Olympia Aldersey is destined to compete in an Olympics but will it be Rio?

SHE was born the day of the opening ceremony at the 1992 Barcelona Games and named after the Olympics but will Olympia Aldersey get to compete in one?

Olympia Aldersey is off to the World Rowing Championships in a bid to qualify for Rio.

SHE was born during and named after the Olympics but will Olympia Aldersey get to compete in one?

The verdict, at least for this Olympic cycle, is about to be handed down with Aldersey and her crewmates in the women’s rowing eight leaving for a high pressure, last chance Olympic qualifying regatta in Lucerne, Switzerland.

They must finish top two to go to Rio with the Netherlands their main opposition.

Olympia was born the day of the opening ceremony at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and the Games connection has been part of her life long before she took up rowing as a 16-year-old in a bid to make the Games.

“I think they (her parents) were choosing between Olympia and Mercedesz, as my mother is Polish and she liked that name too, but she thought it was meant to be Olympia,’’ Aldersey said.

“It was the day of the opening ceremony in Barcelona and she saw it in hospital.

“It (her name) probably did give me an interest. It certainly gave me more of awareness of them and how the whole world stopped to watch this major sporting event every four years.’’

Such will be the cutthroat competition in Lucerne that just getting to the Rio Games would feel like a gold medal moment.

“Only one of us, Alexandra Hagan, has been to the Games before so only she really knows the feeling to have qualified and to compete,’’ Adelaide based Aldersey said.

Olympia Aldersey is off to the World Rowing Championships in a bid to qualify for Rio.

“However, for all of us, should we qualify, it would be an honour. The Games are something we have all dreamt of competing in over the years, be it in rowing or another sport when we were younger, so to achieve that dream would be a sensational feeling that perhaps we never expected to come true.

The men’s eight, lightweight women’s double scull and the men’s single scull also leave Australia on Tuesday for their last chance saloon in Lucerne.

Teams heading to Lucerne feature a vast array of ages and experience including the lightweight women’s scull of Hannah Every-Hall, a 38-year-old mother of two from Tasmania and 22-year-old and Georgia Nesbitt.

The teams will spend a week at a training centre in Italy before heading to Lucerne for competition on May 22-24.

Brisbane’s Scott Laidler is the only member of the men’s eight to have been in the boat in all four years between Olympics.

Australia failed to win a rowing gold at the London Olympics but Kim Brennan is a warm favourite to win the women’s single scull in Rio.

Originally published as Olympia Aldersey is destined to compete in an Olympics but will it be Rio?