By Tania Phillips
Rugby Sevens was not three-time Olympian and Australian team captain Charlotte Caslick’s first love, but it is well and truly her passion now.
Caslick, 29, is currently in Montpellier with the squad preparing for the Paris Olympics – her third – and maybe a second gold medal because while Sevens wasn’t something she aspired to as child, father Don Caslick said the Olympic dream was.
“She didn’t even know it (Sevens) existed when she first started,” her Stanthorpe/Brisbane-based dad said.
“She had a touch football background. Probably years before that she had ambitions to be a Hockeyroo,” he laughed.
“But touch football was always her first love and she always excelled in athletics, so Seven’s is a really good fit for her – the touch football skill base and the endurance from being a middle-distance runner. They sort of go together well on a Seven’s pitch.”
Caslick was one of the stars when the Australian team won gold in Rio, but the team was out of the medals at the disrupted Tokyo Games with arch rivals New Zealand taking the gold ahead of France. All three are among the favourites again this time around and are destined to meet in the finals if things go the way they are seeded.
“The way the draw has panned out if everyone plays to seed and there’s no significant upsets, I would think their most challenging game will the semifinal which is likely to be France,” he said.
“France at home with a crowd of 60-70,000 people at Stade de France could be a pretty wild experience for the girls – it’s one they’re looking forward to though. They are really excited about the prospect of playing France at home. You get through France and then you have New Zealand potentially in the final and they’re their biggest rival of course.”
Rugby is a big sport in France and Australian team are big favourites with the French with many of them wishing the team well – but not too well.
“They get messages all the time wishing the best but hoping they’ll come second,”
Don said.
Caslick’s family is making up for not being able to be in Tokyo for the previous Olympics and will be over in Paris cheering her on but unfortunately it will be late nights for diehard fans back here in Queensland due to the time difference.
“There will be some games around 10.30 at night our time but the significant games will be around three in the morning,” he said.
Who needs sleep when the Olympics is on.
“It can’t be helped,” he laughed adding the family know what it’s like to have late nights when Charlotte is overseas.
“When they’re travelling in these sort of time zones, we’re getting very good at getting a two-hour power nap in between a 10pm and 3am games. We’ll sneak two or three hours in – we’ve got quite use to it.”
While Charlotte is Sydney-based her parents are usually Stanthorpe-based but a house fire a few weeks ago has them out of the house and spending a little more time in Brisbane than normal.
“It just got into the ceiling not the contents of any note that we know of yet,” he said. It’s just the unknown factor of what the damage is up in the ceiling, we’re waiting to see what the scope is. But there’s people in far worse position than us, no one hurt so that’s good.”
However, they are looking forward to the trip to France – somewhere they’ve been a couple of times including to watch her play in Paris.
“I think she’s also played in Biarritz and Toulouse, we’ve been to all three of those venues,” he said.
“This is the second time she’s played in Paris, but this will be totally different – the previous venue to Stade de France– this will really special.
“We’re very excited it’s going to be great.”
