Southby-Boyle took time out from her Paris prep this week to join her fellow AW&E Managers at the AIS, with the conference an opportunity to share learnings and experiences with people from other sports ahead of the Games.

The theme of the conference was ‘Resourcing Yourself to Win Well’, linking in with the commitment of Australia’s High Performance 2032+ Sport Strategy to prioritise athlete wellbeing is an enabler for sustainable success.

Hockey Australia AW&E Manager Samantha Cox found the conference a valuable experience, especially with the Kookaburras and Hockeyroos just weeks away from naming their Paris teams.

“There was a lot of knowledge and expertise in the room, so it was great to be able to hear from and learn from peers,” Cox said.

“For Hockey, our pre-Paris support really starts now. For those who aren’t selected, it’s about making sure we spend some time with them to process, because with Olympic cycles, it’s been four years they’ve been working towards this.

“And then with the selected athletes, it’s going through the expectations, giving them strategies so they can just focus on hockey and cancel out the outside noise, and do everything we can to best prepare them to get on that flight to Paris.”

Follow this link to learn more about the AW&E Network and AIS wellbeing support.