Athlete no stranger to adversity in tough COVID fight

As one of Australia’s most durable elite athletes, Alex Watson is primed to survive the latest great test of his character: the COVID-19 business crisis.

A real survivor in all endeavours is former Olympian Alex Watson.

As one of Australia’s most durable elite athletes, Verrierdale’s Alex Watson is primed to survive the latest great test of his character, the COVID-19 business crisis.

The still dashing former Australian modern pentathlete was sensationally disqualified from the 1988 Seoul Olympics for drinking too much coffee and failing a drug test before being exonerated.

Watson cleared his name and competed four years later at Barcelona in the most eccentric of Olympic endeavours, created by the founder of the modern Olympic Games, Baron Pierre de Coubertin.

This multi-sport endurance test simulates the experience of a 19th-century cavalry soldier who has to return from behind enemy lines while horse riding, running, swimming, shooting and sword fighting all the way.

Alex Watson is glad to be back on Noosa North Shore running his adventure tours.

After retiring with his honour intact, Watson and his wife Rebecca started Equathon Noosa Horse Riding in 2005 which has won awards for its Noosa North Shore horsepowered natural experiences.

And in between building up a successful business that was named 2011 Adventure Tour Operator of the Year by Queensland Tourism, he was up for a protracted community fight, helping lead the opposition to a local rock quarry.

But the coronavirus pandemic this year saw his business on the financial ropes as their commercial lifeblood, tours taking up to 20 riders a day along the North Shore beaches or bush trials on their Australian stockhorses, shut down overnight.

Always the competitor is Alex Watson.

“During the past 15 years we have survived the global financial crisis, equine influenza crisis, climate, bushfire and weather events, but we have never experienced anything so financially damaging as COVID-19,” Watson said.

“We had to cash in things, we had to survive off our savings, but the other thing that really hurt us, we had a lot of refunds.

“One week we had to refund $18,000 in bookings. But it was the same for cafe owners, they’ve got rents and everything.

“It’s been tough for everyone.”

Torchbearer for sport and local business – that's former Olympian Alex Watson.

Watson said his business had come back “really very strongly” because Noosa and Queensland had done “a lot better” handling COVID-19 community spread.

Watson said Equathon bookings were now “more or less between 80 per cent and 100 per cent full”.

“We’ve been allowed back to operate on Noosa North Shore. That was a problem for us because we were basically just in lockdown,” he said.

“Our business is a little bit diversified, we do other things other than the beach rides such as coaching … we’ve survived OK.”

Watson warily sees potential for his business suffering again because of the ongoing border and air travel closures as international tourists “has always been 25 per cent or more of our business”.

However he remains upbeat.

“There’s so many people up here holidaying because they can’t go to other places,” he said.

“The JobKeeper’s been a big help and there have been other government initiatives.”

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