Does she call a press conference hours before the opening ceremony she plays a role in and declare she is out? Or does she sit tight and wait until after the balloons have gone up to say,'hey,I'm actually injured and won't race'?
She sat tight. And really,so what?
Some will feel misled that it was all smiles on Wednesday knowing Thursday’s teary news was coming,but that is a churlish and self-righteous complaint. The whole opening ceremony would have become about Pearson had she announced ahead of the ceremony that she was out,where instead she was just its brief focus.
“It was definitely tough knowing that everyone is out there cheering for me and hoping for the best for me so it was disappointing to have that in the back of my mind as well,” she said.
Pearson,Australian head coach Craig Hilliard and team doctor Paul Blackman agreed on Tuesday Pearson’s Achilles injury would stop her competing. They told chef de mission Steve Moneghetti and agreed they would sit on the announcement until after the opening ceremony.
“It was definitely a team decision about what we wanted to do (with the timing of the announcement),” Pearson said.