Revealed: 10 wildcard Tokyo Olympic Games medal chances
Revealed: Ten Queensland wildcard Tokyo Olympic Games medal chances. They are others, but here are 10 little rippers.
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With the Tokyo Olympic Games set for takeoff, there will be competitors from across Australia bobbing up and capturing world attention with podium finishes at the Tokyo Olympic Games.
Queensland has dozens and dozens of medal chances.
Here we reveal just 10 wildcard Queensland medal chances you may know little about.
ASHLEY MOLONEY (decathlon)
Moloney, 21, is the sleeping giant of world sport.
From the working class Logan City suburb of Regent’s Park, Moloney is in personal best training form going into the Games.
The training partner of 2016 and fellow Tokyo Olympian Cedric Dubler, he learned to run at Browns Plains Little Athletics and to jump at Jimboomba Little Athletics perform becoming an athletic powerhouse for Brisbane Boys College at GPS track and field championships.
He is coached by veteran jumps mentor Eric Brown at UQ Sport.
CASSIEL ROUSSEAU (Diving)
A little like Ashley Moloney, the kid is a freak within his sport.
And like Moloney, his time on the biggest sporting stage, the Olympics, has come earlier than he expected.
The Cleveland State Community College alumni had initially pencilled Paris 2024 when he started in the sport, but that soon changed in 2018 when, aged 17, he produced an Australian team qualifying performance at the world championships when he finished ninth.
He is a former gymnast who once disliked diving but stayed in the sport at the insistence of his mother.
LOGAN MARTIN (BMX freestyle)
Logan Martin is very well known within his sport, but not widely known by the general population.
However, that could well change if he wins a medal - and it is within his capacity to go all the way to the top of the podium.
Aptly named, Martin grew up in Logan City and attended Marsden SHS.
Martin learned his craft after following his brother Nathan to the Crestmead skatepark when he was aged 12 or 13 years.
He was a star at the Beenleigh BMX site where he attended the official opening last year and his legion of fans will be on the edge of their lounge rooms willing him on.
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ABBY ANDREWS, ELLE ARMIT and GABI PALM (Water Polo)
While Brisbane’s Bronwen Knox will be attending her fourth Olympic Games, her water polo team mates, Brisbane Girls Grammar School alumni Abby Andrews and Gabriella Palm, will be at their first.
Andrews is a left hander shoot, Palm a long limbed goal keeper and Armit and North Queensland kid living out her dreams.
The Australian water polo team are huge medal chances and beating the USA to claim the gold medal is not beyond the squad.
MOLLIE O’CALLAGHAN and MEG HARRIS (swimming)
Watch for these kids to help the Australian Dolphins qualify for the 4x100m freestyle relay and 4x100m medley relay.
Both freestyle sprinters, they are St Peters Western Swim Club swimmers, the same club as the high profile Ariarne Titmus and Mitch Larkin.
O’Callaghan is a year 12 student at St Peters Lutheran College’s Springwood campus who learned to swim at the Greenbank State School pool.
Harris, who went first touted as a potential Olympian in 2019, spent her formative years in the pool were spent in Mackay at the Mackay Swimming Academy under Pat Wright before moving to St Peters Western and Mt St Michael’s School, Ashgrove.
CAITLIN CRONIN (Rowing)
One of Queensland’s new Olympians, Caitlin, 26, will be stroke of the quadruple scull which includes fellow Queenslander, Warwick rowing product Harriet Hudson (Somerville House alumni).
She learned to row at All Hallows’ School but it was not until year 11 that her rowing career started to take off.
Watch for her crew to challenge for a medal in the highly competitive rowing.
TOM NEILL (swimming)
Like Ashley Moloney (mentioned above), we have been telling you about Tom Neill since 2018.
Individual medals at the Tokyo Games in the 200m and 1500m may not arrive for the Olympic Tom Neill, but watch for his role in the 4x200m.
This kid is so impressive, don’t be surprised to see leadership responsibilities bestowed on him in the future.
Wildcards for the future.
Tom Neill’s training partner is Isaac Cooper (Rackley Centenary) while put a watch on Chelsea Hodges (Southport), both they are wildcards for the future.
FOOTNOTE
Also, watch for Clayfield College alumni Renee Taylor to play her role in the Australian women’s hockey team’s push for a gold medal. She was considered for this list but has been a member of the national side since 2018, although this is her first Games.
Gymnast Georgia Godwin is another world class athlete who claimed three medals at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
Godwin, who is part Japanese, will have the honour of performing in the homeland of her grand p
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