Rio 2016: Aussie women’s sevens team always been out for Olympic success

THE Sydney weather won’t have slowed down the Aussie women’s sevens team, because now the World Series out of the way, their focus is firmly on Rio.

Charlotte Caslick, Shannon Parry and Emma Tonegato were named in the World Sevens Series dream team. Pic: Karen Watson/ARU

THE Sydney weather forced a last-minute change up to the training plans of the Australian women’s sevens team this week.

Scheduled to return on Tuesday after a four-day break following their World Series title, the team found their facilities at Narrabeen under water on Monday after Sydney was lashed by storms over the weekend.

It won’t have slowed them down, though, because now the World Series is won and out of the way, their focus is firmly on the Rio Olympics.

In the third year of their planning for the Games — the goal of which is dominance (tick) and destiny — Rio has always been the target for 2016.

Australia celebrates the World Series title, which they secured with a quarter-final win over Spain.

Neither the ARU nor the team received any financial incentive for recently taking out the World Sevens Series title. Instead, each year since 2013 an event has been nominated for the adidas Medal Incentive Funding through the Australianl Olympic Committee.

A fifth-place finish in 2013 in the World Sevens meant the side received nothing; then in 2014 they placed third (Atlanta, $7,500) and picked up a second last year at Sao Paulo ($10,000).

Footage from the new home of @waterpoloaus - bring on @Rio2016_en! @AUSOlympicTeam 😂🏊#SydneyStorm pic.twitter.com/itZQFaj4m8

— Aussie 7s (@Aussie7s) June 6, 2016

This year Rio is their benchmark event and our team want the gold. And financial incentives are no motivation, as the AOC won’t determine how much is allocated for medals until after the Games (it is paid in 2017 and used as an incentive for athletes to continue with the sport beyond the Olympics).

The Aussie women’s sevens team didn’t win the final World Series tournament in Clermont-Ferrand recently, but the event certainly presented a number of challenges that they are willing to admit now will help in their preparations for Rio.

“It was a really mixed bag of emotion for us,” said co-captain Shannon Parry.

Shannon Parry enjoying the World Series win at the team’s homecoming, but now it’s on to Rio. Pic: Karen Watson/ARU

“The final got away from us in the first half and we couldn’t really recover. It was a massive day of emotion and I’ve never experienced anything like it.

“What was on the line was the World Series but we were still chasing the Olympic number one ranking. We beat New Zealand and secured that.

“It was a bit annoying and a bit disappointing to lose the final in the way we did but in hindsight it was a bit of a reality check for us. A bit of a boot in the backside.”

Later this month the team will play in an Olympic-style three-day event to prepare for the Games, to help with adjusting to the different format of competition.

“The 22nd, 23rd, 24th of June is when we play Japan in an Olympic-style event over three days, two games per day, approximately the same times that we’ll kick off,” explained head coach Tim Walsh. “We’ll just try to simulate the preparation and game time and everything around that.

“It’s always in the back of our minds, Rio, it’s why we’re fulltime and it’s what a lot of these girls have taken up the sport.”

And then the countdown to the big one begins.