Jana Pittman - Negative Public Image

Negative Public Image

On 10 March 2006, quoted in an article in The Sydney Morning Herald, Pittman announced her intention to leave Australia, possibly for the UK, after the negative publicity surrounding her knee and her disagreement with fellow athlete Tamsyn Lewis: "Since Athens, my image is all about drama and I hate it." Pittman said there had been a "mixed" response from the Australian public since the media dubbed their rivalry a "catfight" and a "bitchfight". She related that when she had been walking down the street a week earlier, a group of men in a car yelled out, "We love you, Tamsyn, we hate you, Pitts". "I didn't create that", the 400 m hurdler was quoted as saying. "I didn't want that". She also referenced the current edition of Ralph magazine at the time, in which Lewis posed in a bikini and which carried the tag line on the cover, "It's alright Tam, we don't like Jana Pittman either".

In the buildup to her races at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Pittman was widely reported as being nervous about the possible crowd reaction in the wake of the negative publicity. However, the ovation of the home crowd was loud and long, both before and after the 400 m hurdles Final, and in interviews afterwards Pittman expressed her feelings of relief. The crowd response was strikingly different at a nightclub hosting post-games celebrations, where after an introduction she was booed off the stage.