Grit Diaries
Zali Steggall · 42 min
From a lonely base camp in the French Alps to the Australian Parliament, Zali Steggall reveals how elite sport forged the mindset that carries her through every challenge life throws.
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Zali Steggall grew up between two worlds: Manly and the French Alps, where her parents taught her to try anything without fear of failure. At eight years old, a coach told her she wasn't talented enough compared to another girl. Instead of accepting that verdict, she decided to prove him wrong. It became the moment that shaped her entire life.
For thirteen years, Zali trained every weekend and school holiday while her friends at Queenwood did normal teenage things. She was utterly isolated, spending months alone at base camp in Europe after races, learning to shed bad performances and move forward. That skill, forged in solitude, taught her how to handle difficulty for decades. She learned to control what she could control and let go of everything else. She learned that anger and happiness were her most successful emotional states, though anger exhausted her quickly. She learned that winning a world championship in 1999 meant nothing if she had no one to celebrate with, sitting in a middle seat on a plane going nowhere. That taught her something harder: the outcome is not the point. The months of training, the process, the work itself is what matters.
She brought those lessons into law school, the bar, and Parliament, treating each like a race day where you stand alone and trust your preparation. She brought them into her second marriage with Tim, learning to accept that parenting five children from two families would not go the way she had envisioned. She still brings them now to ultra trail running, signing up for 100-kilometre races and a 161-kilometre run that forces her to stay present and think clearly.
Zali's story is about learning early that the crack in your life is not the breaking point. It's the beginning of what comes next.
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