Bound for Beijing

JOEL RITCHIE

FIVE years ago, Zoe Uphill was told she might never run again. Today she is an Olympian.

Uphill, formerly from Kiama Downs, is in the Australian rowing team for the Beijing Olympic Games.

Best known in Kiama for her netball exploits, Uphill will row in the women’s quad sculls.

In 2003, she retired from netball due to chronic shin injuries despite playing with the Sydney University Sandpipers in the now-defunct national league.

“I had a meeting with my coach, trainers, doctor and physio and was told I might never run again,” Uphill said.

Uphill discovered rowing in 2004 after moving in next door to then Australian coach Greg Howell.

She soon made the switch from St George to Mosman Rowing Club.

Fast forward four years and the 25-year-old is preparing to compete against the world’s best.

“I used to watch the Olympic Games on television and went to Sydney 2000 but I never imagined I would be one of those athletes,” Uphill said.

Uphill, who lives in Seaforth, won her place in the team after an extensive selection process that began in December last year.

Her spot was confirmed at the selection trials at Penrith earlier this month.

“I’m so excited, I’m over the moon about it – it’s sinking in day-by-day that I’m an Olympian,” she said.

“I started rowing in 2004 but never I dreamt that I would be where I right now.

“It’s going to be a great journey.”

Uphill said her first goal in Beijing was to make the A final, then gun for a medal.

“Our major aim is a medal but we’re setting ourselves small targets at the moment,” she said.

Uphill will team with best friend Amy Ives and Athens Olympic Games veterans Kerry Hore and Amber Bradley in the quad sculls.

Nick Garratt, Uphill’s mentor at Mosman Rowing Club, will coach the crew.

“There’s some great chemistry in our boat and everyone is positive and confident about how we’ll go,” Uphill said.

This week, Uphill and the rest of the Australian rowing teams will head to Europe for two World Cup regattas and two two-week camps in Italy.

They will return to Australia in mid-June for six weeks of training in Sydney and at the AIS in Canberra.

The team will fly to Beijing on August 1.

Uphill said qualifying for the Olympic Games in her adopted sport was easily the biggest achievement of her sporting career, which includes rowing in the single sculls at the 2007 World Championships in Munich.

As a netballer, she was picked for the NSW under 19s and won a scholarship to the AIS. She also won the Kiama Independent Sports Star of the Year Award in 2001.