Chloe Logarzo and Ellie Carpenter

SPORT: Soccer

Following wins in the Oceanic Football Confederation, Asean Football Federation and Asian Football Confederation, the Australian women’s soccer team became the first-ever national team to top two different confederations (before the men’s team managed the same feat in 2015). The 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup then saw the Matildas become the first Australian team (men’s or women’s) to win a knockout stage match at a World Cup when they defeated Brazil. For midfielder Chloe Logarzo and defender Ellie Carpenter, getting to Rio is another first. While Logarzo began kicking a ball with her dad-cum-coach when she was five, Carpenter, who at 16 is the first player, male or female, born in this millennium to represent an Australian senior national team, began mucking around with her brother when she was just three years old.

ON WINNING: “To win is pretty much everything,” says Carpenter. “All the hard training that you do off and on the park, everything just comes down to that game. So you just have to put everything in it and get that winning result.”

ON RIO: “It’s always been a dream of mine to go to the Olympics, so to have that dream come true is amazing,” says Carpenter. “I just can’t wait for the experience ahead.” Logarzo agrees: “Rio means the world to me. The girls have only been twice (to the Sydney Olympics and then to Athens) so I would love to be a girl in history and go down as one of the Matildas that went to Rio.”

MOTTO: “Never give up,” says Carpenter. “As hard as it is when we are doing training and protocol or fitness, you never give up in your head and look at what’s beyond you.” For Logarzo, it’s: “If it was easy, everyone would do it.”