Olympic dream elusive
WHEN it comes to realising her Olympic dream, Stephanie Kershaw is luckless.
Ever since she was a young, rising hockey star the Townsville product has envisioned the opportunity to challenge for a gold medal – and Tokyo was her latest fuel for motivation.
An ACL injury deprived her of any opportunity to play with the Hockeyroos in London, and now coronavirus threatens to prevent her second bid.
But despite the distractions and fears across the globe, it is business as usual for the 24year-old.
“To be honest I’m not really thinking about it,” a candid Kershaw said.
“Obviously it’s hard to not wonder what if, but at the moment I’m just thinking about training and what’s going on today rather than getting overwhelmed about working for four years and the Olympics not going ahead.”
While the International Olympic Committee, and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, have reaffirmed the Games will proceed as scheduled, there is no denying the situation is an evolving beast.
Crowd restraints have been discussed by organisers, much in a similar vein to the NRL locking out fans from stadiums but continuing to play.
Even if the Games still occur, the international hockey season has gone into hibernation until at least April 15.
Should this date be extended if the COVID-19 spread does not ease, the Hockeyroos will have limited opportunities to fine tune their gameplay prior to arguably sport’s greatest showcase.
But Kershaw said, given they had not yet been instructed to stop training together, the depth of the national squad meant game simulations created a similar environment to improve in as the FIH League.
She said based on the way she had trained and her performances prior to the season’s postponement she was confident of finally breaking her Olympic duck. Whether there was a crowd cheering her on or not, she was simply thrilled that, for the time being, the event was set to be staged.
“It’s hard to say but I think so – I think it would have to get a lot worse to be called off,” Kershaw said. “I know they’ve talked about playing in front of empty stands, which would still be a good thing because we could still play.
“I think regardless it will still be good. I try to block out the crowd anyway so it could be a good thing. I think the hype will still be there.”