Meaghan Volker, Charlotte Sutherland, Sarah Banting, Molly Goodman, Fiona Albert, Jessica Morrison, Lucy Stephan, Olympia Alderney and Alexandra Hagen of the AUS W8+ competing in Rio.
Being told that you’ll be competing at the Olympic Games just nine days prior is the stuff nightmares are made of. It’s like being told that you have to sit an exam with no time to study. For the women of the Australian eight this is exactly what happened.
At the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta in Lucerne, the Australians missed qualification by three seconds and their road to Rio came to an abrupt end. But when the Russian team was disqualified from competition, the girls from Down Under got the call that they’d be flying to Rio de Janeiro for their second chance.