Athletes competing in sailing and water polo will be heading to the Paris Olympics in July. They took some time out of their busy training camps to speak with Peninsula Living Pittwater.
Sailing: Jim Colley, Newport
By Tamara Spray
After a long seven-year campaign, sailor Jim Colley is off to his first Olympic Games with 49er sailing partner, Shaun Connor. “It’s been a hell of a journey and I certainly pinch myself,” Newport local Jim says. “I never pictured this moment and what it would feel like until we actually got it.”
Jim and Shaun met a decade ago while sailing a 29er together and formed a great team. They switched to sailing a 49er, a two-handed high-performance skiff with a hull length of 4.99 metres, and never looked back. The boats can reach speeds up to 25 knots.
Jim grew up in Avalon and is a member of the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club. He admits to making a number of sacrifices to get to the Olympics. “This has been full-time for about a year-and-a-half now,” he says, adding that the pair even need to schedule ‘rest’ into their training program. When they are not overseas competing in events – which can involve spending five hours a day on the water for up to six days – they are working on their boat, optimising their equipment, testing their sails and training on land both physically and mentally. The pair will bring all their own sailing equipment to the Games, apart from their boat, which will be waiting for them in France.
“The biggest challenge is the travel and the amount of time I spend away from family and friends,” Jim reflects.
It’s no surprise then that Jim is most looking forward to having his parents, Gerry and Sally, girlfriend, family and friends with him in Marseille. “My family haven’t watched me race for five or six years because most of my racing has been overseas, so to bring them along for the ride is going to be fantastic,” Jim explains.
Jim and Shaun are currently in France, where they are sailing their Olympic boat in waters off Marseille in preparation for the 49er event which runs from 28 July to 8 August.
“We wouldn’t be the favourite, but I’d say anyone within the top 12 in the world, which we certainly are, has a chance of winning a medal,” Jim says.
Jim and Shaun will race in the 49er sailing event in their Olympic Games debut
Water polo: Bronte Halligan, raised in Mona Vale
By Michelle Giglio
Bronte Halligan was just 17 when she debuted for the Stingers, the same year she completed Year 12 at Stella Maris in Manly. Ten years later, the Manly local is heading off to Paris for her second Olympics, armed with years of experience to share with her team. It’s a leadership role she cherishes. “I love leading these girls and helping them, but also playing with them,” Bronte says. “We’ve got great experience in the team (and) some really good newbies. Everyone bounces off each other really well and has different ideas and different strengths that they bring.
“So I think it’s a really unique team. I love being one of the leaders of this team and leading this team into the Olympics.”
While Bronte made her Olympic debut at Tokyo, this time she will have her whole family in Paris, which was not possible in 2021 due to the COVID-19 restrictions. “It’s going to be phenomenal to be able to get over there, put the ‘green and gold’ on, and have my family and friends in the stands watching me play.”
Bronte spends nine months of the year playing in the Italian women’s water polo A-league, for Ekipe Orrizonte in Sicily. Not only has she picked up the language, she also has a Sicilian boyfriend who will watch her in Paris. Being away from him to train with the Stingers the last six months has been really hard, she admits.
The daughter of New Zealand union and North Sydney Bears/ Canterbury Bulldogs rugby league goalkicking legend Daryl Halligan, Bronte says she ‘adores’ playing water polo and is ‘passionate and grateful’ for the experiences and opportunities she has had to travel the world and study overseas. “It’s such a privileged life that I’m so fortunate to be able to do it.”
The lead-up to the Olympics is intense, with the Stingers scheduled to play two tournaments in Greece and the Netherlands. The 28-year-old says these international events can be a challenge, with teams not wanting to reveal too much before the Olympics. “You are trying to play your best water polo while also trialling a few different things at the same time.
“It’s really (difficult) trying to find the balance of not showing (the opposition) too much, but also playing your best.”
While in the pool, Bronte is an ‘outside driver,’ tasked with carrying the ball and passing to other girls to shoot for goal. But she also scores and defends. The sport is gruelling, with girls swimming up to four kilometres a match. It can also be quite violent, with a lot of ‘grabbing and kicking and punching,’ Bronte says – which many will remember from the underwater footage of the Sydney 2000 Olympics when the Stingers won gold in water polo’s debut. Bronte lists a cracked nose, broken fingers and a foot to the face as just a few of her injuries!
Water polo player Bronte receives a ticket to compete in Paris, her second Olympics
In terms of her journey to Paris, Bronte says it has been 17 years of sacrifice, since first playing aged 11 for the Sydney Northern Beaches Breakers (based out of Manly Pool). “A lot of missed events and waking up at 5am every morning to train. And not just from me though, from my family as well,” she reflects. “So a lot of putting water polo first in my life to get to this point.”
With the Stingers placing fourth at last year’s World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan, and fifth in Tokyo, Bronte says the team will go hard to place in Paris against the other nine nations. “If we put our best foot forward and play together as a team, we’re going to be a really good chance (to medal).”