WAGGA athlete Alicia Quirk is the pride of the city after winning gold for Australia at the Rio Olympics.
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Four years ago Quirk made the brave decision to leave touch football for rugby sevens and the decision paid the ultimate dividend on Tuesday as she helped Australia to an Olympic gold medal.
“I am so excited, very very much so,” Quirk told 3AW Radio moments after the win.
“It’s very hard to describe. It’s an amazing feeling.
“I’m so overwhelmed, it doesn’t feel real yet but I can only remind myself because it’s a heavy gold medal hanging around my neck.”
The 24-year-old played a starring role in Australia’s 24-17 win over New Zealand in the final.
Earlier in the night, Australia qualified for the gold medal game with a 17-5 win over Canada in the semi-final.
Australia were on the back foot early in the final against the Kiwis and trailed 5-0. But Quirk helped orchestrate the comeback as she set up two tries before half-time to see the Pearls take a 10-5 lead into the break.
From there, the Australian team never looked back. They scored the first three tries after the break to seal gold, only for New Zealand to post some late consolation points.
Quirk realised late in the game that the gold medal was hers.
“When we went into those last three minutes, she said.
“I knew that we had the edge up over them, our defence was phenomenal and we weren’t giving them a sniff.
“I was just confident the whole game. I knew we had it in us to beat them and I’m just so proud that we did the job in the end.”
The Australians looked completely relaxed as they sang the Australian national anthem before kick-off.
Quirk also revealed the secret to keeping the nerves away proved to be a mix of Katy Perry and the Zac Brown Band.
I was good, really good,” Quirk said.
“We’ve got such a good vibe when we warm up, we sing a lot of songs, we just know we play our best footy when we have the most fun so we just keep it really relaxed and smile, sing along to our favourite songs and just get ready to rip in.”
Quirk’s parents, Mick and Leanne, were on hand to witness their daughters golden moment. So too, were plenty of other family and friends.
Quirk savoured the moment with her teammates well into the early hours of Monday morning, Rio time, but in the process suggested that gold in Brazil might just be the start.
“I’ve only been playing for four years now,” she said.
“I’d love to go to two Olympics, I’d love to win a gold medal on home soil at the Comm Games so they’re the long term goals going ahead but I’m just going to savour this moment for what it is right now.”
