Speaker 1: I enrolled both Locke and Charlotte into Little Athletics Little
Speaker 1: A's last year, now Lockie was in the under eights
Speaker 1: and Charlotte was in the under sevens. While Charlotte literally
Speaker 1: skipped every race, coming in dead last, but with a
Speaker 1: big smile on her face, Little Lockie did really well.
Speaker 1: He even made it into the Zone Champs and I
Speaker 1: found myself daydreaming about jet setting around the world watching
Speaker 1: him compete at World Championships, and may have even worked
Speaker 1: out how old he'll be for the Brisbane Olympics in
Speaker 1: twenty thirty two.
Speaker 2: Yep, he'll be nineteen. Kind of perfect.
Speaker 1: The only slight issue is whenever I try to get
Speaker 1: him out to practice, he's just not that keen. I
Speaker 1: even did my best Rocky style pep talk and he
Speaker 1: basically told me.
Speaker 2: To back off.
Speaker 1: Mum, So I'm clearly not cut out for this parenting
Speaker 1: of an elite athlete thing. This is healthy her with
Speaker 1: Amelia Phillips, What does it take.
Speaker 2: To raise an Olympian?
Speaker 1: Were they oozing with talent from the moment they could walk?
Speaker 1: Or did Mum and Dad carefully shape and manage their
Speaker 1: childhood setting them up for sporting success? Whilst we probably
Speaker 1: know the answer will be somewhere in the middle, it
Speaker 1: is an interesting question. Did the parents of elite athletes
Speaker 1: raise their children any differently from say you or me.
Speaker 1: Could we be sitting on a little gem of talent
Speaker 1: if only we just nurture them the right way and
Speaker 1: are willing to make the sacrifices and the tough decisions.
Speaker 1: Could we too raise the next generation's Olympians. A man
Speaker 1: that has had first hand experience with this is Tony
Speaker 1: Leckay's proud dad to three time Olympian steeple chaser Jen
Speaker 1: Leckays now Jen Gregson.
Speaker 2: Tony, thank you so much for joining me today.
Speaker 3: My pleasure. Amelia.
Speaker 1: Now Jen has competed in not one, not two, but
Speaker 1: three Olympic Games, most recently Tokyo where she made it
Speaker 1: into the three thousand meter athletics steeple chase final.
Speaker 2: Let's rewind Tony.
Speaker 1: Tell me about what sort of a child she was
Speaker 1: right from the get go.
Speaker 4: Okay, that's going back, But I mean we raised the
Speaker 4: kids on a farm on Tambourary Mountain. We had four
Speaker 4: of them under five, and that was a deliberate choice.
Speaker 4: They sort of had this image of my boys playing
Speaker 4: together happily. And you know, we didn't care whether you
Speaker 4: had boys or girls, but they're all together. So they
Speaker 4: did start off competing at a very early age, like
Speaker 4: competing for affection, competing for attention, Yeah, competing for.
Speaker 3: The food on the table. So that's what it was like.
Speaker 1: Now, boys girls, what's the what did you have?
Speaker 2: Boys? Girls? And where is Jen in that dynamic?
Speaker 3: She's number three with two older brothers and a younger brother.
Speaker 1: Okay, three boys, one girl, number three. Oh yeah, that's
Speaker 1: that's that is a very competitive fertile ground, isn't it.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: She would put up with anything from the boys except
Speaker 4: getting into her room. She fought tooth and nail, never
Speaker 4: let them in her room, and then she did her
Speaker 4: best to beat them at everything that she could.
Speaker 1: So she obviously had that competitive nature which definitely comes
Speaker 1: from being in that larger family dynamic.
Speaker 2: What about just talent?
Speaker 1: Did she display talent from an early age or did
Speaker 1: it kind of bubble up later on?
Speaker 4: Well, I mean she she was very physically strong for
Speaker 4: a little girl. Like I used to do chinn up
Speaker 4: competitions with them and racing competitions and swimming competitions young
Speaker 4: and bribe them and give them prizes, not with any
Speaker 4: goal of.
Speaker 3: Mine, just because it was fun, you know. Yeah, and
Speaker 3: she sort of competed pretty well.
Speaker 4: But she's only competing against her brothers, not some world beater.
Speaker 4: So we didn't do that with any plan of mine.
Speaker 4: It was just our lifestyle. We'd have fun, play games
Speaker 4: and compete.
Speaker 1: And did you send her to Little A's at a
Speaker 1: young age?
Speaker 3: Well, Donna usually.
Speaker 4: Made decisions like that, and it was her decision to
Speaker 4: send them to Little A's, So you can't just drop
Speaker 4: the kids a little age to stay there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And my memories of Little A's was looking at
Speaker 3: my poor kids.
Speaker 4: They're all little kids for their age, coming last, seriously
Speaker 4: last in every event, and getting bitten by mosquitoes a
Speaker 4: lot down at Helensville.
Speaker 1: Now, how old were they when you first sent them?
Speaker 1: Can you remember?
Speaker 3: I can't really remember it. I'm thinking grade two, three,
Speaker 3: four and five.
Speaker 1: Okay, So because you can literally send them as four
Speaker 1: year old, so you weren't like, you know, pushing them
Speaker 1: out of nappies onto the field like there were younger
Speaker 1: kids there.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but I mean like when Donna had four kids
Speaker 4: to look after at that age, to give her a break,
Speaker 4: I used to take the kids to the pool every morning.
Speaker 4: I'm pretty sure it was from at least six months
Speaker 4: of age, and I put them in a pig pen
Speaker 4: at the pool and then take them into the pool.
Speaker 4: So they were always outdoors and active. And the funny
Speaker 4: thing about Little A's was they seriously they came last
Speaker 4: and everything, but Donna drug up this trophy that they
Speaker 4: got at the end of one season and it was
Speaker 4: for the lacr's family cross country. Apparently they all showed
Speaker 4: some promise at cross country.
Speaker 1: Interesting, and so let's talk about you and your wife, Donna.
Speaker 1: And I have to say I messaged Donna because I
Speaker 1: was thinking I was wanting to interview the mum of
Speaker 1: an olympian. But then Donna actually palmed off to you
Speaker 1: and said, no, it's Tony that had the most impact.
Speaker 1: So it's interesting you saying a moment ago, No, it
Speaker 1: was Donna that made those decisions.
Speaker 2: But talk to me about the two of you.
Speaker 1: Were you both sporty and competitive by nature.
Speaker 3: Like amateur sportsman.
Speaker 4: I mean I did play professional rugby league and Donna
Speaker 4: was a ballerine. I don't know how far she got
Speaker 4: with that, but what we did a lot of Tambury
Speaker 4: Mountain was small place. I was in the pharmacy there
Speaker 4: and was very social. We had a lot of friends
Speaker 4: our age, and we did triathlons, we played touch football,
Speaker 4: and we always took the kids with her, So the
Speaker 4: kids grew up on a sidelines at the touch football
Speaker 4: field or being held by their grandma at a triathlon,
Speaker 4: so they saw that sort of activity. So it's not
Speaker 4: like we were necessarily super sporty or in gold medals
Speaker 4: or anything, but we were always doing something. I remember
Speaker 4: one time, Don and we're just doing intervals on the
Speaker 4: oval and we turned around and here was Elliot and
Speaker 4: Jenevie jogging behind us.
Speaker 3: Yas did that because they saw us doing it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we gave an example, but we certainly don't have
Speaker 4: some fabulous genes to pass on to get a great athlete.
Speaker 1: At the end of Little A's last season, this kid won.
Speaker 1: He would have been about twelve, and he won, broke
Speaker 1: all these records, and when he went up to get
Speaker 1: the trophy, his dad came with him, and his dad
Speaker 1: was like six foot eight, this massive muscle guy, and
Speaker 1: the whole audience actually laughed out loud because we were
Speaker 1: literally like, okay, now we see the jeans. Now we
Speaker 1: see where this this child has such a competitive advantage.
Speaker 1: What about your parenting style? Looking back now, do you
Speaker 1: notice anything that differed from your parenting style to other parents?
Speaker 1: And I'm imagining you know this image of you out
Speaker 1: in the thunderstorms chasing your kids around the track while
Speaker 1: it's raining, while everyone else has gone home.
Speaker 3: Well, there was nothing like that.
Speaker 4: I mean, I think we had some natural advantages.
Speaker 3: Growing up on the farm.
Speaker 4: We were on one hundred and twenty acres and was
Speaker 4: surrounded by rainforests and a view to the coast, so
Speaker 4: they got a perfectly healthy environment, you know, and that
Speaker 4: has some effect on their lungs developing. But I mean
Speaker 4: I being in pharmacy, I supplemented them early on. Yeah,
Speaker 4: juice stuff for them, juice, carrots and thing. We ate
Speaker 4: fruit every morning. The juice has ended when his younger
Speaker 4: brother vomited bet rey juice all over the carpet, So
Speaker 4: we dropped that part of the program after a while.
Speaker 2: That's the end of it.
Speaker 1: We'll stick to pills, thank you very much, vitamin pills.
Speaker 1: What about an attitude of excellence? Would you say you
Speaker 1: have this attitude of excellence, whether it be schoolwork, sporting
Speaker 1: or are you more of a child relaxed family.
Speaker 4: No, I mean I wanted to give the kids everything
Speaker 4: my parents couldn't give me. But my parents gave me
Speaker 4: everything they could give me, and I was able to
Speaker 4: give more to my kids because of my financial situation.
Speaker 4: But yeah, we tried to expose the kids to everything,
Speaker 4: and not just sport. It was travel, you know, food, wine,
Speaker 4: just give them as broad an experience as they could,
Speaker 4: you know, which was worth something to them. If you
Speaker 4: want to talk about excellence. Donna absolutely drove the kids
Speaker 4: to do the piano. They couldn't do anything else until
Speaker 4: they've done their piano practice.
Speaker 2: I love that.
Speaker 3: So I think that was a.
Speaker 4: Discipline that they got, and to this day they hated it.
Speaker 3: At the time. They all say they're going to make
Speaker 3: their kids do piano.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love that, and you hear that quite a lot.
Speaker 1: And even you know, as a grown up now some
Speaker 1: of the things my parents made me do, like making
Speaker 1: my bed every day, and now you know, it just happens,
Speaker 1: and at the time I hated it. But it's just,
Speaker 1: you know, it's that repetition that becomes a habit, and
Speaker 1: it's effortless.
Speaker 4: Now, yeah, well, I think some of the things, like
Speaker 4: even we thought we'd take the French approach with wine
Speaker 4: and that would expose them to them and teach them
Speaker 4: what a fine wine tastes like, so that we demystify
Speaker 4: wine and they would never be in strength. I can't
Speaker 4: say that worked all that well with the boys. But
Speaker 4: you know, we played tennis. None of them played tennis.
Speaker 4: We used to read books endlessly. I think all of
Speaker 4: our reads a little.
Speaker 2: Yeah, something stick something well, running has obviously stuck.
Speaker 1: Tell me about when jen stopped coming last, and tell
Speaker 1: me about the progression from last to the Olympics.
Speaker 4: Well, when we came we moved down from Tambury, went
Speaker 4: to a school. We went there because they had a
Speaker 4: great computer program, nothing to do with sport. I can
Speaker 4: remember being at work and then it's one of the
Speaker 4: mothers of quite a sporty girl ranged me at work
Speaker 4: to tell me that Genevieve had won the cross country.
Speaker 3: I said, okay, and but that was a.
Speaker 4: Big deal, like there were some very good athletes there
Speaker 4: that she'd be I think it was great far and
Speaker 4: so well, that's good. And then Donna took her to
Speaker 4: districts and she came fifth, snuck in and just got
Speaker 4: in a fit that makes you go onto regionals. Then
Speaker 4: she went to regional and some girl fell down in
Speaker 4: a puddle before the thing, and jenemy snuck in again
Speaker 4: at fifth. So went to States and then we expected
Speaker 4: her to be absolutely demolished by the good athletes up there,
Speaker 4: and she came I think eighth, Wow, which just shocked everybody.
Speaker 3: You know, we were expecting somewhere in the twenties.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and we said, oh, maybe we better give this
Speaker 4: girl some support, and so, you know, then we did
Speaker 4: sort of focus a little more on her running.
Speaker 2: Yeah okay, And that was around grade five. Yeah okay.
Speaker 1: And then and so did you then, you know, stick
Speaker 1: at Little A's or rejoin her, or you then got
Speaker 1: her a coach or joined an athletics team.
Speaker 4: Well, we were we're in at Daisy Hill now by
Speaker 4: John Paul College. So we left Little A's and they
Speaker 4: had a run club, which again was Donna's ideas she
Speaker 4: made them all go to run club. I can't remember
Speaker 4: that was before after she won the cross country. I'm
Speaker 4: pretty sure it was after. Then the following year I
Speaker 4: was running with her around the around the block. I
Speaker 4: think was the training that she got and I love that.
Speaker 4: Ye I'm sure I need to lose track of it.
Speaker 4: But she went to Nationals and she was just training
Speaker 4: with the run club and she got second, which was,
Speaker 4: you know, amazing. I think the following year we got
Speaker 4: her a coach, which was grade six. He coached her
Speaker 4: and im Donna once again got all of us to
Speaker 4: go down and train with Jennevie, so she always had
Speaker 4: company and you know, somebody else to share the pain.
Speaker 4: And then that year she won Nationals.
Speaker 2: So wow.
Speaker 3: You know, then we knew that, you know, she had
Speaker 3: some talent.
Speaker 1: Tell me, as a parent, were there tough decisions that
Speaker 1: you needed to make? And I want to give a
Speaker 1: brief example here during the Tokyo Olympics, I was listening
Speaker 1: to an interview with one of the gymnasts and they
Speaker 1: had to have three knee reconstructions by the age of
Speaker 1: twenty one. Now I was thinking, imagine having a fifteen
Speaker 1: year old and being told that they need any reconstruction
Speaker 1: and then you know, having to make that decision do
Speaker 1: I allow them to keep, you know, competing and potentially
Speaker 1: break their body down. Tell me about any tough decisions
Speaker 1: that you had to make well.
Speaker 4: There weren't many in terms of with the kids. The
Speaker 4: kids were all that problem growing up. You know, they
Speaker 4: did everything they should. Genevieve and three of her teammates
Speaker 4: from school got selected in the Australian cross country and
Speaker 4: that competed in Italy and just leading into that and
Speaker 4: leading into Nationals where she came fourth or fifth.
Speaker 2: How old would she have been here?
Speaker 3: This was great. I can't think it's eight nine or ten.
Speaker 3: It was around that area, all right. Okay, she was complaining.
Speaker 4: Of a pain in the back and we treated it
Speaker 4: in all sorts of ways, and we're just getting worse
Speaker 4: and worse.
Speaker 3: And then after Nationals.
Speaker 4: We finally got a proper study done and she had
Speaker 4: fractured her one of the next ones vertebrae, one of
Speaker 4: the little spurs.
Speaker 3: So she'd been in a lot of pats for a
Speaker 3: long time. You know. We looked after that.
Speaker 4: With just wrest and pool running and just kept her
Speaker 4: from impact until she started running professionally.
Speaker 3: That was the only bad injury that she had.
Speaker 2: What about mental health?
Speaker 1: You know, we're here in the media all the time.
Speaker 1: We've got Ash Barty that took a big break from
Speaker 1: tennis because of the mental load. Did you observe any
Speaker 1: mental health challenges competing at such a high level at
Speaker 1: a young age.
Speaker 4: No, I'd have to say the exact opposite. I mean,
Speaker 4: Jenlemen didn't just run. She played touch football, She did triathlon, soccer, hockey, gymnastics.
Speaker 4: Often she would play touch football in the morning on
Speaker 4: the Gold Coast and then I take it to Brisbane
Speaker 4: to run a cross country.
Speaker 3: You know, at Nunda.
Speaker 4: So I can remember she was playing in the final
Speaker 4: of the Interstate touch football and there was a drop off,
Speaker 4: which is a very tense moment. It's like the shootout
Speaker 4: in the soccer and all the friends were vomiting, and
Speaker 4: Jenemy said, I love shootouts. It's just fun, you know.
Speaker 4: I love so not shoot that's a drop offs they
Speaker 4: call it. She was just never by nerves.
Speaker 1: Why do you think that is what dish sounds like.
Speaker 1: She's mentally very resilient. Why do you think that is.
Speaker 4: I think it's just from we've always kept it fun like.
Speaker 4: She never got burnt out. She loved what she was doing.
Speaker 4: She loved pleasing her coach, she loves winning. Thankfully, she
Speaker 4: was lucky to win early on, so she was able
Speaker 4: to put more energy into it and get more results.
Speaker 4: But she just competed in you know, swim carnivals, everything,
Speaker 4: And the thing was there's no castigation for failure.
Speaker 3: There was no you know, we always encouraged her and.
Speaker 4: Said well done no matter what she got, because we
Speaker 4: know she did her best. So I don't think she
Speaker 4: ever developed an anxiety. I mean, I'm pretty sure I've
Speaker 4: seen her anxious since then on the world stage, but
Speaker 4: she was never anxious as a junior. So no, I
Speaker 4: don't think burnout was an issue. And we always kept
Speaker 4: the fun, like we'd invite her friends around, you know,
Speaker 4: even her competitors to an end of season barbecue. Said
Speaker 4: that they would all stay friends and it'd be friendly
Speaker 4: on the track and they you know, like they'd support
Speaker 4: each other when the other one was So we just
Speaker 4: kept it light and happy and relaxed. I think was
Speaker 4: the thing growing up.
Speaker 1: I think you raised a really good point here about
Speaker 1: walking that fine line between encouraging them and kind of
Speaker 1: channeling their talent versus pushing them too hard. And I
Speaker 1: was listening to an interview with the parents of Olympic
Speaker 1: Rower and they said that they had a deal with
Speaker 1: their son where they would do everything to support him,
Speaker 1: but he had to get out of bed on his own.
Speaker 1: And you know, rowers wake up at ridiculous times. It's
Speaker 1: usually got a four in front of it. And they
Speaker 1: said we would get up, make their sandwiches, drive them,
Speaker 1: you know, do all that, but they had to be
Speaker 1: the one to get out of the bed when the
Speaker 1: alarm went off.
Speaker 2: And I thought, what a great line to draw.
Speaker 1: Tell me, Tony, I want to ask you for us,
Speaker 1: you know, parents of children with the glimmer of hope,
Speaker 1: what advice would you give us? If you know, if
Speaker 1: our child is showing either talent or passion for a
Speaker 1: particular sport, how do you suggest as we walk that
Speaker 1: line between encouraging them without pushing them so hard.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know. Maybe we were just lucky.
Speaker 4: I mean Jenevie would get her self out of you know,
Speaker 4: she'd pack a bag the night before for training, so
Speaker 4: like she was, she was organized.
Speaker 2: Self motivated, yeah.
Speaker 3: Self motivated.
Speaker 4: But we didn't focus on any one thing. We didn't
Speaker 4: make that the goal. So if you didn't succeed that
Speaker 4: one sport or event, your life wasn't over. So she
Speaker 4: went to nationals for triathlon, cross country, all of them,
Speaker 4: so she bloys had something else to fall back on.
Speaker 4: If you're talk about pushing, I just don't feel they
Speaker 4: ever had to push. You've got to put everything in
Speaker 4: their favor, but let them, Like the Roberts' parents said,
Speaker 4: you've got to put in your bit love that, and
Speaker 4: they generally do.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's almost like being their coach, you know, like
Speaker 1: they're the ones who's got to turn up, but you
Speaker 1: know you're going to provide that extra support. I guess, yeah,
Speaker 1: what about when you've got the kid that shows talent
Speaker 1: but the motivation's not there A bit like my story
Speaker 1: at the start, me trying to get Lucky out in training,
Speaker 1: but he's just not that into it. Do you think
Speaker 1: think it's worth pursuing that or how do you balance
Speaker 1: that out?
Speaker 4: Well, you can do it. For a short while, Jennevie
Speaker 4: didn't want to go to America. She didn't want to
Speaker 4: go to college. She tried to miss the test, you know,
Speaker 4: like she did everything to avoid going. We just insisted,
Speaker 4: you know, through tears and everything else. We made her go.
Speaker 4: But that was towards the end of her career. I've
Speaker 4: known plenty of kids. There were so many talented kids
Speaker 4: that Jenneviet came across growing up.
Speaker 3: They just never went on with it.
Speaker 4: But I think you've just got to You can't make them,
Speaker 4: but you can make everything easier for them, make it
Speaker 4: absolutely easy, so that they will eventually pick up the
Speaker 4: desire when they see it. Get rewarded by success, they
Speaker 4: get reinforced by success.
Speaker 2: Why do you think those kids?
Speaker 1: If you can think of a handful of kids with
Speaker 1: immense talent you saw but they didn't go forward.
Speaker 2: What were some of the reasons why.
Speaker 3: A big one was crazy parents?
Speaker 1: What do you mean by crazy parents? Oh, I'm starting
Speaker 1: to get worried.
Speaker 4: I know there are some crazy parents. So I saw
Speaker 4: a lot of my sours, some amazingly talented kids, and
Speaker 4: the parents just worked too hard on them, too pushy,
Speaker 4: you know, too demanding.
Speaker 3: Look, honestly, Genevieve lost.
Speaker 4: That was okay, you're on a foster defeatism, but it's
Speaker 4: also say, you know, you did the best, the girl
Speaker 4: was too good for you. There's not much you can
Speaker 4: do about it. You know, let's get it next time,
Speaker 4: And she got them next time. But I've seen people
Speaker 4: tearing into their kids and giving them a hard time.
Speaker 2: Oh, that's terrible.
Speaker 3: But also I was once again very lucky.
Speaker 4: It was it coincided with a relatively affluent time of
Speaker 4: my life, and we flew Genevieve everywhere, and we often
Speaker 4: flew her friends, like flew a.
Speaker 3: Net down there to keep a company. So we were
Speaker 3: able to.
Speaker 2: Made it fun and easy for her.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but also we had the funds to do it,
Speaker 4: and not all parents have that.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, there's some telling the kids who just don't get
Speaker 4: the chance because their parents can't afford it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, and that is just so sad. And I
Speaker 1: hope that you know, the government does what it can
Speaker 1: with grants, etc. Who support those children, because that that
Speaker 1: is a real loss.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I think tell that identification is important, but there's so
Speaker 4: many other factors. I know trath On Queensland was screening
Speaker 4: athletes and they did a big rundown and what the parents'
Speaker 4: abilities were and what the parents did. So I think
Speaker 4: that was sort of psychometrically testing the genes or the
Speaker 4: support group for the kid. And I think that is
Speaker 4: just as important too, the support or the child.
Speaker 1: Gets absolutely, And I think you've kind of answered this
Speaker 1: next question, but I want to ask it anyway. Do
Speaker 1: you think it's better to expose your child to many
Speaker 1: sports in primary school or just to kind of hone
Speaker 1: in and focus on one or two.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, keep it as broad as you can to not
Speaker 4: try to pick a winner. We didn't choose steeplechase for Genovator.
Speaker 4: She didn't do that until she went to America.
Speaker 1: So why why do you think that it's important to
Speaker 1: broaden that range.
Speaker 4: Well, just to find out what they're good at and
Speaker 4: have fun. Like the kids loved team sports and running
Speaker 4: is somewhat solitary. Let's say she had the fun of
Speaker 4: playing all those team sports, and I think the variety
Speaker 4: is good for developing kids muscles and bones. When you
Speaker 4: do too much of the same thing, you can overwork
Speaker 4: certain muscled groups. I mean, it is dangerous playing say hockey,
Speaker 4: getting whacked in the head with a stick, or playing
Speaker 4: touch football and hurting yourself dying over the line. But
Speaker 4: you've got to let them be kids, and I think
Speaker 4: Genevie playing touch football has been good for her steeple chase.
Speaker 4: I don't know if you saw a race not so
Speaker 4: long ago where somebody fell down in front of hers.
Speaker 4: She just pretty much hurdled her and skipped away from
Speaker 4: her and kept.
Speaker 1: Going, Oh, isn't that awesome? Is there anything you would
Speaker 1: have done differently?
Speaker 2: Looking back, I'd say no.
Speaker 3: I think we were really lucky. We were lucky that
Speaker 3: the kids grew up on Tambury Mountain.
Speaker 4: We were lucky we picked a co ed school where
Speaker 4: they could support her. We were lucky that she had
Speaker 4: a coach who didn't want to flow her, who had
Speaker 4: a long term view of what she should do.
Speaker 3: We had friends that helped her go to training, you know.
Speaker 4: Looked back, she had a friend called Anette, her daughter
Speaker 4: around with Genevieve, and she often took Genevieve to races
Speaker 4: or games or whatever. Because kids will get into the
Speaker 4: same amount of sports, so you can have a good network.
Speaker 4: All we did was keep her healthy, take it at
Speaker 4: absolutely every event she wanted to compete in.
Speaker 3: And keep it fun.
Speaker 2: Oh.
Speaker 3: I love that that was our model and that worked
Speaker 3: for us. We could have been lucky.
Speaker 2: Keep them healthy and make sure they have fun.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love that. Any last parting advice for us
Speaker 1: motivated parents that want, like you, to experience an athlete
Speaker 1: and support their child in their athletic passions.
Speaker 3: That's a big topic. Every kid is different.
Speaker 4: I've heard coaches talk about young kids who are early
Speaker 4: matures and this is their time. You've got to let
Speaker 4: them do it. So you can push them. They will
Speaker 4: probably not have the body type to go on long term,
Speaker 4: so push them then. Otherwise, like Jennifer who was small,
Speaker 4: we didn't push it too hard. Well, her coach was
Speaker 4: very mindful that he had a long term view of
Speaker 4: her sporting career, so he never pushed us. So she
Speaker 4: could have won a lot more junior titles if we'd
Speaker 4: let him, or if he'd just to push it. He
Speaker 4: never did. So you can't push your des eyes on
Speaker 4: your kids. Yeah, I mean, I would say Jenny never
Speaker 4: had this vision or dream to go to the Olympics.
Speaker 4: She just loved running, She loved sport, she loved to
Speaker 4: please her coach. When she was a college at America,
Speaker 4: I was still reminding of telling her that she could
Speaker 4: possibly go to the Olympics. That wasn't the you know,
Speaker 4: the endpoint of all her thing. It was just fun.
Speaker 4: And to this day she loves running, never wants to
Speaker 4: stop running.
Speaker 2: That is amazing.
Speaker 1: And look, I think the real takeout what I'm hearing
Speaker 1: chatting with you today, which is just so inspiring, is
Speaker 1: how you kept it fun and how it really was,
Speaker 1: you know, driven by her passion and her enjoyment for
Speaker 1: the sport rather than pressure. And I think that's a
Speaker 1: really great point for us parents.
Speaker 2: To take away.
Speaker 1: You should be so proud you and Donna and Jen.
Speaker 1: We all are in Australia and thank you so much
Speaker 1: for all your insights today.
Speaker 3: My pleasure, Amillia sh