The Sporting Story of ‘The Golden Girl’ of Australian Sport
SportsMed Elite Ambassador, Ellyse Perry, discusses her life as a professional athlete.
SMG Technologies caught-up with one of our SportsMed athletes, Ellyse Perry, to get an idea of the essence of her love for sport. Ellyse has achieved incredible heights in both soccer and cricket in such a young career — it’s what earned her the title The Golden Girl of Australian Sport — and throughout it all it’s hard to miss her famous smile. It’s easy to see that Ellyse loves every minute of what she does and SMG wanted to get a better understanding of where that comes from.
Here is what Ellyse had to say:
“Sport and physical activity has been a fundamental part of my life since my first memories of learning how to kick, catch and throw in the backyard of my family home with my Mum, Dad and older brother. I never would have imagined that learning those basic skills when I was only just able to walk would somehow, down the track, lead to a career in professional sport. I guess one of the main reasons why I never considered sport could be my full time career when I was younger was because my main priority when playing sport has always been to have fun.
To me, the essence of sport is not winning medals, beating competitors or gaining recognition. The essence of sport is to participate in a community, have fun, and add value to our lives. It’s the innate ability of sport to provide many benefits both socially and physically. It’s also what makes it so incredibly important to our society.
Some of my fondest memories of playing sport are from when I was in my junior soccer team the Beecroft Wombats. I remember arriving to games on a Saturday morning, where parents and volunteers would be setting up the ground, putting-in the corner flags, rigging-up the nets on the goal posts, opening the canteen and cooking bacon, eggs and sausages on the barbecue. I’d have an absolute ball — pardon the pun — playing in our match and then stick around for a long time afterwards running around and playing more games with my team mates and munching on a bag of red frogs. By the time we left the ground, I’d completely forgotten about the result of our match, whether we had won or lost, it was irrelevant. The only lasting thought was how much I loved playing soccer and being a member of a team and how excited I was for next week’s match.
Sport plays a crucial role in our formative years as children; it’s where we learn values like teamwork and sportsmanship. Similarly, learning hand-eye coordination, how to run efficiently and control your body in different movement patterns is crucial to young people gaining a sense of confidence and strengthening their self-esteem in relation to their bodies. Learning fundamental skills early in life, and being confident at performing physical tasks is also paramount to ensuring that people maintain a physically active lifestyle throughout their lives.
It’s also a great way to forge strong relationships with family members or friends with whom you participate with.
Sport has afforded me so many wonderful and special opportunities to do and experience things I’d never imagined doing, but what I am most grateful for, is the richness it added to my childhood. Australia has a wonderful sporting culture at all levels of society and a culture that provides numerous opportunities for children to learn some very valuable and important lessons in a safe and inclusive environment. Providing encouragement to children to have a go at whatever they are interested in, no matter their level ability is an important role we all should play to make sure that they are given the opportunity to experience all the wonderful benefits sport has to offer.”
Ellyse stands as a true inspiration to not only Australian’s but the world. She is the embodiment of what an active, sporty lifestyle can do for children. At SMG Technologies we are true believers in the power of sport and focus a great deal of our attention on how we can help to create more young men and women in the same vein as the outstanding, Miss Ellyse Perry.
