Sport: Artistic Swimming Event: Team Olympic History: Olympic debutante Highlights: Helping Australia qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games Year Born: 2001 State Born: NSW
Kiera Gazzard first noticed Artistic Swimming at her local pool as an eight-year-old, after spotting the Artistic Swimming team training at the other end of the pool. Shortly after, Kiera attended a ‘come and try’ lesson and was recruited for the 12 & under team.
While she grew up training at the Sydney Emerald Synchronised Swimming Club, Keira recently moved to Queensland to train at The Gold Coast Mermaids Club.
The decision to move interstate provided the perfect opportunity for Gazzard to further develop her skills and make her into the athlete she is today.
In 2017, Gazzard was a member of the FINA World Championships team, where Australia beat Egypt for the first time in six years. This was a massive milestone for the Australia team as Egypt was Australia's biggest competition when it comes to Olympic qualification.
Growing up, Gazzard set herself a goal to become the first Australian soloist to compete at the Junior World Championships. In 2018, she made this goal a reality when she was selected to swim solo at the FINA World Junior Championships.
As well as the Solo swim, Gazzard competed in the Duet and Team events which she said was an amazing opportunity and challenge that helped her development as a senior athlete.
The 18-year-old suffered a major setback leading into the 2019 FINA World Championships when she was diagnosed with a concussion after being kicked in the head during a training session.
Considering the World Championship event was an Olympic qualifying event, the reality of being unfit to compete was difficult for Gazzard to accept.
However, she was able to overcome this setback and rather than compete herself, Gazzard was able to watch and learn from the sidelines, where she cheered on and supported her team throughout the qualifying event.
Gazzard will make her Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020 alongside teammates Rose Stackpole, Amie Thompson, Emily Rogers, Hannah Cross, Rachel Presser, Jane Fruzynski and Kirsten Kinash as they take on Tokyo Together.
Who has been the most influential person in your career?
I have had so many different coaches throughout my sporting carrier, all from different countries and cultures with different coaching styles and I can say that I took a unique lesson from every coach.
The most influential coach, however, is my club coach. She played an immense role in developing my skills and making me the athlete I am today. If she hadn’t given me the opportunity to join her club ‘The Gold Coast Mermaids Synchro Club’ I am not sure where I would be today.
She took me under her wing when I moved interstate for training and made the pool my home away from home.
Sport: Artistic Swimming Event: Team Olympic History: Olympic debutante Highlights: Helping Australia qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games Year Born: 2001 State Born: NSW
Growing up on the far North Coast of NSW, Rachel Presser was an extremely active child, participating in a range of sports including dancing, gymnastics and swimming.
It wasn’t until she was nine years old that she discovered Artistic Swimming after her mother found an advertisement for the local club in the newspaper.
Due to her sporting background, Presser found she was a natural artistic swimmer as she was able to combine her water awareness, flexibility and dancing abilities and quickly fell in love with the sport.
A key member of the Gold Coast Mermaids Synchronised Swimming Club, Presser has been swimming with the club since she started the sport in 2009.
While doing her HSC, then 17-year-old Presser competed in her first senior competition in 2017, representing Australia at the FINA World Championships in Budapest. Here, she competed as the flyer – the team member who is thrown into the air to perform specific acrobatic skills.
She said that performing tricks and flips in the water was what made her choose Artistic Swimming over her other passions, dance, gymnastics and swimming.
Due to a previous incident as a flyer, Presser found this experience extremely nerve-racking, however, was able to overcome her fears and perform the routine seamlessly, considering it to be her best performance to date.
Presser will make her Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020 alongside teammates Rose Stackpole, Amie Thompson, Emily Rogers, Hannah Cross, Kiera Gazzard, Jane Fruzynski and Kirsten Kinash.
Watching the Highlight Routines of the top countries like Russia, Ukraine, Spain and China competing at the 2019 World Championships.
They always bring new and creative lift ideas and they’re all just so strong and inspirational.
I really love the Floor Routines of US Gymnasts Simone Biles and Katelyn Ohashi.
I’m also a big fan of the Women’s Relay 4x100m Freestyle with Cate and Bronte Campbell (big fan), as well as watching Katie Ledecky and Sarah Sjostrom absolutely smash
their competition.
Who has been the most inspirational person of your career?
The most influential person to me has been my club coach. She has such an all-round and in-depth knowledge of the sport.
She knows exactly what it takes to have the mindset of an elite athlete; the motivation, strength, persistence, determination, and philosophy of working hard to achieve your goals.
My other source of inspiration are my teammates. These people, as well as the countless other athletes of Artistic Swimming who continue to push boundaries and showcase amazing skill, technique and talent, are my inspiration and influence
After suffering from a recent wrist fracture and forced to miss out on the Tokyo qualifying series, Australian Opals Captain Jenna O’Hea talks to David Culbert about her excitement to be back in the green and gold and an emotional initiative that is close to her heart.
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In this episode of Olympics Unleashed - Tokyo, presented by Optus, O’Hea shares the highs and lows of competitive basketball, from London 2012 Olympic Bronze to missing out on the Rio 2016 Team.
She reflects on her work with the AIS Lifeline community custodians program, a cause close to her heart and also discusses what the next few months leading into Tokyo 2020 will look like for the Opals team.
You can listen to more Olympics Unleashed: Tokyo Podcasts HERE
The AOC would like to share the following updates in relation to Coronavirus and the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games;
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Australian health authorities have not implemented any travel restrictions in relation to Japan.
The Australian Government does however recommend that travellers exercise a high degree of caution in Japan, due to a heightened risk of local transmission.
We remain vigilant and concerned - but it is important that people remain calm and act on the best health advice available.
We are continuing to plan on the assumption that the Tokyo Games are proceeding as planned.
The AOC is liaising with all Olympic sports offering advice based on the best available information.
Based on their individual circumstances, sports are taking prudent steps with regard to test events, international competitions and training camps.
We are taking expert advice from the Commonwealth Department of Health, the World Health Organisation (WHO), Japan Ministry of Health and Tokyo Games Organising Committee (TOCOG).
Dr David Hughes, AOC Medical Director for the Tokyo Games and Chief Medical Officer for the AIS also continues to provide regular advice.
John Coates, as Chair of the IOC Coordination Commission for the Tokyo Games is well placed to keep us informed.
Young guns and Olympians impressed at Canoe Slalom and Shooting selection trials, Aussie gymnasts won World Cup medals, Beach Volleyball gold for Schumann and McHugh, and Starc and Hall impressed at the Sydney Track Classic this weekend in Olympic sport.
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Paddle: Australia’s paddlers claim triple gold and bronze at Australian Open Canoe Slalom
Rio Olympian Lucien Delfour and dual Olympic medallist Jessica Fox wrapped up the 2020 Australian Open Canoe Slalom in style, taking out gold in the Men’s K1 and Women’s C1 respectively.
It was the second gold medal for Fox, who earlier claimed the top spot in the Women’s K1 event.
Tasmanian Daniel Watkins also featured on the podium, winning bronze in the Men’s C1 event.
The event also doubled as the final Olympic selection event for Australia’s Canoe Slalom Men, with both Delfour’s and Watkin’s performances provisionally qualifying them a spot at Tokyo 2020.
Winter Sport: Back-to-back podiums for Peel and Anthony
Australia's winter athletes have continued to dominate the podiums, with aerial skier Laura Peel claiming gold and mogul skier Jakara Anthony adding bronze to her collection.
Improving upon her silver finish in Moscow last week, aerial skier Laura Peel has claimed gold in Belarus, her third podium appearance for the season.
Over in Japan, the silverware kept coming for the Aussies, with Jakara Anthony claiming moguls bronze, her second consecutive podium for the season.
Beach Volleyball: McHugh and Schumann win Gold in Asia again
Chris McHugh and Damien Schumann have taken out the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour event in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, defeating Austria’s Christopher Dressler and Alexander Huber in the gold medal game 21-16, 30-28.
The duo topped the podium for the second time in two weeks in their first two tournaments since being reunited as a playing pair, after taking out the Asian Championship in Thailand last weekend.
Shooting: Repacholi chases fifth Olympic Games after selection trials gold
Daniel Repacholi has staked an early claim for selection to Tokyo 2020 after winning the first men’s 10m Air Pistol final in the Tokyo Olympic Games pistol nomination event.
The four-time Olympian from Cessnock, NSW showed his class when scoring 240.1 points ahead of West Australians Bailey Groves (234.5) and Mike Giustiniano (211.9) at the Brisbane International Shooting Centre over the weekend.
In the women’s 25m Pistol final, Victoria’s Elena Galiabovitch (28 targets) claimed her second gold medal of the weekend when scoring a comfortable victory ahead of South Australia’s Alison Heinrich (21) and Queensland’s Civon Smith (16).
Gymnastics: Aussies wrap up Melbourne Worlds with silver and bronze
Georgia Godwin and Mitchell Morgans claimed silver and bronze in the Uneven and Horizontal Bars respectively, after a solid weekend of competition at the Melbourne Gymnastics World Cup.
Godwin, who has provisionally qualified for Tokyo 2020 was the first Aussie to claim a medal, when she went head to head with Australian teammate, Georgia-Rose Brown in the finals of Uneven Bars.
Mitchell Morgans added a second medal for Australia, when he secured bronze on the High Bar.
Hockey: Kookaburras sneak above India in FIH standings
Four sublimely worked goals gave the Kookaburras a narrow 4-3 win over India in a frenzied FIH Pro League match at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneshwar on Saturday night.
Up 2-0 at half time courtesy of Dylan Wotherspoon and Tom Wickham, two third-quarter goals in quick succession from Lachlan Sharp and Jacob Anderson proved enough to maintain the Kookaburras’ impressive record in the subcontinent and hold off an Indian side that stormed home in the final 15 minutes.
However, the Aussies couldn’t replicate the performance 24-hours later, going down to India 3-1 in a penalty shootout on Sunday, after the scores were locked at 2-all at full time.
The result was still enough for the Kookaburras to jump above India into third place on the FIH Pro League standings, before they return home to Perth to face Argentina on 6/7 March.
Athletics: Aussies return to top form at Sydney Track Classic
High Jumper Brandon Starc equalled his best jump in 18 months, clearing 2.30 meters to take the gold at the Sydney Track Classic at Sydney Olympic Park on the weekend.
Hammer thrower Alex Hulley threw a 1.89cm PB of 70.55m – the longest distance thrown by an Australian female hammer thrower in 14 years.
The 22-year-old is the third Australian to throw over 70m and is 57cm short of the Australian Record. Linden Hall won the Women’s 1500m in 4:05.16, while Jenny Blundell recorded her best time in four years - 4:05.35 – to finish second.
800m runners Peter Bol and Joseph Deng returned to their 2018-best form, with Bol taking the win in 1:45.85 with Deng just behind him in second with 1:45.89.
Both runners are chasing down the 1:45.20 Tokyo 2020 Olympic qualifying time.
Daniel Repacholi has staked an early claim for selection to Tokyo 2020 after winning the first men’s 10m Air Pistol final in the Tokyo Olympic Games pistol nomination event.
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The four-time Olympian from Cessnock, NSW showed his class when scoring 240.1 points ahead of West Australians Bailey Groves (234.5) and Mike Giustiniano (211.9) at the Brisbane International Shooting Centre over the weekend.
Earlier, Repacholi qualified for the final with an impressive score of 569 – six shots ahead of Groves (563).
Repacholi attended Athens 2004, Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympic Games and indicated that he would retire after winning the men’s 10m Air Pistol gold medal at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, but the lure of another Olympics proved to be too powerful.
Repacholi said he has been working on ensuring he begins his finals in strong fashion.
“I got away to a good start, but the last few shots weren’t what I was after,” he said.
In the women’s 25m Pistol final, Victoria’s Elena Galiabovitch (28 targets) claimed her second gold medal of the weekend when scoring a comfortable victory ahead of South Australia’s Alison Heinrich (21) and Queensland’s Civon Smith (16).
Galiabovitch won the women’s 10m Air Pistol on Friday and was runner-up in the event yesterday.
Galiabovitch, a 2016 Rio Olympian, qualified for the final in second position after completing the session behind Smith.
The Melbourne doctor, who won the silver medal in the event at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, found the right medicine for the final while Smith was unable to match her qualifying form.
The pistol shooters will contest the next round of the Olympic Games nomination events in Brisbane on March 6, 7 and 8.
At just 10 years old, Georgia Godwin set her sights on competing for Australia at the Olympic Games. This year she hopes to turn those dreams into a reality, gunning to represent the country as Australia’s sole female gymnast in the individual all-around event at Tokyo 2020.
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Coming off a successful silver medal performance at the recent Melbourne Gymnastics World Cup, Godwin has further proven why she is a strong shot at success if she is selected for Tokyo 2020.
Her gymnastics journey began at the age of three when her parents enrolled her into the local PCYC in the hope that it would exhaust some of her endless energy supply, little did they know that this would be the first step towards a long and highly competitive career in the sport.
Growing up training at the Moreton Bay College gymnastics facility, Godwin’s family spent a number of years living separately in order to accommodate her extensive training schedule. While Godwin and her mother lived in Brisbane, her brother and father stayed at home on the Gold Coast.
“It was hard. Every Saturday after training mum and I would pack up the car and drive back to the Gold Coast for the weekend. Then, on Sunday night we would pack up again and head back to Brisbane ready for training on the Monday morning,” Godwin explained.
“I loved having my dad and brother around, but those are some of the sacrifices you have to make.”
All those sacrifices became worthwhile, now that the 22-year-old has provisionally qualified her spot on the Australian Team for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
If she is to make her Olympic debut in Tokyo, Godwin will compete in the women’s gymnastics all-around event.
The all-around event is an individual competition, where the gymnasts compete on all four apparatus; bars, beam, vault and floor. The scores from each apparatus are then combined to form the gymnast's total score.
While it is already an incredible achievement for any athlete to qualify for an Olympic Games it is especially meaningful for Godwin due to her unique family background.
“My mum’s side of the family is Japanese, so to have my first Olympics in Tokyo would be the cherry on top of the cake. I couldn’t have asked for more!” she said.
One family member she is particularly excited to compete in front of is her 93-year-old grandfather who lives in Japan, who she hasn’t seen in four years.
“He has been there for me since day one and he is just so full of wisdom. He has such a soothing presence and whenever I am falling apart, I just talk to him and he makes it better,” Godwin shared.
“He tells me to just keep going, one foot in front of the other, and just to go at my own pace.”
Throughout her gymnastics career, Godwin has experienced her fair share of heartbreak. After narrowly missing out on the 2016 Rio Olympics due to ongoing injuries, the Queenslander considered retiring from the sport.
“Getting so close to making the Olympic team, and then missing out was really hard. I had been training for about 15 years by that point, I thought I was done, there was nothing left in me.”
Godwin sat down with her two coaches to discuss her retirement but ultimately came to the decision to take two weeks off before making her final call.
“After just one week off, I was ready to get back in the gym. I had a new fire in my belly and I was ready to go. I just needed a bit of a break to reset my mind and body.”
Two years later Godwin qualified and competed for Australia at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games where she claimed silver in the individual all-around event, and bronze in the uneven bars and team event.
While the Commonwealth Games was one of Godwin’s most successful events to date, she gives credit to both her successes and failures in helping her develop into the competitive athlete she is today.
“I have had many good campaigns, but I have also had quite a few unsuccessful campaigns that have helped shaped me into the gymnast I am today.
“The skills you develop over the years being an athlete, how to calm your nerves and keep focused, you can’t learn those things in a training environment, you can only get them from competition experience and the more you do the better you get at it.”
At the same qualifying event where Godwin claimed her individual Olympic spot, Australia was also hoping to qualify for the women’s team event, however, unfortunately, missed out by just one point.
“When I found out I had qualified individually, we also found out that the team had missed out by one spot.
“It was heartbreaking and hard to process that I wasn’t going with the team, but I was also very happy and excited to have qualified individually. It was a bittersweet moment, but the girls were so happy for me.” Godwin said.
Fortunately, with a few more qualifying opportunities coming up, Godwin is hoping to have a few more teammates join her in Tokyo.
“There is one more spot for an individual to qualify at the Continental Championships in April, and it is between Australia and New Zealand.
“One of our gymnasts is also the highest-ranked in beam, so if she can keep that ranking over the next three world cup events she should also qualify and hopefully I will have two more girls going with me.”
Regarding her own Olympic performance, Godwin has set herself some clear goals, however, she is most excited by the Olympic atmosphere.
“I am most excited about the atmosphere. At the Commonwealth Games it was incredible walking down the street and seeing all of these big names, and everyone I have spoken to has said the Olympic Games is like the Commonwealth Games, but on a much larger scale.
“My main goal is just to go out there, do my best and enjoy the experience. I have waited my whole life for this experience, and I am just so excited”
As for some advice for young Australian gymnasts aspiring to go to the Olympic Games, Godwin says the small steps will be what gets them where they want to go.
“It won’t be easy but just keep chugging along and put one foot in front of the other. Believe in yourself, and you will get there”.
Georgia Godwin and Mitchell Morgans claimed silver and bronze in the Uneven and Horizontal Bars respectively, after a solid weekend of competition at the Melbourne Gymnastics World Cup.
Both girls performed exceptionally well in a highly competitive field. Godwin came out on top, recording a score of 13.633, earning herself a silver medal narrowly edged out by Diana Varinska of Ukraine.
"I still have some areas that I need to work on in the lead up to Tokyo, but for now I’m very happy with where I am at," Godwin said of her performance.
"I'm over the moon to have medaled on bars at my first international event of the year and in front of such an incredible home crowd."
Georgia-Rose’s elegant routine scored 13.466, coming in at 4th place.
Mitchell Morgans added a second medal for Australia, when he secured bronze on the Horizontal Bar.
Looking for the critical points toward Tokyo qualification, Morgans was thrilled with the result.
"It’s absolutely awesome to win a medal in front of a home crowd," Morgan said after landing on the podium.
"That home support always makes the experience that much more special. That atmosphere always helps my confidence as you know the crowd is behind you and they ride the wave with me.
"This World Cup is always a pleasure to complete in and awesome to be part of."
Ranked fifth in the world on the World Cup circuit before arriving into Melbourne, Morgans will be making a push for Olympic qualification over the next few months aiming to secure a quote place alongside teammate Tyson Bull who secured his place in October.
Bull, who also qualified for the Horizontal Bar final, didn’t quite see the results he was looking for after a fall early in his routine saw him finish 7th overall.
James Bacueti competed in his first World Cup final on Vault after qualifying second on Friday night.
Bacueti, who trains in Canberra at the Australian Institute of Sport alongside Morgans and Bull, performed well in a difficult field of international talent and secured a 14.449 to finish 5th.
In the women’s competition, Emma Nedov finished 6th on the Balance Beam with a score of 12.533 due to a mistake in her usually flawless performances.
It was a tough night on the Apparatus for the Australian girls with Georgia Godwin coming in 5th with 12.766 despite a smooth routine.
Wrapping up the World Cup competition with Women’s Floor, newcomer Breanna Scott created a stir with her impressive floor routine in what was Scott’s first senior international final to score 12.400 and finish in 6th place, Godwin less than .1 behind in seventh at 12.333.
The Australian MAG and WAG teams will travel home in the coming days to continue their training in preparation for the next round of World Cup events in Baku and Doha next month before attending Pacific Rim and Continental Championships in April.
FIS Freestyle Ski Aerials World Cup Minsk 2020 - FIS
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Australia's winter athletes have continued to dominate the podiums, with aerial skier Laura Peel claiming gold and mogul skier Jakara Anthony adding bronze to her collection.
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Improving upon her silver finish in Moscow last week, aerial skier Laura Peel has claimed gold in Belarus, her third podium appearance for the season.
The 2015 World Champion from Canberra achieved the highest jump score of her career to win gold, scoring a huge 106.53 points with her full-tuck-full, double twisting, triple backflip somersault.
Rounding out the podium was Mengtao Xu of China, and her teammate Sicun Xu in third.
“It’s an amazing feeling”, an excited Peel commented after the event.
“I’ve definitely been wanting to crack the 100 point mark for a while, I came pretty close last week but to put down my best jumps when it matters is awesome, all the hard work is coming together.
The performance marks the third World Cup victory of the 30-year-old athlete's career (3 gold, 4 silver, 5 bronze).
Following the victory, Peel has now moved up into second place on the FIS World Cup standings with two events remaining in the season and is on 319 points, just 6 points behind World Cup leader Mengtao Xu of China.
Over in Japan, the silverware kept coming for the Aussies, with Jakara Anthony claiming moguls bronze, her second consecutive podium for the season.
The 21-year-old from Barwon Heads in Victoria was consistent all day, placing second in qualifications and also in the first round of finals with a score of 80.82 points.
In the top six super final, Anthony finished in the bronze medal position with a score of 79.01, 3.02 points behind the event winner and current world number one, Perrine Laffont of France who scored 82.03 points, with Junko Hoshino of Japan in second with a score of 79.75.
“It was a great day for me, not weather-wise but I was really happy with how my skiing went," Anthony said.
"In training, I was making some progress and that showed in my competition runs.
“There are always challenges in every course, I had a mistake in my qualification run, but it’s about remembering that and making the adjustments that you need to," she continued.
“The goal for me is more about the quality of my skiing, and not so much the end result, I just want to be putting down runs that I know are technically at my best and that’s the major goal for me.
“There are still five more World Cup starts for me this season, so going from here it’s just about taking every opportunity I can to improve on my skiing.”
This result is Anthony’s seventh World Cup medal of her career (1 gold, 4 silver and 2 bronze), and continues her great form in the past 12 months which also included silver at the 2019 World Championships.
Australia’s PyeongChang silver medallist, Matt Graham, finished in fifth place, his fifth top-six super final performance of the season.
After eight events so far on the FIS World Cup tour, Anthony is currently ranked second in the world, with Graham in fourth place.
It was a golden finish for Australia’s Olympic canoe slalom paddlers at the 2020 Australian Open Canoe Slalom with Rio Olympian Lucien Delfour (NSW) and dual Olympic medallist Jessica Fox (NSW) making it a daily double, winning the men’s K1 and women’s C1 respectively.
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It was the second gold for Fox over the weekend after she also took home the win in the K1 on Saturday. Also on Saturday, Daniel Watkins (TAS) added a bronze medal in the C1 men to Australia’s overall medal tally of three gold and one bronze to wrap up a successful 2020 Australian Open on home waters.
Two events were counting towards Olympic selection this month, with Lucien Delfour leading the ranks going into the final round at the Australian Open after his win at the first round of selections at the 2020 Oceania Canoe Slalom Championships in Auckland at the start of February (1-3 February 2020).
With the event also doubling up as the final Olympic selection event for Australia’s canoe slalom men, Delfour provisionally secured his Tokyo 2020 spot after qualifying as the only Australian for the top-ten K1 men final following a sixth place in the semi-final earlier in the day and finishing the event as the top-ranked Australian.
Daniel Watkins also provisionally secured his Olympic berth in the C1 men after finishing as the top-ranked Australian and finishing the final in third place.
Pending official confirmation, nomination by Paddle Australia and selection by the AOC, Delfour and Watkins are expected to join Jessica Fox, who already secured her Tokyo 2020 selection in both the women’s K1 and C1.
