-10.png)
The Price You Pay
Host Natalie Cook, Olympic gold medalist and five-time Olympian, shares the inspiring and untold stories of athletes who face financial obstacles in their pursuit of becoming Olympian's and Paralympian’s.
Discover the sacrifices, challenges, and unwavering determination behind their pursuit of greatness.
Be inspired by their resilience and determination to turn their dreams into reality.
The Price You Pay
16: Waterpolo Goalkeeper Claire Durston's Olympic Quest
**This episode was uniquely recorded prior to the Paris 2024 Games qualification process for Waterpolo **
Can you imagine the pressure of standing between the goalposts, knowing every decision could make or break the match?
Join us as we sit down with Claire Durston, a remarkable waterpolo goalkeeper from the Cronulla Sharks, and her mother, Meg, to uncover Claire's extraordinary journey from Perth to her desire for the Paris Olympic Games. Claire shares how her impressive height and wingspan became her greatest assets, initially choosing the goalkeeper position to stay on the same team as her friends.
Mum Meg provides an intimate look into Claire's athletic upbringing, highlighting her diverse sporting background and the pivotal moment when water polo became her passion.
Navigating the financial and emotional hurdles of competitive sports is no small feat. Meg opens up about the sacrifices and challenges their family faced to support Claire’s athletic dreams. From the escalating expenses of high-level competitions to scholarships that offered much-needed relief, their story is one of resilience and determination. We also explore the emotional toll of the COVID-19 pandemic on athletes like Claire, who had to adapt to travel restrictions and the uncertainty of Olympic selections. Throughout this journey, resilience and a supportive family network proved crucial in overcoming these daunting challenges.
Finally, we delve into the exhilarating yet nerve-wracking athlete selection process. Discover the emotional highs and lows of selection camps, where athletes' futures hang in the balance based on subjective decisions. Claire and Meg shed light on the importance of family connections, especially during tough times, bolstered by regular virtual meet-ups.
We also introduce the mission of the Aussie Athlete Fund, which aims to support athletes' well-being and education, ensuring they thrive both in and out of the water. This episode is a testament to the power of perseverance, family support, and the relentless pursuit of one's dreams.
Become a part of our athletes' success stories: Whether its a personal donation, a corporate partnership, a round of golf, or simply by spreading the word, your support has the power to uplift our athletes and inspire countless others!
Website: https://aussieathletefund.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aussieathletefund/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aussieathletefund
Thank you for tuning in to The Price You Pay podcast! To ensure you never miss an episode, hit that "FOLLOW" button and remember to leave us a like, review, rating or share the podcast with someone you know needs to hear the inspiring stories of athletes and their families giving their all for the dream!
My name is Talika Clancy and I'm a proud Wiliwili woman, and I wish to acknowledge the land on which the Price you Pay podcast is being recorded Minnijin Country. We pay homage to the tradition of storytelling when we share athlete journeys and we extend our respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Nat Cook:I'm Nat Cook, five-time Olympian and gold medalist. Welcome to season two of the Price you Pay podcast, where we explore the hidden costs and barriers young athletes face in their pursuit of sporting greatness. Come with us as we delve into the lives of young athletes and their families to better understand what it truly takes to reach their dreams.
Sarah Maxwell:I get to sit down with 179-centimetre-tall water polo goalkeeper Claire Durston today, and I wasn't going to miss it, not even with this frog in my throat, as my family is calling it. Hailing from Perth, at only 25 years old, her athletic career took a major turn for the better when COVID forced her to make the move to New South Wales and join the National League's Cronulla Sharks. In 2023, australia qualified its Olympic spot for the Paris Games coming up in less than three months. It's coming. A very big squad of water polo women around the country have been whittling down to the ultimate final 13 spots and reserves.
Sarah Maxwell:To say it's a critical and stressful time in a water polo athlete's life is an understatement. We are joined by Claire's mum, meg, to help us round out the story that is Claire and her life as a water polo athlete up until now. So are you ladies ready to dive into the waters of this water polo journey that you've been on so far? Are you two ready for this? Ready, yep, yes. Well, claire, you get to start and I have to admit I don't mean to start on a lame place, but my curiosity is such that I'm slightly obsessed with your height and I want to know how does it help you as a goalkeeper, and not just the obvious aspects of height? So how does it help you as a goalkeeper being tall?
Claire Durston:So height can definitely come in handy for the goalkeeping side of things. I'd say what actually can make more of a difference is the wingspan. So you could be really tall but have a shorter wingspan and it might be a bit difficult, but if you are shorter and have a bigger wingspan, that can make a big difference. A lot of the time they do sort of come hand in hand, because a lot of people will be the same height as their wingspan is. So naturally, if you're tall, you're probably going to have a big wingspan, which definitely comes in handy for those shots that are put slightly further, wider than something a bit closer to you.
Sarah Maxwell:And then also, Did they measure you, you Claire, when you first started, like were they measuring your wingspan?
Claire Durston:yeah, we would do, um, you would almost hold like a cross position, standing up, um, with your arms out wide, and they would sort of do a bit of a measuring um, same way they measure your height, but they'd do it width ways. Um, they haven't done it too many times recently, but I think it width ways. Um, they haven't done it too many times recently, but I think it's probably because I've stopped growing and did they?
Sarah Maxwell:did you want to be goalkeeper or were you just put there because of your wingspan and height?
Claire Durston:um, I chose myself to go into the goals, um, I didn't get put with my friends in a team one year, um, which I was devastated about, and so I thought how am I going to get into be the same team with them? Um, and that team needed a goalkeeper. So I said I'd do it. Oh my god, I love it. Still got put in the same lower team, so my plan didn't work, but I ended up. I ended up staying in goals and sort of like work my way back into the team with my friends.
Sarah Maxwell:Did it take a different mindset Like? I hear that it's very it's a special kind of person who can do the job. Not a lot of people can do it, especially in women's sport. I've heard that it's rare. Is that true?
Claire Durston:When I started, or when someone's starting a lot of the time, they'll start on field, like I did, and so you'd be considered normal. Um, but I think and people always say that goalkeepers, you kind of have to be a little bit crazy to do it. I've heard that I think the more time I spent in goals I sort of developed that, as opposed to having it before starting. People do think it's quite strange to to just sit in a cage in multiple sports and just have balls pelted at you. But my kind of logic for it for a little while has been if somebody can throw it hard enough that it's going to hurt, they're likely good enough that they can aim. If they can't aim, they likely can't throw it hard enough for it to hurt.
Sarah Maxwell:Oh my.
Claire Durston:God, that is hilarious.
Sarah Maxwell:I love that you worked that out.
Claire Durston:It might not be true, but if I tell myself that, then it seems less scary.
Sarah Maxwell:That's awesome. I think other people can learn from that. So, meg, I do want to ask if Claire was always into a lot of sports, and how did she end up in water polo?
Mum Meg:Yes, she was very athletic always from a very young age. I didn't get her out of shorts until she started high school, basically um, and she was very lucky in that the primary school she attended to wasn't, um a particularly competitive school, it was a? Um a non-government school, and um she got exposed to lots and lots of different sports and she played at got to quite a high level in hockey. She played that right through till when she finished high school, alongside competing in water polo, indoor hockey, and played a variety of different sports at school as well, at a good level. But inevitably she had to choose. I would like to say that she inherited her sporting prowess from her father, not from me, although I still am quite active myself.
Sarah Maxwell:And Claire, would you say that you picked the sport, that you because you did a lot of sport and you were good at it did you choose the one you were the best at, you think, or the one you liked the most?
Claire Durston:I definitely think I chose the one that I were the best at, you think, or the one you liked the most. I definitely think I chose the one that I was the best at. Um, dad would be happy to hear, probably, that I like hockey more. Um, I just, I don't know, for some reason it was, the potential for fun was a lot higher. It seemed to be with hockey, but now that I've done more and more water polo, it's sort of definitely the right path, I'd say In terms of a performance perspective. I don't think I would have made it this far if I was doing hockey. So I think I made it.
Sarah Maxwell:Did you have goals like that? Was that why you think you chose the one you were better at? Because you had, whether they were like you wanted to travel with it or you wanted to go to the Olympics. Did you have? Was that a dominating force for you?
Claire Durston:Um, not necessarily. I think I just kept going because I kept on being picked in teams, um, and once I got picked in one team I thought, oh, that was pretty cool, I'll just keep going and see how it goes. And that's sort of what I did for quite a few years. It was only maybe until sort of more recently that the potential of an Olympics kind of came like a bit of a possibility. So then that shifted focus. I always had thought from super young in any sport that it would be super cool to go, but I wouldn't say I'd properly set my heart on it. From, like super, super young, I sort of kept on showing up and see where it would get me. But you did have an.
Mum Meg:Olympics-themed 21st birthday. I did. That was pretty much it Got it. Kept on showing up and see where it would get me, but you did have an Olympics-themed 21st birthday. I did that was pretty much.
Sarah Maxwell:It Got it the birthday of the cake. Thanks for that clarity, meg. Good to know. So you mentioned that COVID helped your career in a way. Is that when you started the National League, and does that league pay money at all?
Claire Durston:So I had been playing in the National League since maybe 2017, I think, with my local Perth team, but it was only once COVID came that I ended up moving states and then therefore club. So that sort of prompted the move states, but I'd been playing a little bit beforehand.
Sarah Maxwell:Okay, yeah. So, meg, I'm curious from a financial standpoint if you can recall when the sport started costing more and what, what strategies you used as a family to you know pay for things. Did you start? Did you have a family meeting about it, or is it just so gradual?
Mum Meg:it just starts happen, it sort of happens um, it was probably more, more organic really, um, but it wasn't a difficult decision to make because I think by the time Claire started getting selected in the teams, such as the state school girls and the national school girls, that started to incur greater costs than just club membership costs, we'd sort of started to realise the potential. And you know, our other child was quite luckily. He had other talents which we supported in equal measure. So it's not like we kind of had to make difficult decisions along the way between one or the other. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and no one had to change jobs, or move or do anything.
Mum Meg:No, no, I mean, I have kept working myself, but that's just sort of more role modelling than anything else. And so I would say, though, that being in a water polo club, for just as it's not a cheap sport because it's not a high participation sport and obviously you've got to have access to facilities and all the rest of it, and once you're in the National League you know the club has to fly you around the countryside, so it's not particularly cheap. But we were kind of quite lucky in that once Claire got, once we did start to realise that Claire had potential. She also got accepted into WAIS, the underpinning, and then the program and the scholarships started coming in, and really it's been a pretty cheap run for us. The last few years she's been self-supporting, which is pretty amazing considering she's lived sort of out of the state for on and off for most of the last four or five years four years.
Sarah Maxwell:So talk to me, meg, then, about the emotional cost of you know COVID hits. Nobody knows what that means and your daughter is out of state, like she's not with you at the time, and she can't come back home. What's the emotional cost? What was that like?
Mum Meg:well, we've sort of uh went through that a couple of times because Claire did actually take off to France in the middle of COVID in 2020, I think it was just after her 21st birthday but she needed a visa. She couldn't get it in Perth, so she had to fly to Sydney to get the visa and if she didn't get the visa she wasn't going to be able to come back home. So we had that, okay, and then we had her flying to France, um, uh, in the middle of COVID, and basically living in France for 10 months in the middle of COVID, and then we had went through the lottery of getting a home again, um in in July 2021, which wasn't easy at that stage, especially as we were from WA. So she got home eventually, but she only lasted about four or five months and then that's. We were still in.
Mum Meg:The borders were still closed in Western Australia, even though they weren't closed in a lot of others. She went to Brisbane to a camp with the Stingers because she'd just been named in the Stinger squad and the plan was she was going to stay over there until her West Australian team flew over to start fixtures at the beginning of the Australian Water Polo League. And then Mark McGowan said he wasn't going to reopen the borders and in 24 hours Claire did just the most amazing pivot of finding somewhere to live, finding a club to play with and getting a job.
Sarah Maxwell:In 24 hours.
Mum Meg:In 24 hours she'd gone from Brisbane to Sydney and we were to play with and getting a job In 24 hours. In 24 hours she'd gone from Brisbane to Sydney and we were. You know, that was it. So it was tough Wow, but it was kind of counterbalanced by the gobsmacking efficiency of it all. And she hasn't really looked back since then and yeah, it's been tough. It's been easier since the borders opened, obviously, but we're quite fortunate in that we can manage to get Bowsin forwards quite a lot.
Sarah Maxwell:Yeah, do you know I love all the mums cry.
Sarah Maxwell:It's so great. You know why? Because it has so many different aspects that are hard, you know, and and I think sometimes we don't talk about them, we just always talk about all the success and, oh, it got better for you when you, because of COVID and and then yet there is a toll. There is, there is. Covid was a toll for everyone in different ways, but I think when it with sport in particular, the uncertainties, I think so it's so weird, because now you reflect back and it's not the same, because when we were in it we didn't know, you didn't actually know what was coming, so everything was very uncertain. So thank you for sharing mom, we appreciate you and it's good for your daughter to see that too. So this, you know how you said, role modeling, good role modeling there.
Sarah Maxwell:So, claire, while she recovers, I want to ask a little bit about the Olympic selection process, if you're okay with that. I feel like I have a lot of compassion for your process, because when I was going for the Olympics, the, I never realized how close to the Olympics the decision date was. I just when I dreamed about the Olympics. I didn't dream about it like that, and so I really struggled with this part. So can you describe? You know 13 players, you know we're three months before the games. What are some of the mental, emotional challenges that come up for you in this process?
Claire Durston:I suppose the biggest thing and it's coming up for our team as well as I'm sure lots of others is wondering whether or not you're going to make it. So that's definitely the biggest thing just waiting for that phone call, wondering, am I making it, am I not, am I a reserve which also holds a lot of different elements. So that's probably the biggest thing that plays into a lot of decisions that you might make. It was really weird. We actually just had our last selection camp just a week or so ago and that was going to be the final thing. That either sort of gets us into the team or potentially not.
Claire Durston:But it was actually a really, really fun camp. All of us sort of I know, I. At the end of it it almost felt like a bit of closure because we all knew that we had done as much as we could to put our best foot forward and from that selection standpoint. But it was actually really fun, which surprised me, I guess. I thought I was going to be really nervous the whole camp, but I wasn't, which was nice.
Sarah Maxwell:And I know it's the process, so you've always been exposed to it. But I will say that it struck me that the selection process is outside of a score. It's not tight like it's a, it's a opinion decision is it like? A board of people that decide like that kind of irked me, but I don't know, does it irk you how you go with it?
Claire Durston:I suppose it is different in terms of like, yeah, there's no qualifying time or there's no distance you have to swim to make it um.
Claire Durston:So it definitely can, I guess, leave yourself with questions as to, maybe, why you might not have made it or why you did that sort of thing um.
Claire Durston:But the coaches have been really good in emphasizing that they're going to choose the best team possible, and so they kind of work that out through watching everybody play together. We'll do match simulations often and they really mix up the teams with those sort of games to see how different combinations work. And if we're doing a slightly more official training match, the selection panel will often come down to watch. So in our selection panel we've got our head coach, who's there all the time, and then we've got two independent selectors um, who aren't always at training sessions, but they'll come down to those um bigger training matches um as well, as if there's any um matches where a team's coming from overseas playing against us. So that's how they end up selecting and they'll have, I can imagine, many, many meetings trying to figure out what combinations work the best um, so that they can eventually whittle it down to the final 13 you seem in a pretty good mental state actually around it, and did you?
Sarah Maxwell:I don't know if you, during the world cup, the Matildas said this video of them receiving the phone call. They get told whether they make it or not. And is it like that? Is it a phone? Do they tell you the process, like are you going to get an email, or yeah?
Claire Durston:So in our final camp they sort of broke down what the notification day is going to look like. So we'll each get allotted a time window where your phone call could come um or does no matter what. Uh well, if you miss the phone, then it'll. It'll come a bit later in the day, um. So either if you're in or you're out, you'll still get that phone call um. And they just have put together a list and chunked it into like a half hour time slot where your your call will come um. So yeah, they kind of walked it through with us and then we've got an email just confirming all the details and it says, like, if you miss the call, don't call back, we'll call you later in the day, that sort of thing, um, just to make sure you don't go into anyone else's phone call or anything like that.
Sarah Maxwell:I think that's improved. I think it's good to hear that. I would say that sounds much more organized, much more conscious of humans on the other side of the line and on that mom? How do do you, when you're hearing all this, how do you help your child emotionally when they they live far away? Is that difficult?
Mum Meg:um, I think we're very lucky these days with things like, you know, facetime and all the rest of it. Um, I think our, our approach is frequent and light, rather than you know, just you know, I mean. But we also do have a regular family hookup every weekend as best we can, and we started that when Claire was in France and we've continued it.
Sarah Maxwell:I do.
Mum Meg:Yeah, uh, so that's it's. It's kind of a nice bit of ad hoc and just try to be involved I guess people, how many people come on that family? One just four okay, we'll have visitors or family visiting and, yeah, we'll get their faces in there as well, which is really good fun, um yeah, I think that's more important than we realize.
Sarah Maxwell:You know, because I remember, you know, through some of the challenges you you can feel quite isolated. You know because it's really good to know you have people, your people are there, and even the lightness of it, because in your world it's not, like you know, everything's so dramatic, um, and so it's really cool that you have that, you know, kind of a consistent thing that you guys do it's definitely become part of the routine that I know on Sunday afternoon or Saturday depends on when people are free we'll do the group call with mum, dad and my brother and then we do the quiz in the newspaper.
Claire Durston:I love that Kind. I update each other on what our week's been like and it yeah, it's become part of the routine. So it's like put it in the diary I've got a call, that we've got the call happening, so it's good fun.
Sarah Maxwell:If other athletes are listening, this is a good one. This is a winning formula. I think so and that's.
Sarah Maxwell:that's what these are about is like really sharing with people what the life that you lead is like, and I know a lot of athletes and their parents listen to other people and really become inspired and just don't feel as alone in the journey. So this is good little tidbits that they can get along the way. Claire, I'm curious about the green and gold scholarship money. So when you received it, did it go to something specific or did it sort of go into a pot to help your overall career? What did you use it for?
Claire Durston:Mine definitely was more towards a pot the thing. My biggest expense is rent, so it helped out an incredible amount from that. I remember when I I was in my room in Sydney when I got the notification saying I was successful, um, and I started jumping up and down. I was so excited because I knew that it just meant I wasn't going to have to have a massive pressure on me to work as frequently. So I'd been working in retail pretty much from when I had arrived in Sydney.
Claire Durston:But it was quite hard to schedule just in terms of how you do the availability and that sort of thing. So it wasn't really working out very well and then training times would always end up sort of things. It wasn't really working out very well and then training times would always end up sort of clashing with when the shifts were available. And so, knowing that I had this sort of just extra bit in the bank, I was like, okay, I can actually schedule work properly and when it's going to be most effective for me to be able to do it without having to sort of run myself into the ground being stressed about needing to get more shifts. So yeah, from that perspective, just being able to get that balance, huge benefit.
Sarah Maxwell:Isn't it? It's so funny how you can't pay your rent with a physio session. Funny how you can't pay your rent with a physio session yes, exactly yeah services are super full and important.
Sarah Maxwell:So, yeah, isn't it nice you get some cold hard cash? Yes, I wasn't going to do this, but I kind of just feel that I want mom to have the last question, because you you said something about. It really struck me when you said you know you keep working so that you can show your daughter what's possible. But I'm kind of curious what have you learned from her in this, in what she's doing? What has she, kind of me, like, shown you? Like, what have you learned about her in this career that she's sporting career?
Mum Meg:um, commitment, um, it's not that I haven't learned anything, but it's difficult to articulate. You've got time, I think, just seeing what determination and commitment can do, and it's not just all about talent, although obviously that helps, and I have been amazed at the degree of support that is given by various organisations to elite athletes on a lot of levels, and I've been learnt that sometimes, even if you're really really good at something, you can just sometimes need to, you still need to ask for help, and I've sometimes had to remind Claire of that. But she's really become really, really good at, I don't know, taking on advice, I think. Just. I suppose her personal growth I mean the fact that she's managed to develop personally as well as an athlete has just been been amazing, and to be able to do all that instead of just focusing solely on the sporting aspect of it, yeah, um, has been really sorry I'm not doing a very good job here, but you are.
Mum Meg:It's great, it's exactly right. I would say. Yeah, I think she's had really good help for her to see that it's not enough just to turn up for training um, and she's developed personally for herself. But I think she's just turned into a really really good person, um. Yeah, I think, and I think we've seen that by some of the awards she's got this season and and across the board and so you can be a really good athlete and still be a really good person. I think that's what I've learned love that.
Sarah Maxwell:So she doesn't just look like Keira Knightley for those who actually a really good person as well. Well, I love what you said. Like what I heard there was how sport often we assume it's like a physical endeavor, but it's ultimately like a trans. It just transforms who you are as a person and that Claire has just really shifted. You know, like meaning, like a lot of adults struggle to ask for help and here you are at 25 and and you're learning that and you're doing it and it's working for you. And even just hearing how level-headed you are about the decision process, like the selection stuff, again, like I'll tell you that helps you later in life, like learning how to cope with the unknown, like that is is really you don't face that a lot.
Sarah Maxwell:It's quite an interesting, unique prospect. So thank you so much you two for what you've shared. Um, I love the emotion because that's that's real. You can do your light calls, you know to each other, but we like the depth, mom. So thank you, um. And I know that you know scheduling time zones. It was a thing. So I really appreciate at this time getting to hear from you. It's really unique, three months out of the olympics and we'll all be thinking of you and your family. As you know, this really unique time in your life comes and, yeah, we look forward to hearing more about you.
Claire Durston:Thank you so much for having us appreciate it.
Nat Cook:You're welcome thank you for joining us on another episode of the price you pay podcast. We hope we have inspired you with this insider's look of the challenges faced by aspiring athletes, the highs and lows of playing sport at such an elite level, and what's possible when you are so devoted to your craft mission at Aussie Athlete Fund to create a sustainable funding model to support our athletes for both their financial well-being and the education of their own athlete economy. To be part of the journey, please visit our website at aussieathletefundcom and choose how you would like to be involved, Whether it's a corporate partnership, teaming up with an athlete in the Million Dollar Challenge, or even hosting your own event to raise funds, or maybe even a game of golf. Choose your own adventure.
Nat Cook:If you know someone who would benefit from listening to this episode or this show, please send it to them now and before you go. Pressing the follow button on our show makes a massive difference. Rating us for Season 2 means more people get to hear these stories, which helps us have a much wider impact. Join us next time for more captivating stories of triumph and resilience. On the next episode of season two of the Price you Pay.
