Aus­tralia Day

Dubbo Photo News - - Emergency Issues - By YVETTE AUBUS­SON-FO­LEY

DEB­BIE Wat­son OAM earned the right to rep­re­sent Aus­tralia play­ing wa­ter polo, win­ning gold at World Cup, World Cham­pi­onship and Olympic lev­els, while earn­ing her­self the rep­u­ta­tion as the best player – not just in Aus­tralia – but the world.

Ms Wat­son has been an Aus­tralia Day Am­bas­sador for the past 16 years, and will be at­tend­ing the Dubbo Aus­tralia Day cel­e­bra­tions in Vic­to­ria Park to give a key­note ad­dress.

Speak­ing to Dubbo Photo News from Bris­bane where she was com­men­tat­ing two wa­ter polo test matches between Ja­pan and Aus­tralia at the Australian Ju­nior Wa­ter Polo cham­pi­onships, her in­volve­ment with the sport to­day is pri­mar­ily as a coach and Olympic com­men­ta­tor.

Her jour­ney to reach the peak of her sport in the 1980s and ‘90s how­ever was very dif­fer­ent com­pared to to­day.

“I was a bit naïve when I first started play­ing. I didn’t even know they had world cham­pi­onships. To­day the kids know ev­ery­thing, all about the Olympics, they know the path­ways, and ev­ery­thing’s spelled out for them. All the in­for­ma­tion is so ac­ces­si­ble.

“I was just play­ing the game be­cause I loved it. I got through very

Deb­bie Wat­son makes a back­hand pass as Kazak­stan chal­lenges dur­ing a pre­lim­i­nary wa­ter­polo match at the Syd­ney 2000 Olympic Games. Aus­tralia won 9-2. PHOTO: AP VIA AAP/GREG BAKER/©2000 THE AS­SO­CI­ATED PRESS

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