If you see it, you believe you can be it

Rugby Sevens member and Pymble alumna reflects on her sporting journey.

By CHLOE DALTON

One of my favourite memories as a kid was walking down to my local footy field, Rat Park (named after our local team, the Warringah Rats), to watch my brothers play rugby. I would sit patiently on the hill, counting down the seconds until halftime. Before the siren sounded, I would collect my worn-out footy and find a dodgy cone to act as my tee. Once the boys had cleared the field, I would set up my makeshift tee and attempt to kick the conversion from the sideline. I wasn’t half bad.

Grown men would walk up to me and say, “You should play rugby.” Slightly confused, my usual response was, “Girls don’t play rugby.” There were in fact some exceptional women playing rugby at the time, but I had never heard or seen them. They were always out on the worst pitch in the back paddock, and never in the newspaper or on television or radio.

The only time I could see my sports idols on TV was every four years when the Olympics and Paralympics rolled around. Keen to follow in the footsteps of Lauren Jackson and represent Australia at the Olympics, I picked up basketball from the age of about 12. By 19, I had the chance to play for the Sydney Uni Flames in the Women’s National Basketball League –where I spent game after game on the bench, high-fiving and towel waving.

In 2013, after two years of feeling a long way away from my Olympic dream, I arrived home from Flames

Chloe Dalton OAM is one of Australia’s few female triple-sport elite athletes, having played basketball, Rugby Sevens and now Australian Rules at national or international level.

In 2016, while still a student at Pymble Ladies’ College, Chloe was a member of the Australian Rugby Sevens team that won gold at the Rio Olympics and awarded an Order training one night and Googled ‘list of Olympic sports’ on my computer. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw Rugby Sevens would be an Olympic sport for the very first time in 2016. I switched codes and, thousands of tackles later, boarded the plane with my Aussie Sevens teammates, bound for Rio, where we each won our very own Olympic gold medal. While we have made some ground in promoting and broadcasting women’s sport, a recent study found that women receive just 4 per cent of all sports media coverage despite accounting for 40 per cent of all participants in sport. The aim of the [female] athlete project is to recognise and celebrate stories and achievements of female athletes, and to address the gender inequalities that exist within the sports media space. of Australia Medal for Service to Sport. In 2017, Chloe was recognised as Australia’s top Rugby Sevens player by winning the Shawn Mackay Medal. Today, Chloe plays in the Australian Football League Women’s Competition as a member of the GWS Giants. She is also the founder and host of the [female] athlete project to encourage more young women to realise their potential in sport.

Through storytelling in podcast format and social media, we have built a community of 45,000+ people who are passionate about women in sport and changing the story, so that every young girl playing down at the local footy field can see her idols, everywhere she looks.