When I arrived at the athlete’s village I found I was once again sharing a room with Liz, which we’d requested, we thought it would be a good idea and we did get along. Graffy was our team coach, with Brownie one of the assistant coaches, it definitely felt good having him there. Apart from the injuries, I was in a really good place emotionally, I was happy. My uni studies were going well, I was spending more time at home, and I thought my overseas stints were over—other than the US, but Seattle felt like home at that point.
I was sitting in my room on my own before the rest of the team arrived and someone, I can’t remember who, came and told me I had to go and see the chef de mission, Nick Green. My immediately thought was ‘What have I done?’, maybe it was because I wasn’t wearing our Olympic-issue shorts that I hadn’t been issued with yet. I had no idea what I could possibly have done wrong.
I arrived at his office worried, and he asked me if I could keep a secret. I was surprised, I wasn’t in trouble? Then he asked if I would like to be the flagbearer in the opening ceremony. I was stunned, and I think I said something like ‘Do you have the right person, are you sure?’, and when he nodded, I couldn’t breathe, I didn’t know what to do or say, but there is no way I would have refused. It was so surreal, I would never in a million years have thought that would happen to me, that this sort of honour could be bestowed upon me. I still don’t know how it happened. I somehow managed to agree, and then I was told to keep it a secret, I couldn’t tell my parents, I couldn’t tell anybody. Like most things in my life, when I become overwhelmed with emotions, in this case ecstasy, I shut down outwardly, but inwardly it was multiplying inside me. I couldn’t speak about it, and I thought I was going to explode.
The Opals arrived from France and I was still in shock, so I don’t know if I said much to anyone. All of my teammates were saying things like ‘What’s going on with her?’—I was being so coy, and I just couldn’t function properly. Before the announcement I was in my room with Liz, who kept asking things like ‘Why are you putting on makeup?’, ‘Why are you doing your hair?’, and then another one of my teammates walked in and immediately said ‘Something is going on, what is happening? Are you the flagbearer?’. I remember muttering that I couldn’t talk to her, and so I think my teammates had cottoned on, just because of my behaviour. I guess, too, I couldn’t take the smile off my face, and they all knew I was injured, which is a strange combination leading up to any tournament, let alone the Olympics. I was smiling incessantly, with injuries.
Before the start of every Olympics, there’s a gathering attended by Australian athletes, officials and some famous Aussies. John Farnham, James Packer with his then wife, actors, musicians, all those sorts of people came together to celebrate with the athletes and say good luck. It’s normally held the night before the opening ceremony, and that’s when they traditionally announce the flagbearer. I was terrified, so nervous, I just wanted the night to be over.
My parents were on a Qantas flight to the Games when it was announced in London, and apparently the pilot told everyone over the PA. They brought champagne over to my parents, and Mum was crying. I was sponsored by Qantas, I was one of their ambassadors for the 2012 Games, which was awesome because that gave me automatic upgrades travelling with the national team. I believe in the brand, Qantas is the only airline I feel safe on in the entire world, and normally it would be Qantas jets flying me home after these long stints overseas. For me, Qantas became synonymous with joy and happiness, they took me home! I’ve had plenty of sponsors and affiliations with companies over the years, Nike, Samsung, Qantas, all throughout my career. They’d approach my agent, but I always tried to align myself with companies that I believed in, and Qantas was certainly well up there.
At those Games, there was a big gender inequality issue for our female athletes, and it involved travel. The male athletes were flown over in business class, and we weren’t, we had economy tickets booked. As with most of our flights, you’d have to try and get an aisle or exit seat just to fit. When you’re someone like Liz at 2.03 metres, or me, or any of the taller athletes, you just don’t fit in those seats, let alone having to get through a 20-something hour flight. It felt like we didn’t receive the same respect as the men, and that was being shown to all.
The media made a very big deal about the fact that the men flew business and we didn’t, the public got behind us and thankfully that’s changed now. Back in 2012, I was lucky—being an ambassador I was automatically upgraded and managed to get some, but not all, of my teammates upgraded as well. Thank you, Qantas.
Once they announced that I was carrying the flag, I didn’t have to pretend anymore. As I led the team in, I was overwhelmed with emotion and on such a high, and having my teammates there, it was just lovely.
When I had marched in behind Andrew Gaze at the Sydney Olympics 12 years before, I could never have imagined I’d one day be in his position. Being the flagbearer at the London Olympics, and having my hometown stadium named after me, would have to be the two proudest moments of my career.
Two days after the opening ceremony, we played our first game against the host nation Great Britain and won 74–58, though I came off limping and exhausted.
The following morning, we played France. We were three points down just before the buzzer, and right before it went off, Abby Bishop passed the ball from the opposite end to fellow vet Belinda Snell, who shot an amazing basket from nearly three-quarters of the way down the court, straight through the net. It was huge. We were tied and the game went into overtime. Five minutes later, we lost 74–70. We went from the high of Belinda’s shot to just not being able to follow it up. We’d made it through the gold medal match undefeated in the last two Olympics, and now we’d lost in only our second game. Losing that game meant we would have to cross over and play against the US before the gold medal match.
We went on to beat Brazil 67–61, then Russia. It was another tight one, and we won 70–66. During that game Lizzie became the first women in Olympic history to dunk the basketball, and it was done so gracefully and with so much ease, which was totally amazing. In the next match we beat Canada 72–63, and came out second in our round, with France on top. The US were in the top of the other round, unbeaten. The high of being at the Olympics was getting me through this tournament, and so were my after-game catch-ups with my parents at our favourite little restaurant right outside the village. They were there for me, to debrief, give me advice, and also just to escape to, if only for an hour or two, away from the craziness of the village and the Games.
I was invited by the Australian Olympic Committee to meet the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, ‘Wills and Kate’, with a handful of other Commonwealth nationals, which was pretty surreal, but Mum and Dad had the opportunity to share that moment with me too, and that was so special. We talked to them for a moment and took a handful of pictures, he made a joke about my height, highly original, I told him my dog was named after him although, truthfully, he was named after my pop, William.
We were set to play the quarterfinals against China and led the first quarter 22–16, but they came back in the second, scoring another 20 points to our 17. The Opals were ahead by just one point at half-time before a scoring blitz by Liz in the third quarter lifted us to a three-point lead, and then on to a final score of 75–60, to make it into the semi-finals, against the US.
We needed to beat the US to make it to the gold medal match. We were up by two points in the first quarter and then four points by half-time—thanks mostly to Liz, who scored 19 points in just 20 minutes, she was just brilliant—but the US came out after half-time all guns blazing. They had to change their defence and moved into a zone defence, because individually they could not guard Lizzie in the paint, she just dominated. Had the game kept going in that direction we would have been on our way to the gold medal match once again. The zone changed the momentum of the game, and the US eventually ended up pulling that game out 86–73, although the score was in no way indicative of the game. Strategically, the US had outplayed us. It was a very close match, probably the best we have ever had against the US in any Olympic tournament. We were feeling down, of course, it was upsetting we hadn’t got through to the big game, but there were some really positive signs, we’d played well together.
We picked ourselves up to play for bronze against Russia. They’d been beaten 81–64 by France, who were now in the gold medal match against the US. Before that match for bronze there was definitely the thought that we could come away with nothing, which would have been a huge disappointment. I’d played with or against most of the female basketballers at the Olympics, at some point, we all knew each other. I’d competed against many of the girls who were now representing Russia when I was playing over there, and I knew they were a strong team. The Opals had a pretty good track record against them during my tenure. Russia were always a bit of a thorn in the side of the US, but we always seemed to have their number for whatever reason. I wasn’t overly confident before the match, but I knew we could beat them.
The Russians came out hard and fast, and by half-time we hadn’t played that well, they were strong. Kristi and I weren’t going to lose that game, we weren’t going to walk away from what could be, for both of us, our last Olympic Games, without a medal, and both teams probably played the best game of our tournament. All of us wanted that medal and we beat Russia 83–74. I will never forget the way I felt after that game. I was so proud of my teammates and so happy I got through the tournament—playing that game on what felt like one leg.
I know we only got bronze that Olympics, but we’d stuffed up during the rounds, losing to France in overtime, it happens, you win some, you lose some. We were pushed out in the semis by the US to play for bronze, but some of the best games I’ve ever played were in the Olympics, because of the stage I was playing on and because I was so passionate about representing this beautiful country that I love so much.
I don’t think we’d ever have said we couldn’t beat the US, but they have so many good players, the sport is huge over there. The US always had a problem with Russia because of their size, and we finally got big, but weren’t at our prime at the London Olympics. I think for the Opals Liz Cambage was and is a bit of a weapon for us. That girl, if she wanted to, could lead the Opals to great heights.
For me, Sydney and London were my favourite Olympic experiences. At my first Olympics, we were playing at home, my grandmothers were both there, it was incredible, and then by London I was 12 years older and I knew what to expect and what was going to happen. In London, we came third, but I had the time of my life. Playing was hard because of the pain, but mentally and emotionally I was in a great place. I’d been able to spend time and debrief every day with the two most important people in my world, my mum and my dad, and I wasn’t too distracted with the hype and the craziness that is the Olympic Games, the village, the athletes. I played in all the games at the London Olympics, I got breaks and it was fun, despite the pain. The other thing is that we didn’t lose the gold medal, we won the bronze—and that felt like winning a gold medal. We’d won the last game we played at that Olympics.
