Paddle Australia canoe sprint titles: Gymnast turned surf life saver now paddling for Paris Olympics

Teenager Natalie Drobot always knew she wanted to be an elite athlete. It just took her 14 different sports to find out which one. Now she’s a rising star of it with an Olympic dream.

Young surf lifesaver and paddler Natalie Drobot.

Teenager Natalie Drobot always knew she wanted to be an elite athlete. It just took her 14 different sports to find out which one - or two.

After playing, competing and dabbling in multiple sports, Natalie Drobot has finally settled on two.

One is likely to lead her to the Olympics and the other to a happy place where she is surrounded by friends and club mates.

And in a hectic couple of weeks, Drobot will be chasing Australian titles in both sports.

The 18-year-old from the NSW Central Coast recently relocated to the Gold Coast to work under Paddle Australian canoe sprint staff and has been named to make her senior debut at the canoe sprint world championships later this year in Duisburg.

Young surf lifesaver and Olympic paddling aspirant Natalie Drobot.

She and teammateswill this week compete at the Australian canoe sprint championship in Perth before heading to Scarborough beach for the Australian surf life saving championships.

“I’ve always love sport, it’s been a massive factor in my life, it’s my whole life. I couldn’t live without it,’’ said the 18-year-old born in Sydney but who spent her childhood at Avoca on the Central Coast.

“I thought I wanted to be a gymnast and represent Australia at an Olympics when I was really young.

“But then we moved to the Central Coast and I stopped doing gymnastics and started doing other sports.’’

Young surf lifesaver and paddler Natalie Drobot at the Aussies last year.

Those other sports over the years, have included cricket, surf life saving, basketball, diving, AFL, swimming, soccer, netball, water polo, trampolining, hockey and athletics.

Her newest sport is bouldering, something she may need to put on the back burner for a bit to concentrate on achieving her Olympic dream.

“Paddling, it mixes all the things I love best. Training hard to get results, a team spirit but still being very individual,” she said.

“I love having team members around me and I love the feeling of going fast and I get all those things from paddling.’’

K4 Tokyo Olympians Lachlan Tame, Riley Fitzsimmons, Murray Stewart and Jordan Wood all come from a surf life saving background.

Paddling and surf lifesaving have multiple elements and athletes in common, with almost every member of the Australian team at the Tokyo Olympics hailing from a surf background.

The current squad is no different with Drobot training alongside numerous surf life savers she will be racing with and against at the Aussies in just over a week

At the Australian championships last year Drobot, who learned paddling at the Avoca kayak club, finish second in the ski in the under 19 competition, third in the double ski with kayak teammate Ella Beere and second in the Taplin in the under 17 racing.

Drobot, who claimed a WK1 220m bronze at the world championships in 2022, and Beere are currently training in a K2 together and will be travelling overseas as part of the national squad.

“I’m living the dream,’’ she said. “I love what I do, I love training. I love it all.’’

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