now, Ms Clayton is committed to fighting that crippling anxiety, as well as a sports-related shoulder injury and bipolar 2 diagnosis, as she joins Team Australia to compete at the US Department of Defense’s Warrior Games.
This year marks the 14th anniversary of the games, which bring together hundreds of wounded, injured and ill serving and former-serving US military members to compete alongside 30 Aussie competitors.
The games will be something of a redemption story for Ms Clayton, who applied after a recommendation from her doctor when being medically discharged from the Army in 2022.
“My doctor knew how much I liked sport, but I was struggling with my anxiety to get back into it,” she said.
“He said, ‘if you get into (the ADF’s adaptive sports program), you never know what might happen, you may get back into sport again’.
“I hadn’t been in sports for a long time. And for most of my life, sport has been everything.
“So it was a bit like, I don’t even know who I am if I’m not competing.”
The seed was planted and despite originally hoping to attend the Warrior Games in a coaching capacity, Ms Clayton realised she would have to confront her anxiety to be a competitor. Saying she will “give any sport a crack”, she is taking on athletics, indoor rowing, sitting volleyball and swimming.
Already proving to be a great ambassador for mental health, Ms Clayton speaks openly about her struggles with both anxiety and bipolar disorder, which she said she is still trying to figure out. However, that openness has only been a recent event.
“My shoulder, it’s been fixed. It can be fixed and so can mental health, but it’s been a lot harder,” she said.
“I think there’s still stigma around mental health and perhaps that’s why I have had a tendency not to tell people.
“They look at me differently as soon as I tell them. I don’t want people to look at me differently. I don’t want it to define who I am, it’s just a part of who I am.”
Her readiness to push herself outside her comfort zone and return to the sport she loves are a fact mum and dad, Michele and Nathan, are proud of after making the trek to Florida to support their eldest daughter.
“They were the first people I thought of when I was selected,” Ms Clayton said.
“They’ll be crying their eyes out, I can already see it. Mum cries at TV ads, let alone this happening. But obviously happy tears, of course, she’ll be a hot mess.
“But that’s OK, that’s what mums do.”
