July 15, 2014
It’s a long way from Kingaroy to the beach, let alone the Olympics but Taliqua Clancy has her eyes set on the prize … and her family couldn’t be prouder.
Taliqua is just 22 years old but she’s already an Australian champion in her chosen sport, beach volleyball.
It’s a game that’s taking her around the world. Over the past month she has played in Russia, Germany, Norway and Switzerland.
Proud grandparents Jocelyn and Robert Clancy, track Taliqua’s progress around the world via computer in Kingaroy.
And they proudly recite her achievements: named “best defender”, “best server”, “most valuable player”, “best attack”; won the Asian Championship in Jinjiang (China) in June, won the Australian title …
But how did a girl who grew up in Kingaroy and attended St John’s Lutheran School end up playing beach volleyball? After all, it really is a long way from Kingaroy to a beach, and Taliqua never spent much time at the beach.
Robert said Taliqua first started playing indoor volleyball with the high school team.
“She would travel up and down to Brisbane once a week for training and indoor competitions,” he said.
She the progressed to playing indoor volleyball with the Gladstone Sharks and then with Holland Park, two of the top volleyball teams at the time.
Taliqua, at 185cm tall, was also a promising netball player but there came a point when she was called upon to choose, and it was her Olympics dream that helped her make up her mind.
“She always wanted to go to the Olympics,” Robert said.
“When she learned that beach volleyball was played at the Olympics that helped her to make up her mind.
“She has a pure love of competing.”
Her family has backed her all the way along the journey.
“We struggled for a while to keep her going up and down to Brisbane. Her mother Shannon worked double shifts,” Jocelyn said.
And then when Taliqua was invited to join the Australian Institute of Sport in Adelaide, her mum relocated to Adelaide to be close to her.
Taliqua has been with the AIS for five years now and has worked her way up to be ranked No 1 in Australia.
She is believed to be the first Aboriginal woman to reach this level in beach volleyball, something that also makes her family very proud.
Robert and Joceyln travelled down to the Gold Coast in January to watch Taliqua play, and watched her come away with the first prize.
“I would love to see more indigenous young people play volleyball. It needs skill and good reflexes, and you’ve got to be very agile,” Robert said.
(Photo: Owen Hammond)
