If anyone knows the waiting game, it's Birmingham-bound Kiwi weightlifter Megan Signal.
Signal’s journey to sport’s biggest stages have been filled with waiting thanks to two injury-scuppered campaigns over the past four years.
There was the ACL injury before the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in 2018 before the heartbreaking shoulder dislocation in Tokyo which forced her to withdraw just hours before her debut.
Signal told 1News at Tuesday’s Birmingham Commonwealth Games team announcement it’s been a painful journey but one she’s endured.
“You have to make a lot of hard choices to reach this level and I’ve made a lot of hard choices for a lot of years now,” an emotional Signal said.
“And I haven’t got to get that moment.”
Signal said she has squeezed a seven-month recovery process into five for a shot at qualifying for Birmingham.
“Seventy per cent of this recovery period was, ‘don’t use it’, and even when I tried to use [my shoulder], it would tell me ‘no, you're not ready’,” she said.
“It was quite a painful process.”
The 32-year-old was forced to rely on flatmate Mikayla McNabb for things as simple as tying up her hair.
McNabb told 1News it probably frustrated Signal more than it did her though.
“That was hard for her because she does have that independence,” McNabb said.
“She doesn’t want to ask people for help.”
Signal admitted that support helped her both physically and mentally.
“A big side of things was obviously the mental side and being able to put a bar over my head again considering that the last time I put a bar overhead I dislocated my shoulder and that was quite traumatic,” she said.
“So working with her to be in favour of success upstairs instead of letting those horrible images we all get seep in helped.”
Signal said her setbacks are now only increasing her drive for a podium finish later this year.
“I think after everything we’ve been through, it would be silly to be aiming for anything less."
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