From specially folding training gear to carefully tailoring nutrition: How army of experts are powering Matildas’ Olympic camp

The Matildas have an army of high-performance experts in their corner priming them for their mission to win gold in Paris. They cover everything from sports science to the optimal folding of training gear.

The Matildas have flown to France not just in first class seats – Australia’s favourite team is backed by a first-class army of high-performance experts.

And there’s almost one staff member for every player including a chef, nutritionist, physio, sports scientists, doctor, psychologist, media team, security, coaches, equipment manager and team manager Gina Rees.

Not even the Boomers with nine NBA players and a collective earn over $80 million a year get the same level of support staff.

Rees is the leader of the pack with a history of driving high performance across multiple sports.

In the role since 2021, Rees oversees every detail of the Matildas’ camps – from travel, to hotel bookings and grounds inspection.

“The culture and environment that you put on for the players obviously leads to their performance,” Rees said. “So we ensure that we have the highest standards – rolling out the red carpet for the players so that they can focus on performing.”

Matildas team manager Gina Rees is in charge of ensuring a high performance environment is maintained throughout the Olympics. Photo: Rachel Bach/Football Australia

Rees made several reconnaissance trips to France before the Olympics to scout training facilities and hotels. Everything must be perfect. And every decision is made through a high performance lens.

“So whether it’s how we fold the training gear for them to get ready to prepare, how we set up the change room for a match, or how the chef gets the food ready,” she said. “All the little things we can offer to the players so they know that this is a high performance space.”

Creating a high performance environment in women’s sport is fairly recent.

Matildas forward Michelle Heyman was part of the Rio Olympics squad, before stepping away from the game in 2019. She was recalled to the team earlier this year and said the changes were phenomenal.

“We don’t even carry our bags off at the airport anymore,” Heyman said. “We don’t have to stay around the airport and lug 100 bags onto trolleys and try to push them through the airport to the bus,” Heyman said.

“Now the staff arrive a day before we do – everything is set up, everything’s ready.”

Football Australia chef Vini Capovilla (left) with some of his assistants at a Matildas camp. Photo: Rachel Bach/Football Australia

Rees said Football Australia was creating equal conditions for the men’s and women’s national teams and the changes were felt in the lead up to the 2023 World Cup.

Twelve part-time staff grew to a team of 23 - a mix of full timers and contractors, 20 of whom are travelling with the Matildas at the Olympics. The Matildas have 22 players in Paris, including four reserves.

Another major change was to allow parents to take young children into camp along with a support person.

Rees said it was tricky to ensure the extra people didn’t harm the high performance culture.

“These girls are here to perform, but we also want to allow parent players to still be around their child,” Rees said.

“We have guidelines around certain areas the children aren’t allowed. Then there’s areas that they are allowed and what joy it brings in when they’ve had a hard training day and in comes the little ones and there’s laughter and play – and that is a big performance factor.”

Originally published as From specially folding training gear to carefully tailoring nutrition: How army of experts are powering Matildas’ Olympic camp