I WANT TO BE THE GREATEST
TWICE the world player of the year. An Olympic gold medal. A World Cup win. A Commonwealth Games gold and silver medal.
It seems Charlotte Caslick has done it all in women’s rugby sevens. But her plans are much grander. “I want to be the greatest rugby sevens player of all time, which is a pretty daunting statement I guess to like put out into the universe,” Caslick said.
“But I feel like if I believe it myself, then hopefully it’ll come true one day. So that's really my main goal, and I want to go to three Olympics.”
Caslick is already considered by many as the best female to ever play sevens. But the 27-year-old believes there’s one more thing she must achieve to be considered the GOAT.
“I think I’d have to win another gold medal at the Olympics,” Caslick said.
Paris 2024 is 18 months away, and Caslick has much to tick off before that Olympic campaign, including this year’s World Series, which
continues in Hamilton this weekend.
“Those big goals are easy to set, but I have mini goals for every tournament, they’re usually similar to what the coaches give me but there’s some personal ones as well,” she said.
“It's definitely hard to keep showing up every day because of the running that we do, it’s just so hard on our bodies, mixed in with the contact.
“We get both sides of sport, which is hard. In rugby and rugby league, the contact aspect is probably higher but they wouldn’t have anywhere near the amount of high-speed running that takes a toll on your body.”
Australia’s co-captain took on a lot of responsibility when, after Australia became the golden girls of the sport by winning the 2016 Rio Olympics, they fell to Fiji in the quarter-finals of the Tokyo Games and returned without a medal.
“I encouraged the girls to go into some dark places,” Caslick said.
“And when I was young, I didn’t have much tolerance for people that didn’t like training. I guess as I’ve grown older, I’ve been able to develop the way that I communicate with the girls and find a way to get the best out of them. And I think as a group, we know each other so well that we can challenge each other at the right times, but also respect each other enough to know when to … back off.”
Caslick, who was world player of the year in 2016, pushed herself too. And when some thought her best days were behind her, she produced a superb season to win the 2022 player
of the year award as Australia reclaimed the World Series from New Zealand for the first time since 2017-18.
Now they’ll attempt to beat the Kiwis on their turf, before returning to play the Sydney Sevens next weekend – their first appearance on home soil in three years due to Covid restrictions. “It’s just an opportunity for us to play in front of the home crowd, we don’t get to do it very often,” Caslick said.
“For a lot of the girls, it’s their first time ever playing at home, which is so special. I guess people probably think that we get to do it all the time, but it’s once a year if we’re lucky.
“And we’ve been so successful, the Australian public can see it in real life, how athletic the girls are and how cool the sport is.
“It’s hard to judge when you’re not there and seeing it in real life, the collision speed and everything is just insane.”