Thank you!

I would just like to take this opportunity to thank everybody who has followed my progress throughout the journey to Beijing. It has been long and it has endured its ups and downs, but all has come to an end. I am so appreciative of the support that I received from everybody. Through hero messages, text messages, emails, facebook messages the lot, I honestly had no idea of how many people have been reading this site until I received countless messages of support and congratulations. It has blown me away!
Thank you to those who even went to the effort of organising events including the Toowoomba Downs Club members and my school friends who have made the effort to always keep in touch even though I have always been many many miles away!

The Second Week of Olympics!

Probably the best week of my life! Parties, friends, shopping, watching other sports and relaxing. Life couldn't get much better. The Olympic Village in the second week was one of the greatest experiences ever.

Athletes are an interesting breed. We look after our bodies as if they are a porcelain doll 99% of the time, however, that 1% when it is time to let the hair down, it most definitely is let all the way down! The second week of the Olympics, was that 1% of the last four years. I had the opportunity to meet so many other Australian athletes, which we don't normally get to do.

In the village, everybody is relaxed, happy and enjoying every moment of the day. It doesn't matter who came what, or where you are from, everybody will talk to everybody (especially at the McDonald's line in the early hours of the morning).

I had the opportunity to spectate some other sports including both the men's and women's basketball matches versus USA, the syncronised swimming duet finals, the 10m platmform men's diving qualifiers and watched endless hours of actual live closed-circuit television of every single event. Not like the Channel 7 'live'; that was about a 45 minute delay! It was awesome!

The Olympic Wrap Up

I suppose by now, almost three weeks after we raced in Beijing, I have had enough time to reflect on our performance and my experiences at the Olympics.

I won't sugar coat it, I was very disappointed with our racing at the Olympics. Every race we started, within 250m we were already on the back foot and struggling to keep up with the other crews. This was shattering. After having such a great lead up to the Games, it was really hard to comprehend how fast the other crews were going. I wouldn't say we were going any slower than earlier in the year, our problem was that we needed to step up from those performances but we didn't.

We only have ourselves to blame, however, at this stage it is hard to pin point exactly where we went wrong. Most of us are baffled. On the positive side, the girls that I have spoken to about the racing and myself all believe that we have learnt from our experience in Beijing and are keen to try it again in London.

Prior to the Games, many people were commenting on how little experience our crew had at the Olympics. With only one member having competed at Athens, we were a young inexperienced crew trying to take on veterans of the event. Initially, these comments didn't phase us, although, now having competed at the Olympics, experience actually helps. Maybe not your physical contribution to racing, but experience would definitely help your mind cope with the overwhelming distractions that the Olympics offers. Subconsciously, your mind is thinking overtime trying to absorb all the new activities happening around you. It was like nothing I have ever experienced before!

The Day of the Heat

Well it is the day of the heat. We are at our hub outside of the village preparing for the race. Just relaxing in air conditioning before our race this evening at 7:30 AEST. The boat is travelling well and I think that all members are looking forward to the opportunity of seeing where we stand in the field. In our heat we have drawn Netherlands and Romania, both very tough crews. However, if we wish to win the gold medal we have to beat them all!
Hope the coverage back home is showing the rowing. The swimmers have started to win medals now, so I there will be too much rowing on now.
Everybody think fast thoughts! I'll let you know how it goes!

The heat of Beijing.... Literally!

Well we are here. We have managed to start getting settled in to a routine, even though we did arrive on Friday night. We got in quite late on Friday night, once our visas were checked off, our luggage was scanned (atleast four times by the time they were in our rooms at the village) and we had experienced our first meal at the dining hall (which is the size of two football fields) it was time for bed at midnight, or 2am AEST. It was almost 24hours of travelling from Sydney bed to Beijing bed.
The following day, was a big one. We left the village in the morning and went out to the Australian team recovery centre where we got to experience the uniform collection. It was an awesome experience. Similar to if you would walk into Rebel Sport pick out about 50 items of clothing, all in your correct size because a volunteer would run around for you, and then exit via the front door, just waving at the cash register.... no money needed! It was awesome. Along with all our sports gear, we picked up our formal attire for the opening ceremony and the AOC function on Thursday night. I can't give away too much, but the opening ceremony outfits are a real treat for you all watching back at home. With so much excitement, 8 hours passed by of just trying on clothes, so we were back at the village by 5pm, still yet to see the rowing course.
On Saturday we started to train out at the course. Saturday has been by far the hottest yet. It was a clear day and swelteringly hot! It was the worst Brisbane could get in the summer, although we were training at midday rather than 5am when we would in Brisbane. Many of us suffered heat stroke a little, as we were all very sleepy by the time we headed back to the Village.
We have started to get back into routine with training. The days have been more humid than the first, although, the heat hasn't been as bad which makes it bearable.
The crew is coming along well, I think we are all adjusting to the climate well and we are managing to get through the training. We were able to pick up where we left off back in Sydney, which was important especially moving into faster hotter water here in Beijing.
I will be sure to keep you all updated on how we are progressing. Hope all are well back home and are looking forward to the next two weeks being nothing but sport on the box set!

We are off to Beijing!

Well the day has come. Tomorrow we fly out to Beijing and there is a lot of excitement amongst the girls. Apart from the stress of making sure we speak to everyone before we head off and watching the final of Amazing Race on channel Seven, we are excited and looking forward to our big arrival in Beijing!
If you see any footage of news channels in Australia of us arriving, you must check out our lovely uniforms! They are very nautical?
Our final preparations have come together at just the right time. We have found some speed and enjoyed the race work that we have done over the past two weeks. We are fit, we are prepared and we are definitely looking forward to racing in Beijing.
In the next few days we are going to experience many new adventures, I am sure of it! Exploring the Olympic village, arriving at the rowing course, getting all our uniform and checking out the dining hall which is the size of two football fields is just the beginning.
There is wireless at both the village and our rowing course hub, so I will be sure to keep you all updated whilst I am over there!

Finding Speed

It is that time of the season. The time to find some speed. For most of us in the crew, I think I can safely say all of us, we are the athletes that love to race. The racers. So it is this time of the season that makes all those early mornings, long days and months living out of suitcases worthwhile.
At the moment, we are in the team camp, which is very exciting as all the crews are here and it allows us to be able to use other crews to race against. The mens heavyweight double is our crew of choice. They are meant to be seven seconds slower than us over 2000m, therefore they are a great pace boat to work against. They also love a good battle.
Today we did a series of 15 stroke starts which allows us to practice making every start consistently the same. This is vital to racing. It enables us to line up on the Olympic start line and know what to expect from the first stroke even with the external distractions that the Olympics will throw at us.
With only five days until we fly out, everyone is getting very excited about the next few weeks, however, we are trying to keep it under control. I will keep you updated on our progress, enjoy!