Josh Komen is overcome with emotion after he completes the 800m at the World Transplant Games in Dresden, Germany.
When Josh Komen crossed the finish line in Dresden, Germany on Sunday morning (NZ time) he completed a race that he started at the turn of the century.
Adorned in his black New Zealand team shirt with the silver fern on his chest, he lay down with just enough energy to weep. He was utterly exhausted - physically, mentally and emotionally.
“I’m just in pain, and I’m just loving it in a weird way,” says Komen recounting the catalyst for the tears that streamed down his face.
This was a moment 25 years in the making. A moment that he’d dreamt about as a child growing up in Greymouth. A moment that he’d trained for as a young man on the grass track of his local athletics club.
A moment that he feared might never come as a 23-year-old who was fighting for his life in a hospital bed.
Fifteen years ago, Komen was on the cusp of Commonwealth Games representation as a promising 800m runner – a tough West Coast athlete who was making a name for himself in what’s generally considered the toughest event on the track.
Then he was stopped in his tracks by acute myeloid leukaemia.
The cancer robbed him of his finely tuned physique – and shattered his unbreakable spirit. But it couldn’t take his life, no matter how hard it tried. And it tried - twice.
Komen has suffered heart attacks and agonising trigeminal neuralgia (a chronic pain condition).
He underwent a stem cell transplant and then battled graft-versus-host disease where the donor’s immune cells recognise the recipient’s body (the “host”) as foreign and attack it.
He had moments of wanting it all to end – but even more of refusing to give up on life and the dream of a silver fern.
He’d long been inspired by others who’d taken on the world from his part of it.
“I was a 12-year-old boy who’d heard the stories of these profound West Coasters like Quentin Pongia and Tony Coll [league], Phill Jones [basketball], Dave McKenzie and Eddie Gray [running],” says Komen.
But what really sowed the seed of representing his country – was the backpack of future Māori All Black captain and fellow West Coast kid, Tim Bateman.
“Seeing his Under-14 NZ basketball bag really brought that dream to fruition. And I still remember that backpack walking through the Civic Centre. Seeing it really just ignited that dream.
“That’s where it started, 12 years old,” says Komen.
At 38 the dream came true.
An opportunity too perfect to miss – representing NZ at the World Transplant Games.
As a stem cell recipient – Komen earned a spot in what he calls the “hardest event in the world to qualify for”.
Competitors literally face death to earn a bib at these games.
Standing with a field of competitors as brave as him, Komen reflected on the symbolic fern on his chest. The prize for never giving up.
“I was just so proud of myself, and proud of this country and proud of Greymouth. I was on the start line with the NZ silver fern,” says Komen, still beaming.
He kept another special item of clothing closest to his heart.
“I had the Greymouth [Athletics] singlet underneath that T-shirt,” says Komen.
There was another piece of perfection in attending these games – the host city of Dresden is also where Komen’s stem cell transplant came from.
Sadly, his donor, who he is in contact with, was away at the time.
Her sister would be waiting for Komen at the finish line – but first there was a race to run. Two laps of the track at Heinz-Steyer Stadium.
“I started, ran a perfect lap. And then I just hung on around the back straight, it was just silence... it was deafening.
“It felt like you were alone by yourself and you could feel the wind behind you and wrapping around your ears, and there was no one there.
“You couldn’t hear anything,” says Komen – who experiences considerable pain when he runs.
“It’s just been a struggle to run again. It really has. I’ll admit that.
“I’ve had a lot of setbacks from it and family issues, you know, why are you doing this? My body convulses at nighttime,” says Komen with his trademark absolute honesty.
He did it to fulfil a dream.
“I’d come around the top bend and the crowd was cheering, and I was dead last, you know?
Komen corrects himself in a way that any competitor in this race would.
“Alive and last, I mean.”
His wife and daughter were watching online from their home in Christchurch – but they were present in Komen’s thoughts as he battled through the agony of the race.
“Once I cross [the finish], it just comes out and it’s this euphoric moment.
“My donor’s sister was there and I just cried on her shoulder for 20 minutes with this emotion of gratitude and... I just felt free, to be honest. Free and grateful,” says Komen.
The proud NZ representative describes the World Transplant Games as “a celebration of life”.
“This collective community of people that have endured and suffered, there’s this unspoken knowing of the appreciation of life that’s in front of you,” says Komen.
While getting to the games is an incredible victory in itself, there were also some extra special efforts by the NZ team.
Komen says the Kiwis collected 19 medals – NZ’s “biggest haul” at the event.
“These Kiwis were phenomenal: Six golds, seven silvers, and six bronze medals, and a standout was Inge [Koevoet] from Nelson. She’s two years post kidney transplant. She dominated the triathlon, finished fifth overall, and got three gold medals plus a silver,” says Komen.
He may not have won a medal – but he still achieved his target time of under four minutes. He won’t be back to better it.
“I won’t be running again... That’s me done, mate!”
Komen’s next event is likely to be a speaking one.
“I just hope my actions throughout my journey encourage other people to just step into the unknown and embrace the opportunities around them because life’s too short to not live.”
Mike Thorpe is a senior multimedia journalist for the Herald, based in Christchurch. He has been a broadcast journalist across television and radio for 20 years and joined the Herald in August 2024.