Mariah Williams on enjoying the Olympic experience

Preparing to represent Australia at the Olympics requires hours and hours of training.

Throw in rehabilitation from a major injury and you will have some idea of what Wiradjuri woman and Hockeyroo Mariah Williams went through prior to the Tokyo Olympics.

In fact, when she was selected for the team it came as a great relief.

‘There was a part of me that was nervous leading up to the games but once I saw my name on the list, I was over the moon,’ she said.

‘After that, it was onto the next thing: “I want to win a gold medal”.’

This was not the first Olympics for Mariah who hails from Parkes, NSW and who grew up in a family of hockey fanatics.

She played at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro but preparing for this one was tougher.

‘I had a grade 4 stress fracture on my shin so I was out for about 6 to 8 months. Also, COVID-19 made the lead up to this Olympics very different from what it would be normally,’ Mariah said.

‘It was hard work leading into the Olympics and being injured, I put in extra work for my rehab to get my injury right.’

‘We went to Darwin for 10 days where we played some really hard games in the middle of the day to get used to the heat for Tokyo.’

The team was based in Perth which leading up to the Olympics was cold so these matches helped to acclimatise the team.

Mariah missed the first game in Tokyo having torn her adductor muscle two days before but played in subsequent games, all of them without spectators.

‘You’d think it wouldn’t be as good but it made it a lot easier for us to concentrate on what we were doing and not get nervous with the whole crowd yelling, screaming and supporting you,’ she said.

‘Not having that made you focus on what you were doing and being able to hear your teammates scream for the ball, or tell you what to do on the ball, was so much better.’

‘So in terms of performance, it felt a lot better. But in terms of celebrating, not having the crowd behind you cheering was a weird feeling.’

‘They still played music [after a goal was scored) over the speakers which was nice but I would probably prefer to have a full crowd there with my family in it.’

Mariah said her personal performance could have been better but given her injury affected build up, she felt she performed as well as could be expected.

‘Once you got there, there was no thinking about all that stuff and you just had to play the game you loved and have played for 22 years,’ Mariah said.

‘Everything comes down to playing and enjoying it and being out there with the team. It was an exciting time but I wish I had a better lead in to the Olympics than I had.’

Unfortunately, the Hockeyroos failed to win a medal but in one way, that’s not a bad thing. It says something about the increase in popularity of hockey around the world.

‘I think there’s a lot of countries that actually play hockey at the moment but the standard is lifting. There are a lot of countries that now have a pretty good hockey team, like Ireland. It came from nowhere in 2018 to come second in the World Cup. That was a big shock to everyone.’

Mariah is hoping to be a part of the team for the next year’s World Cup and Commonwealth Games and of course for the Paris Olympics to be held in just 3 years.

For aspiring Olympians, Mariah has some advice which can apply to all areas of life.

‘You need to enjoy the process leading into an Olympic Games. Yes, you need to be focussed on goals and targets but it’s not all about winning a medal. Just getting to the Olympics is incredible and that’s some peoples’ dream but don’t be sad if you didn’t get the gold or achieve the target you set.’

‘Not everybody gets to represent their country and their culture, mine being Indigenous, so enjoy everything along the way and don’t take it for granted. Enjoy the process.’

Our congratulations go to Mariah, her team mates and to all the competitors who worked hard and who sacrificed to play at the Olympic level.