Tokyo Olympics 2021: Aussie surfer Sally Fitzgibbons feels right at home in waist-high waves

There’ll be no big-wave or tube riding on Tsurigasaki and Chiba beaches. This will be more like origami in the water. And that suits Aussie hopeful Sally Fitzgibbons perfectly.

In the moments right before Sally Fitzgibbons paddles into Olympic Games history, she will grip her surfboard and convince herself that finally, she’s home.

Watch for the TV crews to broadcast the Australian closing her eyes.

That’s her, taking her thoughts back to Gerroa, the NSW south coast town, where she grew up.

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Sally Fitzgibbons get her final bit of practice in before the start of the surfing competition.

She can still taste the first Magnum ice-cream that she ate when she was 10.

She can smell the hot chip sandwiches she ate after every surf — and has vowed to treat herself with again, if the medal around her neck in Tokyo is coloured gold.

Fitzgibbons won’t have to try too hard to feel home.

The lacking-in-power, waist-high waves — on the dark sands of Tsurigasaki Beach and down the road at Chiba Beach — are similar to the waves Fitzgibbon learned to surf on.

“I’ve changed the name Chiba to start with a ‘G’ — because Ghiba, is so much like Gerroa,’’ Fitzgibbons smiles.

Big wave surfing is largely about the heaviest wave, longest ride, longest barrel — effectively survival.

The Tokyo surfing venues remind Sally Fitzgibbon of Gerroa.

There’ll be no big-wave or tube riding in Tokyo. This will be more like origami in the water.

Small wave surfing is about drawing art directly into the wave, creating something out of nothing. Judges score points on creativity.

That’s what the little whippet did every morning before school with her dad Martin on the beach at Gerroa.

With her eyes closed, she’ll remember back to those imaginary judges up on the hill.

Fitzgibbons grew up using her board as if it were a wooden ruler taped to her feet.

She would skip and flick her board along a little one-foot shore-break or try to launch herself into an aerial manoeuvre.

Surfing might be new to the Olympics, but the five rings have sat pressed into the 30-year-old’s heart since she was a little girl watching Cathy Freeman win gold in 2000 from the back row of Stadium Australia in Sydney.

“I remember the roar and then it went quiet around the back straight and then it just erupted,’’ Fitzgibbons said.

“I remember saying to Mum and Dad, do you reckon she (Freeman) would sign my hat?

“I begged them, please. I was going home on the train, I was crying so much that she didn’t sign my hat. They were saying, maybe one day you’ll bump into her.’’

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If Fitzgibbons — a genuine gold medal contender — has tears in her eyes right before she paddles into her first official wave of an Olympic heat, this is why.

“When we had our Olympics readiness camp last year, Cathy came to talk to us,’’ Fitzgibbons said.

“It was crazy being in front of my peers, after all these years, I said to myself, I’m going to do this.

“I put my hand up and asked, “Cathy, do you reckon you could sign my hat?

“I went up with a pen and I didn’t expect it, but I just started balling my eyes out onto Cathy. I looked around and everyone else started crying, too.’’

The Aussie star gets to know her new surrounds a bit better.

Fitzgibbons is part of a four-person Australian Olympic surfing team that includes Stephanie Gilmore, Julian Wilson and Owen Wright.

They are all history-makers. They each have a story and a motivation. Every athlete has a different focus or trigger.

In Japan, Fitzgibbons will close her eyes one final time before her heat, knowing that she has timed her preparation to the minute. Or more precisely, the last second.

“I have always stopped the microwave with one second to go,’’ Fitzgibbons said.

“You know when you heat your food up, it really annoys the next person because they have to press ‘go’ and then because there’s only one second to go, it starts beeping for them.

“I’ve done that since I was a kid growing-up in Gerroa so I’ve been thinking that maybe when I have the gold medal, maybe I can stop doing that when I get home.’’

Home? She’s already there.

Originally published as Tokyo Olympics 2021: Aussie surfer Sally Fitzgibbons feels right at home in waist-high waves