(Photo: Owen Hammond)
June 21, 2016
Kingaroy beach volleyball champion Taliqua Clancy and her on-court partner Louise Bawden were officially named on Tuesday as Australia’s representatives at the upcoming Rio Olympics.
Taliqua, 23, will be Australia’s first Indigenous Olympian in beach volleyball, while this will be the third games for Louise, 34, who also represented Australia in indoor volleyball at the 2000 Sydney Games and in beach volleyball at the 2012 London Games.
The pair finished fifth in at the Hamburg Grand Slam tour event earlier this month, earning selection for Rio.
At Rio, they will be competing on the famous Copacabana Beach.
Both are proud to have secured Olympic selection and to be seeded near the top of the field.
“Seeded seventh is a good position to be in, but we are always wanting more. We are doing everything possible to produce our strongest performances and win an Olympic medal on the beach in Rio,” Louise said.
Taliqua hopes her hard work and rise from top junior to making her first Olympic team will motivate other Indigenous athletes to follow in her footsteps.
“I’m really proud of it (selection),” she said. “I’m starting to realise how special it is for me and my culture. I hope I can inspire people to dream and do things that haven’t been done before.
“My family are really happy for me. They don’t get too over excited but they are pretty proud.”
The pair will fly out of Australia on Friday for more tournaments in Croatia and Switzerland ahead of the Rio Games.
The major series event in Gstaad, Switzerland, is where the make-up of the four teams in each of the six pools at the Olympics will be decided.
- Related article: Taliqua Is Doing Us Proud!
