Teen’s Olympic dream for home

IT’S Cairns athletics allrounder Piper Henry’s dream to one day represent Australia at the Olympics.

And the 14-year-old could be doing it on home soil, after Brisbane clinched the crucial vote before the International Olympic Committee last night to host the 2032 Olympic Games.

Piper said having the chance to rub shoulders with the likes of sprint ace Rohan Browning in the lead up to Tokyo had only sharpened her focus.

“It’s definitely something that I am aiming to achieve whether it’s in athletics or another sport, I’m not sure yet,” she said.

“Being able to train alongside these athletes over the last couple of weeks has been incredible.

“It’s exciting to think we could one day compete in our own state (when) the Olympic Games come to Brisbane in 2032.”

Cairns MP Michael Healy said Brisbane – and Queensland – being selected to host the 2032 Olympic Games was fantastic news, and the benefits would flow to Cairns.

“From a marketing perspective, this is absolutely fantastic,” Mr Healy said.

“We are a tourism city and we market our products around the world. This will mean that for the next 11 to 20 years, we will have very strong exposure with people knowing where Brisbane, where Queensland, where places like the Great Barrier Reef are,” he said.

He also said there would be events throughout regional Queensland and there were “huge opportunities for teams to be based here”.

“There are opportunities to expand our infrastructure within our region and I know … we’ll be having discussions with (all levels of government) as to what improvements we can make,” he said.

Those measures would ensure Cairns would be able to attract as many of those teams as possible, and to ensure “we have a good percentage of the sporting events”.

Mr Healy said it was his job to make sure Cairns’ voice was heard, and the “powers that be in Brisbane” were aware Cairns would be expecting its fair share of the Olympics.

“And most importantly, for the young boys and girls who have aspirations, this is a fantastic opportunity for them,” he said.

Mr Healy said Cairns had already proven it could mix it with the best on an international stage.

“We’ve held events here for the Commonwealth Games that could quite easily have been Olympic events,” he said.

“We’re a city that has proven we can do it.”