WARRIOR ADVANCES TO CANOE
Isabella Rositano is one of Australia’s fittest athletes as she proved in the TV show Ninja Warrior last year. Winning Olympic gold in canoe sprinting is one of her next challenges FOUR years ago Isabella Rositano couldn’t stay upright in a canoe without falling out instantly. Now she hoping to head to the Olympics in 2020.
The 23-year-old Gold Coaster is not shy to strenuous training and hard work, having competed in a range of sports from Australian rules football, rugby and bobsleighing.
She decided to try canoeing
in 2015 and immediately fell in love with it.
Isabella is now what is called a sprint canoeist.
Canoe sprinting is like short, fast, high-intensity sprints on land, but in water and on a small, narrow boat.
“It’s pretty fun. It’s similar to running 200m on a track,” Isabella said.
“Usually, it will take me about 50 seconds (to complete 200m).”
Isabella has held consecutive state and national champion titles and competed for
Australia in Hungary, Belarus, Canada and Romania.
Last year, Isabella made her TV debut when she competed on Nine’s reality TV show Ninja Warrior, where some of Australia’s fittest athletes took on a gruelling and high-intensity obstacle course in record times.
“That was so much fun,” she said. “I had people contact me after the (show) and asking what I was doing and what it was about.”
She said it was a great opportunity for canoe sprint to get more exposure.
“It’s incredible how each culture is different with sport,” she said.
“In Hungary and Poland, you’ll see their canoe athletes advertised everywhere.
“It’s never really had a real backbone here. And we have some incredibly talented well achieving kayakers here.
“The closest thing we have seen is the Olympic event in Tokyo in 2020. I think it’s probably been a reason why people haven’t actually gone out to try it.
“I’m hoping it will make an event at the Commonwealth Games in the future because that’s what drives people to compete in the sport.”
Although she has done great things throughout her sporting career, Isabella says her greatest achievement isn’t what you might expect.
“My favourite achievement was when I stopped falling out of the boat,” Isabella said.
“It may sound silly but it’s one of the most challenging things. I think a lot of people would underestimate the difficulty of being in the boat.
“My first goal was to be able to paddle out and make the first 200m.”
She returned to the water three weeks ago after taking nearly a year and a half off to have some time to herself.
“I had been out of the boat and unable to train for a while. But I went and competed in Perth about three weeks ago for the Oceania National Marathon Championships and I got silver.
“It was a 15km race and it took me one hour and 46 minutes. I should have trained for it because I couldn’t walk afterwards.”
Isabella is also a passionate mental health ambassador for The Black Dog Institute.
Two months ago she completed 3128 push-ups to grab people’s attention on how many Australians took their life due to mental illness.
Although she has taken a break recently, her goal is to complete at the Tokyo Olympics for canoe sprint in 2020.
It’d be incredible if I managed to reach Tokyo,” she said. “I’m looking ahead to Paris and LA too.”
If you need someone to talk to phone Lifeline on 13 11 14.