Tokyo Olympics 2021: Parents of our Australian champs reveal the story behind the journey
They are the driving force behind our Olympics stars, but these Aussie parents won’t be there when their kids go for gold. They share how they’ll watch the Tokyo Games.
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From tuckshops, to groundsmen, first aid officers, taxi drivers and coaches – these parents have done it all for their sports-mad children.
Early morning drop offs, peeling oranges, cleaning uniforms, long trips away.
But they won’t be there to watch them perform on the world’s biggest sporting stage — the Olympics.
The Covid-19 pandemic has forced officials to ban spectators and international fans from attending the 2021 Tokyo Olympics – meaning parents won’t be on the sidelines to watch their stars shine.
But something as small as an international travel ban won’t stop these parents donning the green and gold and cheering on their sons and daughters.
JADE WALL – SOFTBALL
John Wall, the father of softballer Jade Wall, has waited 13 years to see his daughter named on the Olympic team.
Jade narrowly missed out on making the team in 2008, which was the last time softball was included in an Olympics.
“She is a debutant but she has been running around the world playing in World Series and international competitions since 2008,” John said.
He and his wife Julie have been right there by her side every step of the way.
“You start off working in tuckshops, on committees, mowing lawns and becoming groundsmen, to being the coach for tee-ball,” he said.
“I went right through, even coaching Jade’s state championship team.”
They had every intention of being in Tokyo for Jade’s Olympic debut.
“We were all paid up and when it first hit last year we thought it would be over in a couple of months but here we are in 2021 and there are no international spectators going to the Games,” John said.
Determined to soak up some Olympic atmosphere he and his wife booked a function room at a hotel in Cairns – they plan to decorate it in green and gold and watch every game on the big screen while sipping cocktails.
Another 52 family and friends have also booked rooms at the same hotel.
“We will be watching our girls’ playing their dreams on the big screen, sitting back with cocktails and most likely tears in our eyes,” John said.
ABBY ANDREWS – WATER POLO
Megan Andrews is ‘heartbroken’ she won’t be able to watch her daughter Abby, 20, compete in the women’s water polo.
“We are just devastated, we have done the whole journey and we are all big fans and love the game but we will just have to suck it up,” Megan said.
“We are very fortunate that we have been able to go to most of the other international competitions before the pandemic.”
Megan, who says family and friends will be glued to every bit of coverage the team gets, said it had been a long road for Abby to make it to the Olympics, including lots of hours driving to and from training sessions.
“The best day of our life was when Abby got her driver’s licence. It has been 4.30am starts for a long time and lots of competitions,” she said.
“It was exhausting but I wouldn’t do it any other way.”
Abby has been working towards an Olympic debut since 2016 and Megan said it was a bit of injustice that none of the players’ parents would be there to celebrate the moment.
“Water polo parents are a unique bunch, the crowds are often just the parents, boyfriends, girlfriends – it is just one of those sports,” she said.
And while the parents are heartbroken at missing out Megan said she didn’t think the players’ minded too much.
“I don’t think having parents there matters as much to them as it does to us, they just want to play the game,” she said.
ASHLEY MOLONEY – DECATHLON
Alyson Moloney had her flights, accommodation and Games tickets booked so she could watch her 21-year-old son Ashley Moloney compete in his first Olympic decathlon.
Thankfully she was able to get most of her money back but she is still disappointed she won’t be there to cheer him on.
“It would have been great to go, it would have been the best Olympics ever, even if you were just in the park next to the stadium, it would have been fantastic,” she said.
The family have followed Ash around Australia and the world to watch him compete.
Ash’s journey to the Olympics started at school when he took a liking to high jump.
“He was at the school carnival and he saw the pole vault and said I’d like to do that one day,” Alyson said.
“We found a Little Athletics Centre that coached pole vaulting and everything just exploded from there.
“First it was little school carnivals, then regionals and states and nationals and then his first international competition in Austria.
“This will be our first time not watching him compete.”
Alyson said she had her fingers crossed the decathlon events were televised so she could watch from home.
MOLLIE O’CALLAGHAN – SWIMMING
At 17, Mollie O’Callaghan is the youngest athlete on the Australian Olympic team and mum Toni O’Callaghan is slowly coming to terms with the fact she will have to cheer her on from home.
It won’t be the first time Mollie’s parents haven’t travelled to an international event with the teen.
“She competed in junior worlds and we didn’t go along,” Mrs O’Callaghan said.
“Mollie wanted to do that one on her own.
“She is prepared and just didn’t want the extra pressure of attention of us being there, she just wants to be with the swimming team.
“But we are definitely a little disappointed that we won’t be going along.”
And while mollie is only 17, Toni said she knows her headstrong daughter will be well looked after.
She said they would be cheering on loudly from home and had organised to stay with some other swimming parents at Noosa.
STEPH KERSHAW – HOCKEY
Gary Kershaw has booked a “lot of leave” so he can ensure he doesn’t miss a second of his daughter Steph’s Olympic hockey debut.
Steph, from Townsville, missed out on competing at the 2016 Olympics due to a serious knee injury.
“She had a second knee injury a year out from the games as well, she spent 2019 doing rehab so the delay really worked in her favour,” Gary said.
“She came back quite strong last year and was performing really well.”
Living in Townsville Gary said they have had to do their fair share of travel to various training camps and tournaments.
“We are definitely her biggest fans and have been away with her many times,” he said.
But Gary said there had been plenty of big competitions they had missed as well including the World Cup.
He said he knows Steph will miss having them on the sideline but that she would still be able to focus and get the job done.
Gary has booked plenty of time off work to ensure he doesn’t miss a second of the Games.
But he won’t be inviting anyone to watch with him.
He prefers to concentrate on the action on his own.
“I’m a very intense watcher, I like to watch and not have people around, so I’ll be locking myself in a room somewhere, especially for the critical games,” he said.
RENEE TAYLOR – HOCKEY
Sonya Taylor, mum of hockey debutant Renee Taylor, said the whole family was so proud of her achievements.
They have travelled the world watching her play at various tournaments.
“I remember watching her make her debut for Australia and that in itself was very emotional and the Olympics is the pinnacle, it is where all athletes dream to compete,” Sonya said.
“It would have been an incredibly emotional time for us and it is disappointing we won’t be there to watch.”
Sonya said Renee had come to terms with the fact her parents wouldn’t be there.
“She said to us there was no point us coming as she wouldn’t be able to see us anyway due to the Covid-19 restrictions,” she said.
Hockey is in the Taylor family’s blood with all of them playing.
Renee started playing when she was five-years-old, living in Melbourne.
“She made Queensland school girls from under 12 and from then she always wanted to play representative hockey but I don’t think she really realised where she could go with it until she made her first Queensland side at 16 or 17 years old,” Sonya said.
“I can remember her telling me when she was 12 or 13 that she wanted to play at the Olympics and I thought, OK that is a lovely dream.
“But she worked so hard and we are so proud of her.”
Sonya said she hoped the games were all televised in full.
She has already been through the schedule and discovered several of the games are during work hours.
“But my office is keen to turn on the televisions and everyone wants to get dressed up in green and gold for the day, which is very exciting,” she said.
SAM FRICKER – DIVING
Toni Fricker has travelled to every state to watch her son Sam dive but she realised early that she wouldn’t be making a trip to Tokyo to watch him at the Olympics.
“I’ve been fully resigned to the fact we will be watching from home since the first lockdown in March last year and when they postponed Tokyo,” Toni said.
“I had accommodation booked and I was going to take my four other children as we are his support team but we cancelled all of that.”
Toni has done a lot more than watch Sam dive.
When Sam first took up the sport, along with his other siblings, the family lived in Newcastle.
“I used to permanently smell of chlorine,” she said.
“He started first in school and he went to Nationals when he was 10, he had never dived before and he won. He came to Sydney and placed in the top three and made the national team and he has been in every school nationals team since.
“We were driving to Sydney, from Newcastle, two, three sometimes four times a week.
“I’d drive him up for training at 6am, then to school and then back to pick up him and back to training for three more hours.
“It was a lot of driving.”
After two years of driving back and forward they moved to Sydney.
But Toni never missed a training session or competition.
“I’d do it all again. I always had a feeling from a young age that Sam would excel, he was good at a lot of sports it was just a matter of finding something he was passionate about,” she said.
“It is disappointing we won’t be in Japan but I think Sam is just as excited regardless whether we will be there or not.
“There is no point whinging about it, it just is what it is.”
Toni said they planned to watch the events from home on the big screen.
KATARINA KOWPLOS – SHOOTING
Steve and Natalie Kowplos never imagined a come and try scouts activity would land their daughter on the Australian Olympics team.
Katarina Kowplos, 19, of Adelaide, hadn’t planned to make the 2020 Games, her aim had been Paris, but an exceptional shoot with a borrowed rifle at trials earned her selection in the 50m rifle three positions event.
Steve said it all started with a come and try scouts event at PARA shooting club.
“She just took to it and the club welcomed her with open arms,” the proud dad said.
“I had to get my firearms licence and she would wake me up every weekend so I could take her to the range.”
Shooting at the range turned into competing around Australia.
Natalie said the plan had always been for her husband to go to Tokyo to support Katarina.
“She prefers us not to be there, she doesn’t like being watched,” she said.
“I can’t watch though I usually get too nervous for her. I’m more emotional than Steve. She gets her steadiness for shooting from her dad, my heart would be racing.”
Steve said it “would have been really nice” to be able to go and cheer on his daughter, but understands the reasons behind the spectator ban.
With the travel plans cancelled the family plan to have a small get together, along with Katarina’s grandmother Lyn Violi, at home.
Mrs Violi actually purchased the rifle Katarina will be using at the Games.
Steve said there were plans to hold a viewing party at the shooting club as well.
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