(U3L3R1) Athlete Profiles

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1 AIS athletes are very talented athletes, but really they are just like everyone else. They did not start out as champions, they have worked hard at their sport over time. These athletes have had some great successes but have also had some times in their lives when they have questioned their commitment to their sport. Along the way they have learnt to deal with both these personal challenges and the demands of their chosen sport. Achieving success is often a lot of fun. It is important to enjoy your achievements while at the same time being gracious to others. The bad times can be much harder to deal with but as you will see, even champions experience low points. The important thing to remember is that they took on the bad times, overcame them and went on to achieve great things even winning medals at the Olympic Games! Jack Bobridge, 21: Cycling When did you first start cycling? I started cycling when I was 15. I have always looked up to and tried to be like Brad McGee and Stuart O Grady. They have been great for so long. What do you love most about cycling? I love riding my bike, going fast and beating anyone that is in front of me. When I am not racing I generally train every day with a mix of heavy days when I train for five to six hours and light days when I train for one to two hours. I do longer road rides when I m training for the road and shorter rides with high intensity when I m training for the track. training to give you energy? When I need an energy boost I eat bananas. I also like to eat spaghetti bolognese because it s tasty, easy to make and it gives me a great serve of carbohydrates before competition. I m motivated by winning and doing the best for my team. I reckon my strength is also my weakness. It s my competitiveness because I always want to win and sometimes I push myself too hard. Competing for my country at the Beijing Olympic Games. win. How do you deal with defeat? There is always another race and therefore another opportunity. I assess why my result wasn t what I expected and just go out there and try to get the result I want next time. I ve been very lucky so far. AIS Halls of residence? When living at the AIS cycling base in Varese, I enjoy the little piece of home in the middle of Europe. It provides a comfort and a home away from home.

2 Evan O Hanlon, 22: Athletics, Paralympic Track and Field When did you first start athletics? I first started in primary school where I competed at regional and state trials against able-bodied kids. Then at High School I continued athletics, juggling it with other sports like rugby union and rowing. It wasn t until I was in year 11 that I was spotted by a long jump coach and my athletics training got serious. Sprinter Ussain Bolt has become one of my biggest inspirations of the past few years. The things he has been able to achieve are amazing. I can only hope to achieve something similar in the world of disabled sport. What do you love most about athletics? My favourite thing about athletics is that it is as much mental as it is physical. I train nine times a week with each session lasting between two to three hours. The type of training I do changes depending on what time of the year it is. During winter when I m not competing I do weights in the gym to improve my strength and spend more time on the track to increase my fitness. In summer all of my training is focused on competing. My gym work is much lighter and my track work is much shorter. training to give you energy? I love a good bowl of spaghetti bolognese the night before competition. It just gives you that extra bit of energy on race day. Before I had a world record, longing to be the best was my motivation. Now my motivation is to prove beyond doubt that I am the best and to keep raising the bar for the 100m in my category and for disabled sport in general. My biggest strength is my competitive nature but sometimes this can also become my biggest weakness because I can be too hard on myself, particularly if I have not had a very good training session or a competition result was not what I was hoping for. My greatest achievement is definitely my performance at the Beijing Paralympic Games where I won three gold medals in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay. I proved that I could perform under pressure at a very high level and I held my best form for the whole competition. win. How do you deal with defeat? Defeat is good for you because it reignites the desire to win. You get hungry for another win and you train harder. Plus, there is always a lesson to be learnt when you don t perform at the level you thought you might. The key is to realise what you can learn from that situation. My lowest point would have to be my disqualification at the 2006 World Championships in the 100m for being the second athlete to false start. I was very disappointed at not being able to race but I came home and trained harder than ever. Soon I broke the world record so it was not necessarily a bad thing. AIS Halls of Residence? The dining hall would have to be up there with the best things about the AIS residence. Just in front of that comes the fact that you get to live in an environment where everyone wants to reach their potential in their chosen sport. The atmosphere of excellence pushes you on.

3 Matthew Cowdrey, 22: Paralympic Swimming Lisa Szatsznajder, 24: Rowing When did you first start swimming? I had my first swimming lessons when I was four and have been swimming competitively since I was nine. Lance Armstrong. What do you love most about swimming? I love the challenge of competition. Every week I do eight two-hour training sessions in the pool, which involves lots of laps up and down, up and down! Then I do two to three sessions in the gym plus one other session that I mix up. I like to eat lots of pasta for energy before training and competing. I m motivated to be the very best I can be. My dream is to become the greatest Australian Paralympian of all time. My mental focus is my strength. Winning five gold medals at the Beijing Paralympic Games. As long as I know I ve done my best then I am happy. I missed out on making the 2002 World Championship team. What is the best thing about living at the I don t live at the village but I love the camaraderie of the AIS athlete training camps I go to. How did you get into rowing? I started rowing when I was about 14. David Crawshay. He was a gold medallist at the Beijing Olympic Games. What do you love most about rowing? The intensity of training and the competition. I do training sessions every week for about two hours every session. In addition to rowing I also run, cycle, swim and do weights. I like to eat big juicy steaks, potatoes, broccoli and spinach. My biggest strengths are my discipline, commitment, training ethic and competitiveness. My biggest weakness would be impatience. achievement to date? Winning a silver medal at the Under 23 World Rowing Championships in Strathclyde in Scotland. It was my first international medal and our crew wasn t even tipped to make the finals! I ask myself whether that race was important for my long-term goals. If not, I then focus on future competitions. If it was, I may look at my competition strategy and revise it. Being selected for the 2006 Under 23 Australian Team but then having to withdraw due to illness. My team went on to win a gold medal too. The friends I have made and having the ability to focus entirely on my sport without distractions.

4 Robbie Growther, 23: Long Jump When did you first get into track and field? I started out in primary school. Too many to think of just one! What do you love most about track and field? I love that I get to travel the world and have the potential to compete at the Olympic Games. I train three to six hours a day, six days a week. My training consists of a lot of speed work like sets of 150 metre sprints, plus specific work around jumping and hopping. I also regularly run up and down the stairs at Canberra Stadium and practice long jump run-ups on the track. What foods to you eat while you re in I love to eat lasagne. Any athlete who beats me! I want to beat them, so I train harder. There is nothing like a little competition to help you push yourself. A key strength is that I have confidence in my ability as a jumper. I also have a lot of family support and a great group of friends who help keep me focused. A weakness has been getting the odd injury or two. My greatest achievement at this stage in my life is winning a World Juniors gold medal in Beijing with just one year of AIS training behind me. Even successful athletes cannot always win. How do you deal with defeat? I deal with defeat by keeping my head up high and knowing I did my best on the day. I try not to make any excuses. My biggest disappointment was missing out on the Beijing Olympic team by 3cm. You get to meet different people all the time and you are constantly making new friends. It made it very easy when I moved to the AIS straight out of school when I was 17 because I didn t know anyone. After two weeks however, I knew just about everyone!

5 Ramone Cooper, 22: Mogul Skiing Ashley Delaney, 24: Swimming When did you first start mogul skiing? I first started skiing moguls when I was ten, but I started skiing when I was four. Janne Lahtela. What do you love most about mogul skiing? It s a very exciting and unique sport. It incorporates aerial jumps, ski technique and speed, so you have to be very versatile and athletic. I train in blocks working around the competition season which starts in December and ends in March. I train on snow for about nine months of the year, working on a pattern of three days on and one day off. An average session involves snow training, video analysis and weight training in the gym. I always eat muesli for breakfast with yoghurt, which keeps me energised through my morning training sessions. I m motivated to do my best and see what I can achieve. My strengths are my technical abilities in the moguls and in the air. My weakness over the past year or so has been injury. My greatest achievement was qualifying in 6th place and finishing in 15th place at the 2007 World Championships. I was 18 and it was my first season competing on the FIS World Cup Tour. I try to learn from each experience. Sometimes the best lessons are learnt from the mistakes that you make. I view everything as a progression and try to focus on what I would like to have done better then try to apply it to my next event. I ve been unlucky over the past two years with injury. I ve had knee surgery and some problems with my hamstring. What is the best thing about living at the Definitely the food! When did you first start swimming? In Roger Federer. What do you love most about swimming? Every day I get to challenge myself. Every week I do ten two-hour swim sessions and three one-hour gym sessions. Foods with complex carbohydrates, like pasta, rice and potatoes. Wanting to achieve my goals keeps me motivated. My family also helps to keep me motivated. My strengths are my competitive nature and my fantastic, supportive family. My weakness is too many milkshakes! achievement to date? My performance at the Beijing Olympic Games where I won a silver medal in the relay, placed 5th in the 100m backstroke and 10th in the 200m backstroke. I always look at defeat as way to make myself stronger. I take the time to look at what I did wrong and try to make it better. The 2009 World Championships were tough because I had set myself some goals for that meet and I fell quite short of achieving them. Everyone who is there wants to be there and is focussed on achieving their goals.

6 Will Thwaite, 23: Volleyball Ellyse Perry,20: Cricket level for Australia. continue to improve. When did you first start playing volleyball? In 2004 when I was in Year 12. Too many to name one! What do you love most about volleyball? The excitement and competitiveness of playing. I have two training sessions a day. All up I train for about four and half hours a day. I have three gym sessions and eight court sessions a week. Lots of different types of pasta. My strengths are my determination and willingness to learn. Playing for Australia in about 50 matches over the years. It makes me feel so proud to represent my country. I try to think about what went wrong and what is in my power to change for the next time. Last season we lost most of our matches in the second half of the season. It affected the whole team by making us feel disappointed and drained our motivation. What is the best thing about living at the We get looked after really, really well!! When did you first start playing cricket? I ve been playing cricket since I was about seven. Roger Federer. What do you love most about cricket? The fantastic friendships I ve forged and the enjoyment I get from every game that I play. I do skills training, strength training and fitness training as well as lots of practice matches. Foods high in carbohydrates that are also low GI like pasta, rice and bread. My weakness would be my inexperience as an international athlete. So, it helps that my strength is my willingness to improve and become more experienced. achievement to date? Making sure I keep a balance between sport and other things in my life that are important to me such as family, friends and study. I try to always learn from the mistakes I ve made and make them motivations to do better next time. I m still at the beginning of my career and have been lucky in that I ve not experienced anything that is not just part of the ride of international sport. I love swapping stories and advice with all of the different athletes from a variety of sports. I want to keep playing at a higher and higher level, hopefully playing at Olympic My love of playing cricket keeps me motivated, as does the challenge to

7 Emma Lincoln-Smith, 25: Skeleton training to give you energy? My favourite combination is a banana with yoghurt, honey and walnuts. The opportunity to fulfil my dream of competing at an Olympic Games. I am also motivated by the idea of seeing how good I can be and how far I can go in this sport. AIS Halls of Residence? It is great to have such a strong support team around you all working to help you improve your performance. I have a wonderful team and enjoy working with everyone. We all get along very well. When did you first start skeleton? I started skeleton just under six years ago. Libby Tricket and Duff Gibson. What do you love most about skeleton? What I love most about skeleton is the life that it allows me to lead. I love the travel, the friends, the places that we go and most of all I love to slide! It is the greatest feeling imaginable and for me there is nothing else I would rather do. I train twice a day, six days a week. Each session usually goes for a couple of hours depending on the type of training I m doing. I do a lot of speed and acceleration work as well as a power weight training program to work on explosiveness. I also do a lot of visualising. My strengths are my determination and persistence to always get up when I get knocked down. My weakness is that I can put too much pressure on myself and try too hard on race day rather than just letting things happen. My performance at the World Championships when I placed 5th. It was my best achievement because I was able to put together my race plan perfectly and I now know I can do it again. win. How do you deal with defeat? I try to figure out where I went wrong and think about how I can prevent myself from doing it again. After I ve worked through it I then start fresh and leave that performance back in that place and let it go. I missed out on qualifying for the 2006 Winter Olympic Games and it was very hard to watch the competition on TV at home rather than be there competing myself.