VIS athletes Chris Ciriello and Rachael Lynch have been named in Australian men’s and women’s hockey teams to compete at next month’s Rio Olympic Games.
Ciriello will make his second Olympic appearance at Rio, hoping to add another medal to his London bronze. The world no.1 ranked Aussie men, the Kookaburras, will head to the Olympics as gold medal favourites having recently taken out the Champions Trophy in London.
Despite Rio being her first Olympic appearance, for goalkeeper Rachael Lynch this selection has been years in the making after she missed selection on the London 2012 Team.
“It’s been my dream to go to the Olympics for such a long time, and after ten years of hard work and the disappointment of missing out the last time it was such a relief to see that I had made the team,” Lynch said.
Lynch said Australia’s overall success at the Olympics has inspired her to keep pushing for her own chance to call herself an Olympian.
“Not just past Hockeyroos and Kookaburras teams, but other sports like water polo, the montage scenes of teams winning at the Olympics; that’s the feeling I’ve been chasing.”
