Athlete profile: Claire Dooley

Bond Elite Sport Program student-athlete Ms Claire Dooley is training in Canada.

CLAIRE CARVES OUT A FUTURE IN SKIING, MEDICINE

SISTER’S HEALTH BATTLE INSPIRES SCHOLAR

by Jessica Borten

In sport and life in general, Claire Dooley has a habit of turning the bumps along the way to her advantage. An avid skier since the age of seven, the Bond Elite Sport Program member is on track to represent Ireland in mogul skiing at the Winter Olympics.

The sport is distinctive: skiers race down a slope covered in moguls – or bumps – using them to launch into aerial manoeuvres and are judged on both speed and style.

Ms Dooley is currently juggling study and training in Whistler, Canada, in preparation for Winter Olympics qualifiers in December.

“In primary school I got involved in a competition called Interschools which is this massive snow sports event that draws thousands of kids from around Australia,” she says.

“My parents entered me and my siblings one year and it went from there - we were hooked.”

Mogul skiing encompasses a range of mental and physical skills taught across other winter sports and it is this combination that excites Ms Dooley.

“We have to be good at skiing on the groomed slopes and skiing on the flats, so we draw upon the technical foundation that they set in ski racing. But we also have to do aerial manoeuvres and be able to adapt to varying terrain like if you were free skiing.”

The Australian-Irish dual national from Brisbane is a Vice Chancellor’s Elite Scholar whose choice of degrees was shaped by a family member’s health battles.

Ms Dooley’s younger sister was diagnosed with a brain tumour at the age of five and conventional treatments would have put her at risk of brain damage and hearing and vision loss.

“There weren’t a lot of treatment options available for her, particularly in Australia and to put it bluntly, the options the doctors did give her weren’t good,” Ms Dooley says.

“That’s when my parents really had to take the situation into their own hands.”

Both of the lifesaving treatments Ms Dooley’s sister required were pioneered in Boston hospitals, so the family has spent long stints in the US.

“I’m really goal-oriented and self-driven because I’ve had to manage both school and sport.”

“I became fascinated by the work and research that my sister’s specialists were doing and the passion they showed for their patients,” Ms Dooley says.

“I was beginning to recognise that medicine was possibly the career path for me.”

Ms Dooley enquired about work experience at the Harvard Medical School’s teaching hospital, Massachusetts General in Boston, thinking “it doesn’t hurt to ask”.

“I wanted to experience what being a doctor could be like,” she says.

“I sent an email with my resume and the next month I had an application form from Harvard’s student medical intern program in my inbox.”

Ms Dooley’s experience in Boston cemented her decision to study medicine and she has embarked on a Bachelor of Biomedical Science.

“I’ve watched my sister’s village of specialists across the world collaborate, communicate with her and my parents, show a vested interest in her wellbeing and pursue all avenues to provide solutions,” she says.

“Although cliché, this has taught and instilled a passion in me to replicate those unique relationships with patients and the potential life-changing outcomes.”

Ms Dooley’s average day involves watching lecture recordings, writing assignments, training on the slopes and trampolining sessions. Somehow, she still manages to catch up on her favourite podcasts.

She says the skills developed during her athletic journey will complement her medical career.

“Mogul skiing is a high-risk sport. It has taught me to trust in my abilities when it counts. That ability to work under pressure makes me confident that in high-pressure scenarios, I will be able to perform.

“Secondly, I’m really goal-oriented and self-driven because I’ve had to manage both school and sport. I know I can always rely on myself to get things done.

“Sport has also opened my eyes to the importance of taking a holistic approach and looking at every aspect of a person’s life.”

Ms Dooley does not know what area of medicine she wants to specialise in yet but is eager to make a difference.

“I think as an overarching lifelong goal, I’m really passionate about combining a clinical career with research.

“I want to leave my mark and change something within the face of medicine, however big or small that might be.”