FASTER, HIGHER, STRONGER
Chef de mission of the 2016 Australian Olympic team Kitty Chiller provides an insight into our remarkable female team representing the nation at the Rio Games. Styled byy Kate Darvill. Photographed by Justin Ridler.
Australian female athletes have attracted a great deal of attention in the last year or so, for all the right reasons. They are strong, committed, articulate and determined to represent Australia with pride and honour on the Olympic stage. And they are leaders off the field of play. The Olympics are so close now and we are itching to get to Rio and show what our young team can do. We have worked hard for the past three years building a strong culture for the team.
The athletes have bonded, they are enthusiastic, they are great to be around, and there is a really good feeling surrounding them. Our focus has been on “one team”, and I know we are well on our way to achieving that.
In Rio, we will see Australian athletes out in the stands barracking for their mates from other sports. The strong and unified culture we have developed off the field will provide us with the best platform for performance excellence on the field of play.
The Australian team has an objective of a “top five” finish on the medal tally, which is no mean feat when we are up against athletes from 205 other countries. But we have been up there with the world superpowers – USA, Russia, China and Germany – before. We finished fourth in Sydney 2000, and fourth in Athens 2004.
For our size, we are one of the most successful Olympic nations in the world over the 120-year history of the modern Olympic Summer Games. Other countries marvel at how a nation of just 23 million people can achieve such success.
And that success, especially in recent times, has been largely achieved because of our female athletes. Looking at the most recent games, while our London 2012 team comprised 45 per cent female athletes, they won 57 per cent of the medals. Australia’s 2014 winter team created history when, for the first time, a majority (51 per cent) of the athletes were females, and they won 66.6 per cent of the medals.
All indications are that Rio will continue this trend. While there have been some superb results across many sports and both genders leading in to the 2016 games, our female athletes have shone in the last 18 months. In the Australian Olympic Committee 2015 benchmark study (based on results from world championships, world cups and other events of equal standing on the world stage) we saw results from world champions such as rower Kimberley Brennan (née Crow); track cyclist Anna Meares, the team pursuit teams (members of a track cycling event) and Omnium (another track cycling event) champ Annette Edmondson; and then in swimming Emily Seebohm and Bronte and Cate Campbell. Of the 13 gold medals Australia won in benchmark events in 2015, nine were won by female athletes. And that tally was without the injured Sally Pearson (athletics) and other top hopes including Jessica Fox (canoeing-kayaking), Shelley Watts ( boxing), Caroline Buchanan (BMX cycling) and our Rugby Women’s Sevens team, who recently won the World Series for the first time ever, and will go into Rio ranked number one in the world.
All our female team sports have an excellent opportunity for a podium finish and most will realistically challenge for gold in Rio. As well as rugby Sevens, the hockey, water polo, basketball and football women’s teams all have a medal in their sights.
I am not saying at all that our male athletes don’t also display the same winning characteristics as their female teammates, because they do. All athletes across the 26 sports we will be represented in at Rio are part of a united team, #OneTeam. All our athletes will be supporting their teammates as they strive to produce personal bests in the ultimate sporting event.
They will all do us proud.