|
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
| Human Interest | |
|---|---|
Further Personal Information | |
| Residence | North Shore, NZL |
Sport Specific Information | |
| Club / Team | North Shore Swimming: New Zealand |
Further Personal Information | |
| Higher education | Humanities - The University of Auckland: Auckland, NZL |
General Interest | |
| Hobbies | "I love going for runs as part of my cross-training and following the results of other Kiwi sportspeople, particularly individual sports - I guess because swimming is individual too. Swimming is nearly a full-time job though so I don't have any time to play other sports for fun at the moment. I grew up playing lots of different sports at school and I was really serious about ballet until I was 15." (olympic.org.nz, 24 Mar 2012) |
| Memorable sporting achievement | "My three most memorable moments in swimming are qualifying for my first Olympics in 2008, winning a bronze medal at the World Short Course Championships in 2004 and out-touching Canada by .02 of a second for the bronze medal in the 4x200m freestyle relay at the 2006 Commonwealth Games. My most unique swimming experience was travelling around the world by myself in 2008 competing in the world cup circuit." (tryathlon.weetbix.co.nz, 26 Jan 2011) |
Sport Specific Information | |
| Why this sport? | As a youngster she spent a lot of time on a family yacht and needed to be able to swim. |
General Interest | |
| Hero / Idol | "I don't really have role models but I have great respect and appreciation for our Olympic gold medallists such as Danyon Loader, Sarah Ulmer, Hamish Carter and the Evers-Swindell sisters. A lot of these athletes endured enormous disappointments in their sporting careers, but came back tougher and stronger than ever to achieve Olympic gold." (tryathlon.weetbix.co.nz, 04 Jan 2011) |
| Awards and honours | She was the 2002 Auckland Secondary Schools Sportswoman of the year and the 2002-04 Waitakere Sportswoman of the Year. (Melbourne 2006, 19 Jul 2010) |
Sport Specific Information | |
| Name of coach | Scott Talbot |
| Coach from what year? | 2010 |
| Training Regime | "I spend about 35 hours a week training. About 22 of those are spent in the water and the rest of the time is gym and rehab work." She trains at Swimming New Zealand's High Performance Centre in Auckland. |
| When and where did you begin this sport? | "I've nearly swum everyday of my life. I started lessons when I was three months old and then progressed from there. I started competing when I was seven and seriously training when I was about 10." |
International Debut | |
| Year | 2002 |
| Competing for | New Zealand |
| Tournament | Commonwealth Games |
| Location | Manchester |
Further Personal Information | |
| Occupation | Athlete |
| Languages | English |
General Interest | |
| Sporting philosophy / motto | "Practice makes perfect, the more you do it the better you will become." (tryathlon.weetbix.co.nz, 04 Jan 2011) |
Sport Specific Information | |
| Coach from which country? | New Zealand |
General Interest | |
| Other information | DIPPING INTO HER OWN POCKET Rather than stay home and train at North Shore's Millennium Institute with New Zealand's other high performance athletes after the world championships in July 2011, she decided to invest her earnings offshore by racing the Asian legs of the world cup 25m short course circuit. She earned podium finishes in Singapore, Beijing and Tokyo: "I just paid for my trip to the world cups and didn't manage to break even." (nzherald.co.nz, 20 Nov 2011) TIME OFF She took a three-month layoff from the sport following her shock failure to qualify for the 2009 World Championships. (stuff.co.nz, 15 Dec 2009) NO RELAY IN 2008 She opted out of New Zealand's relay team for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China because the event clashed with her specialist individual event, the 200m backstroke. (stuff.co.nz, 01 Apr 2008) |