“The extra joy that would come from throwing another 50cm is not worth the blood, sweat and tears of all that hard training anymore.
“I look back with huge fondness on my time in the sport, I just now want to try something new.”
The Hamilton athlete has been competing in athletics since the age of six or seven, joining the Hamilton City Hawks club and dabbling in a range of codes. While she was a strong hurdler, she started in the hammer throw at the age of 12 and didn’t look back.
With success in a range of youth competitions locally and internationally, Ratcliffe took that fire into the senior ranks.
While a shoulder injury in 2018 set her back, Ratcliffe battled back in a big way to claim gold in the Commonwealth Games the same year.
“Nothing can quite beat that feeling of standing on top the podium, seeing the flag go up, hearing the national anthem, knowing you are the reason why that anthem is being played,” she recalled. “It was very special.”
Besides her trio of Commonwealth medals, Julia snared six national senior women’s hammer titles and set eight national senior women hammer records.
“When my career achievements are written down, it is quite overwhelming,” she said.
“I still think of myself as a kid from Hamilton who throws hammers in the backyard with dad. To think I went on to perform as a high-performance international athlete, and what dad and I went on to achieve together is very cool.”