Opals Olympic hopeful Darcee Garbin opens up on relationship with sister Sophie, Paris dream and ‘wild’ time in Hungary

Darcee Garbin prefers to leave the limelight to gold-medal Diamond sister Sophie and just be “Darcee, the basketballer”. In a few days time, though, she might be ‘Garbin, the Olympian’.

There has been a real nervous energy around the Garbin family this week.

Not that potential Opals Olympian Darcee Garbin or her netball star sister Sophie Garbin are paying it much heed.

Darcee doesn’t have time to be nervous. She’s in the middle of an intense battle with her peers for a ticket to Paris in a two-game audition against China.

Mum and dad are on edge.

“My parents, they’re way more emotional than I am, they’re so excited in this whole selection week,” said Darcee, who rocketed into Olympic contention with an eye-catching 15-point, five-rebound, two-steal performance for the Opals against China on Wednesday night.

“I had to call my dad out the other day and be like ‘daaaaad’ (eye roll).

“He’s like ‘Oh, I’m thinking of ya, I’m thinking of ya, hope you make it’.

“I love it but I can see the stress and the worry and the excitement in their faces.”

Sophie, the Melbourne Vixens attacker who won netball World Cup gold last year, gets it.

They are both experienced professional sportswomen and experts at keeping a lid on things.

“Sophie and I are a little bit more realistic, a lot more in the moment, we can control the day-by-day,” Darcee Garbin said.

“For us, it’s very much a case of ‘never too high, never too low’.”

Sports star sisters Sophie and Darcee Garbin have represented their country at the highest level in their respective sports.. Picture: Zak Simmonds

‘NO ONE’S GOING TO DIE’

It’s not the first time Darcee Garbin has been in this situation.

Three years ago she was the last big cut from the Opals team for the Tokyo Olympics, so she’s aware of the fine line she’s treading.

“I’ve been in the Opals squad for maybe four years,” Darcee said.

“This is my second Olympic cycle, so I hope, by now, the coaches know what I can bring to the group and how I’ve gone over those last two years in Europe.

“It feels like it (selection) is the world at the moment.

“There’s no easy way to get cut and hopefully that’s not how it goes.

“But if I don’t make it, no one’s going to die, I’m still a good person, the world is going to keep spinning, life goes on.”

When delivered the heartbreaking news before Tokyo, Darcee didn’t spiral. She used it as fuel and wound up winning a bronze medal on home soil at the 2022 FIBA World Cup.

“There’s no easy way to get cut and it put a bit of fire in the belly,” she said.

“It was a massive motivator leading into the World Cup. I wanted to be in that final 12.

“It’s the same thing now. I’ve just turned 30, Nic and I have talked about having a baby, so I don’t know if I could play for another four years.

“There’s a massive, massive motivation to make this team.”

Darcee Garbin on the way to bronze at the 2022 FIBA World Cup. Picture: Getty Images

Sophie Garbin has been a standout for the Diamonds. Picture: Gallo Images

‘THICK AS THIEVES’

That World Cup bronze medal – along with Sophie’s netball gold – are safely in dad’s keeping.

“I was fortunate enough last year, just the way things lined up, to go to Cape Town for the Diamonds’ World Cup and I think that was the first time I’d actually seen Sophie play live in the green and gold, so it was really cool,” Darcee said.

Fierce competitors growing up, the Garbin girls are now thick as thieves.

Representing their country at the highest level in their chosen sports has connected them.

“As much as we were competitive and fought and stuff growing up, now that we’re both in our national teams for our respective sports, there’s no competition, we’re there to support each other,” Darcee said.

“We’re not ragging on our parents or anything but sometimes people just don’t understand.

“Whereas we’re both in this environment, so it’s so nice to have someone who understands what you’re going through and to bounce ideas off.

“We don’t get to see each other a lot but we’re on the phone a fair bit.”

Dad Glenn and mum Lyn were in the stands at John Cain Arena on Wednesday to support Darcee in her standout performance.

So was Sophie, along with her squad of Vixens, who usually run the show on JCA in winter.

It made for a cute moment before the game on Instagram when Darcee made a beeline for her sister and the Melbourne girls.

Sophie Garbin and her Melbourne Vixens' teammates were at John Cain Arena to support Darcee Garbin as she pressed her case for Olympic section for the Opals against China. Picture: Basketball Australia

‘THEY’RE GONNA SPIT ON ME’

When Darcee Garbin led her Hungarian league team to its first championship, grown men were moved to tears in the stands.

It’s that passion from the Diósgyőri VTK fan base, whose religion is basketball, that had reduced her to tears when she made the difficult decision to sign with the club’s arch rival Serco Uni Gyor – the team it had just beaten in the grand final.

“The first thing I did was come home and cry to (husband) Nic (Cody) and I was like ‘they’re going to boo me when I come back’,” Darcee said.

“It’s like war over there, playing basketball. Our fans are crazy, they spit on people.

“Sometimes after games we’d go outside and they’d let off flares and fireworks.

“They have tattoos of the club and when we won the championship, grown men were crying in the crowd. It was wild.

“So that was my first thing, I just cried to Nic, ‘they’re gonna spit on me’.

“But when they found out I was leaving, a lot of them came up to me and, because it was their first championship in the club’s history, they were very much like ‘you’re forever a part of us’ and were so lovely.”

Such are the mechanisms in Europe, while the 30-year-old was helping VTK lay the smack down on Gyor in the grand final, Gyor was in the middle of negotiating a deal to pry her out of the eventual champions.

“Before we played them in the finals series, they’d already offered me a contract,” she said.

“It’s a lot different to the WNBL where you can’t talk to other clubs until the free agency period.

“In the middle of playing them for the championship, we’re negotiating a contract and, at first, I thought they might be playing with my head with the offer to try to distract me.

“But it was genuine and it was very interesting going to my old club to say ‘I’ve got a good offer’. It was too good to turn down.”

THE KAMBALDA KIDS

A little more than 13,000km away from Budapest, in the small WA mining town of Kambalda, Darcee Garbin said: “There’s a Woolworths, a pub and a post office, that’s about it, but it’s a great place to grow up.”

Glenn started a mining business before the days of fly-in, fly-out workers, when families came for the work, settled and created a community.

Hitting the road became a religion. The Garbin crew always travelled here and there for one sporting event or another.

“We were about an hour from Kalgoorlie so we would catch the bus,” Darcee said.

“You played every sport, tennis, netball. I played footy in my brother’s team until I was under-14s and they stopped me from playing. I was no good, just did it for fun. Then I swam a fair bit.”

At 188cm tall and a natural athlete, basketball was always going to come calling.

“In high school I started playing basketball with friends and just liked that a lot more than the swimming,” she said.

“By the time Sophie was coming through the pathway and doing the basketball and netball thing, our parents were like ‘right, we need to be based in Perth, it’s just far too much driving’.

“Sophie was really good at both but the decision was kind of made for her. She had to pick one or the other because of the training commitments.

“She just went with netball and it’s been the right choice for her. She’s thriving.

“It’s worked out for both of us. We get to play professional sport and represent the green and gold. It’s the best job in the world.”

Darcee Garbin helped the Aussies lay the smackdown on China on Wednesday. Picture: Getty Images

JUST DARCEE, THE BASKETBALLER

Darcee Garbin’s so used to being asked about Sophie, her first thought when asked for an interview was, “I thought you wanted to speak with me because of my sister”.

That’s not why we had made the trip out to Melbourne’s Ivanhoe Grammar, where the Opals were conducting their pre-Olympic prep.

However, the ensuing conversation drifted, at times, to her sister and their relationship.

“It’s fine, I’m so proud of her,” Darcee said. “I’m more than happy to talk about her. I’m a lot more low key, low profile.”

More than comfortable in her own surrounds, Darcee calls herself “a bit of an extrovert” in the Opals group – not that the average punter would know it.

“In terms of in the public eye, I’m very introverted,” she said.

“(Teammate) Zitina (Aukuso) made me make a TikTok with her and I hated it because I’m terrible with all that stuff.

“She tried to get me to do it on Sunday night and then she told me to go away and practise and then come back on Monday.”

She leaves the spotlight to her sister, who has 20,000-odd followers on Instagram and another 17k on TikTok.

“We’re only two-and-a-half years apart,” said Darcee, whose Instagram profile reads ‘@sophiegarbin’s sister’.

“She’s younger but there’s definitely that generation gap.

“She’s just a natural for it. She’s got a few sponsorships, she’s a Nike athlete, she’s got the following and stuff. It’s just not my thing.

“Until Nic and I recently got married, my Instagram was on private, but a couple of people were like ‘can you please make it public so I can share it’.

“I’m very happy just to be Darcee, the basketballer.”

In a few days, she might be “Garbin, the Olympian”.

Originally published as Opals Olympic hopeful Darcee Garbin opens up on relationship with sister Sophie, Paris dream and ‘wild’ time in Hungary