Family Ties in Olympic Water Polo Team

The athletes chosen today to represent Australia in Women’s Water Polo at the Sydney Olympics are a close knit group in more ways than one.

Bridgette Gusterson and Danielle Woodhouse are sisters from Perth and Taryn Woods and Bronwyn Mayer are cousins from the Sydney suburb of Balmain.

Taryn is also the daughter of David Woods who represented Australia in Water Polo at the 1972 Munich Games and the 1976 Montreal Games.

Taryn’s younger brother Gavin is also vying for selection in the Men’s Water Polo Team for Sydney 2000.

‘We all grew up in the Balmain area and we watched dad play. Bronwyn and I spent most of our time at the Dawn Fraser Pool and there was always water polo on down there,’ Taryn said.

‘We started playing seriously when I was 13 and she was 14 and we used to make dad go down every afternoon after school and watch us pass for about an hour,’she said.

‘My dad is very excited. When I rang to tell him I’d made the Australian Olympic Team he couldn’t talk on the phone he was so emotional’.

The Australia Team has been attending a training camp on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast since the start of May.

‘The local community has been absolutely fantastic and looked after us amazingly well. They have done so much for us which has made our job of training a lot easier,’ Taryn said.

The Water Polo Team was announced in Brisbane this afternoon by Olympic swimming gold medallist Michael Wenden who is an Assistant Chef De Mission for the Australian Olympic Team at Sydney 2000.

Shortly afterwards the Team left Australia for Los Angeles where they will compete in the Holiday Cup. The tournament boasts all six teams that will compete for gold at the Sydney Games.

‘The Holiday Cup will be a good yardstick to see how we are travelling,’ Taryn said.

‘No-one in our team has been to the Olympics before, so it is going to be exciting and new for everybody and we are all looking forward to it,’ she said.

Source: Australian NOC