Insight: Olympic hopeful Tanielle Crase on how chasing Paris dream drove her out of Australia

Tanielle Crase is a three-time national heptathlon champion, but the financial strains of chasing her Olympic dream forced the Paris hopeful out of the country and to take massive risks in the pursuit of glory on the world stage.

Taneille Crase has jumped off the hamster wheel of despair that is attempting to qualify for official funding and grabbed her Olympic dream by the scruff of the neck.

A three-time national champion in the heptathlon who finished fifth in the event at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester in 2022, Crase has moved halfway across the world in an “all-in” bid to be at her best ahead of next year’s Olympic trials and Paris Games.

In a self-funded move that has cost thousands of dollars and forced her into a long-distance relationship with her Australian-based fiance, Crase will base herself in Germany where she has joined the squad of heptathlon coach Jorg Roos in a bid to qualify for the Olympics.

While she was working with coach Glynis Nunn - a former Olympic heptathlon champion - on the Gold Coast, Crase did not qualify for any form of funding despite becoming just the seventh Australian woman to break through the 6000-point barrier for the event at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.

It means the 29-year-old does not even have access to massage or physiotherapy services, let alone financial support that would allow her to stop working or at least reduce her hours as she chases her Olympic dream.

Taneille Crase will base herself in Germany in the lead-up to the Paris Games. Picture: Getty

Having gone to Europe earlier this year in a bid to qualify for the world championships, Crase trained with Roos’ squad for a few weeks ahead of competitions in Austria and Germany and benefited almost immediately from being in an environment with elite heptathlon training partners.

While she ultimately qualified for the world championships via a last-minute rolldown, she had torn her hamstring in competition in Germany and decided against the last-minute preparation, believing she would not be fully fit to represent Australia.

But having seen the progress she made in such a short time based out of the TSV Bayer Leverkusen complex, she made the decision to return to Germany to compete in the European indoor season ahead of a planned return to Australia next April for national titles and Olympic trials.

“It was probably one of the biggest decisions I’ve ever made in my life, to be honest” Crase said.

“But I’m definitely not regretting it. I think it was the right decision to towards what I want to achieve.”

Crase is a three-time national champion, and finished fifth in the heptathlon in the last Commonwealth Games. Picture: Getty

A participation and inclusion manager for Little Athletics Australia, Crase has been able to keep her job, working remotely to earn a wage that is funding her Olympic dream.

“I had to be all in for this,” she said.

“And this was the opportunity for me to be at training full-time and to have a coach full-time and to train in the one of the best facilities in Germany and also with some of the best heptathletes in the world.

“I would never get this opportunity again. So because it was handed to me, I just I had to take it and go all in.

“I’m very fortunate that I have a company that caters for my lifestyle and they’re still letting me work remotely and managing that work-athlete balance as best as we can.”

Training full-time is a remarkable turnaround for Crase, who less than three years ago had all but given up on athletics after the challenges of the Covid pandemic and injury.

But the passion she has for the sport and the support of fiance Juan Goebel meant she pushed on.

Crase’s passion for the sport drove her to take the biggest risk of her life. Picture: Getty

Crase, who is one of more than 150 aspiring athletes to align with WattleNest to help fund her sporting dreams, is loathe to point the finger for a lack of funding opportunities in Australia despite various commitments having been made in the past but not followed through.

“There is criteria to be funded and I respect the criteria that they have set and that have they have decided,” Crase said.

“It’s a difficult process because I believe I had achieved as much as I could and I thought I had proven enough based on email chains and phone calls with different representatives from national and state level in regards to funding or at least access to facilities or resources like physios and massages that that become very helpful for athletes.

“I thought I was on the right path and I was going into the Commonwealth Games - and I was recommended that I was on the right path as well - and then unfortunately after the Commonwealth Games, a few staff changes happened and I guess the message didn’t get across and unfortunately I was turned down for any sort of support.

Crase reacts during the women's heptathlon high jump at the Birmingham Games. Picture: Getty

“That’s what I just have to respect and go on my journey with the team and what I currently do now because I believe that it’s working and I’ll just stick to that.

“ ... at the moment I’m just relying on the money that I’ve worked hard for and the income that I still earn as well - so that’s why I’m very grateful for that income.

“It was a little bit of a financial adjustment (moving to Europe) but in saying that, it was actually going to save me money being based here in Germany and being able to do the indoor season and a couple of competitions in Europe, compared to flying back and forth, back and forth to Australia to Europe, due to just the lack of competitions in Australia that we have.”

While committed to the process and the move, Crase said it was not all rainbows.

“I’m not going to lie. There’s moments of self doubt and there’s moments where I don’t trust the process and all these wonderful words of affirmation that I constantly repeat to myself and publish out there on social media or any reports or news articles that I do,” she said.

“The reality of being an athlete is we have our struggles, we have our down moments.

“We have our mental health struggles, day in and day out and we have those financial struggles.

“We have those moments where we look at our bank accounts and go: ‘How am I going to afford food or rent this week?’ - and that’s from hearing multiple different stories, it’s not just me, we all go through that.”

What keeps Crase going though, is her love of the sport and genuine curiosity about how far she can go.

“I really have loved this sport ever since I was eight years old when I first rocked up to Little Athletics and I will probably keep loving it even once I retired from the sport,” she said.

“It’s just something that I’m strongly passionate about. And I’m passionate about just achieving.

“I want to know how far I can get in the sport. It’s not a matter of wanting to be an Olympian, I want to represent my country, I want to be Australian champion for the fourth time - those are extra bonuses.

“My definition of success is just seeing how far I can push my body; how far can I get in this sport? And however far that is, I can at least walk away knowing I gave it everything that I could and I’ll be satisfied with that.”

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Originally published as Insight: Olympic hopeful Tanielle Crase on how chasing Paris dream drove her out of Australia