Earlier than the bridge fall, Ham had been focusing on Workforce GB choice for the Paris Olympics in 2024.
The athlete from Glossop, the market city on the northwestern fringe of the Derbyshire Peak District, was a part of British Judo’s world-class efficiency programme and had competed at each world and European championships throughout his senior profession.
After practically two years out, and countless hours devoted to a rehab programme that advanced from having him strolling once more to laying opponents out on the mat, Ham made his first aggressive look in November’s Oceania Open on Australia’s Gold Coast – the place he gained one in every of his three fights.
Coaching for the match and battling in competitors, for all of the agony and pressure it placed on his physique at instances, introduced “combined feeling” after such a bodily and emotionally taxing street to restoration.
“The combating, the throwing, the identical issues that causes all this ache and agony is the precise cause why you like doing it,” Ham stated.
“The competitors gave me a contemporary begin and a psychological reset to proceed with the rehab. I attempted to maintain the enjoyable of the game, as a result of that usually will get put to the again of your thoughts if you get to excessive efficiency.
“That was form of the aim. My mum, dad and girlfriend had been on the market as effectively, and that was particular.
“The end result wasn’t what I needed, however what I may most likely count on after having two years out. I’ve performed it now, put that behind me and I can stick with it the rehab for my subsequent one, which hopefully I will be in a greater place for.”
Competing with the world’s finest and aiming for a spot on the Olympics was the place Ham bought himself to as an athlete earlier than he plunged from that bridge.
And whereas he was carried away on a stretcher that day, he has managed to rise from the life-altering incident and climb again on to the judo mat to show one thing to himself.
What comes subsequent, Ham says, is simply as not possible to foretell as all he has been by way of already.
“I am nonetheless fairly unsure what the longer term holds,” he stated.
“I will hold attempting. Whether or not I get to the identical stage or, hopefully, a greater stage than I used to be earlier than remains to be unknown.
“I perceive and recognize the problem I’ve bought forward of me, however we’ll see the place we will get with it.”
