Lexie Feeney Proving You're Never too Old for the Dream

A teenage Olympian, a decade-long detour, and a national record on the way back. We’re joined by Sydney-born recurve archer Lexi Feeney, who competed at the Beijing Olympics at 19, stepped away with chronic injury, and now returns with her sights locked on LA 2028 and Brisbane 2032. Alongside Lexi, we also hear from her dad Peter, her first coach and longest-running supporter, for a rare look at what it takes behind the curtain to build an Olympic athlete in Australia.

We talk through the unglamorous reality of high performance training while working full-time: pre-5am sessions, long days at a desk, second workouts, and the discipline it takes to train six days a week without burning out. Lexi shares how her relationship with sport has matured, why archery supports her mental health through community and connection, and how intentional goal setting and periodised training help her stay motivated, even when she’s training alone.

Then we get specific about the money. Equipment, tournament fees, domestic travel, international tours, paying to represent your country, mindset coaching, strength coaching, and the biggest hidden cost: lost wages when time away from work is unpaid. Lexi explains how the Aussie Athlete Fund helps with both financial support and the skill of asking, shifting her mindset from “What can I afford?” to “What do I need to give myself the best chance?” If you care about athlete funding, Olympic pathways, and what it truly costs to chase green and gold, this conversation is for you.

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Transcript

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Season Welcome And Mission

Host Nat Cook 0:04

Welcome to season four of the Price You Pay podcast, hosted by me, Nat Cook, five-time Olympian and gold medalist, alongside our star interviewer Sarah from Chatterbox Media. Through conversations with Aussie Athlete Fund recipients, we uncover what it truly takes to reach the highest echelons of sport in this country. We invite family and key members of the Athletes' journey to round out the discussion, revealing hurdles like travelling up to 700 kilometres a week just for training as rural athletes, or the cost of international travel for a parent chaperone to accompany their child to a major competition. These families are committed to do whatever it takes to support their kids from the grassroots to the green and gold jersey. Come along for the ride and listen in to what dreams are truly made of. And now over to our master conversationalist, Sarah. Woo!

Meet Lexi Feeney And Dad Peter

Conversationalist Sarah 1:13

What a story we have to share with you all today. Sydney-born Lexi Feeney is a 37-year-old archery athlete who first picked up a bow at age 11, competed in the Beijing Olympics at only age 19, and then stepped away from the sport with chronic injury in 2013. And here she is, two decades later, with her sights firmly set on LA 2028. It was Archer Simon Fairweather's historic gold medal performance in Sydney 2000 that really captured Lexi's heart, and that Olympic dream continues to burn bright. In 2024, Lexi set a new national record for recurve women in Australia with 668 points over 72 arrows, bettering the previous record by three. She is clearly on track to create more magic over the next two years. Lexi has also remained entrenched in the archery community through her role as chair of the Archery Australia Athletes Committee while coaching and competing in national and international events. She then manages and directs her own career whilst working full-time for Queensland Transport and Mains Road. Are there even enough hours in the day for all that? Welcome Dad Peter to the conversation too, as he serves as Lexi's early coach and biggest supporter. So welcome you too. Thank you very much for giving your time in two different cities today. So thank you. Thanks, Sarah. It's great to be here. Family reunion. But Dad, are you okay if Lexi gets the first question?

Dad Peter 2:44

Absolutely.

Conversationalist Sarah 2:45

Beautiful. I can see that you're a beautiful man already. So I hear, Lexi, that you like to keep busy.

A Week Of Work And Training

Conversationalist Sarah 2:51

So give us a little glimpse of what a day or even a week in your life currently looks like.

Lexie Feeney 2:57

Yes, I love being busy, and I think that it is a common trait among athletes having to balance life of sport as well as everything else that they do. So, like you said, I work full-time for the government. So I fit my training around my work. So I'm up quite early in the morning, sometimes before 5 a.m. to go to the gym or shoot before work. So those sessions will be between, so if I'm in the gym, it's about an hour to an hour and a half. Shootings two to two and a half hours. I'll go straight to the office or come home to work if I get to work from home, do a full day of work. So that's seven to eight hours on the computer. Uh, and then head straight to a second session, either shooting or gym or uh Pilates as well. So I'll be getting home about 7 p.m. I'm about a 14-hour day with uh just from one thing straight to the next, straight to the next. I get I train six days a week. So that's pretty much what my week looks like on weekends. I have longer sessions, or if we have local competitions, I'll be traveling to different parts of the state to compete.

Conversationalist Sarah 4:08

Do you get tired?

Lexie Feeney 4:09

Yes.

Conversationalist Sarah 4:11

How is your sleep, Lexi? Let's tell me about your sleep patterns. Are you a good sleeper? How do you go?

Lexie Feeney 4:17

I'm an incredible sleeper. I think I spent a number of years at the Australian Institute of Sport. And before that, um, my dad will tell you we traveled a lot interstate in Sydney, and I was the best sleeper. Two minutes into a car journey, I'd be on uh navigation with the old street directory, and he'd look over and I'd be fast asleep.

Conversationalist Sarah 4:37

Oh my god, such a good skill. Like, and on airplanes, I imagine are you really good? Yeah, I mean, yeah, this is a superpower. So amidst that crazy amazing schedule, the fact that you can sleep well is amazing.

Lexie Feeney 4:52

Yeah. Well, I'm often so tired by the end of the night that it's it's I'm gonna sleep well no matter where I am.

Conversationalist Sarah 5:00

You could be a sleep therapist, you just tell people to work harder and then they'll just fall right asleep, surely.

Falling In Love With Archery

Conversationalist Sarah 5:07

So the story goes that you discovered Archer with your dad on a trip to Fiji. And and with that, I'm so curious as a kid, can you remember what had you fall in love with the sport so much?

Lexie Feeney 5:20

I don't know what it was. I so we went to Fiji, family holiday. My dad wasn't super into water sports and found Archery. And my mum sent me to go and get him for lunch. And I went over and they said, Do you want to have a go? And I was like, Yeah, okay. And mum comes over about an hour later going, I thought you were lost. Where did you go? You missed lunch. Wow, and I just from the moment I picked up a boat, it just connected. I just had so much fun. I find it challenging and rewarding, and it's just so I it just fills my cup even now with such a busy schedule. I can have you know a terrible day at work with deadlines and meetings, and feel like I just have no space and I can not really want to go to training. But by the time I'm there and have warmed up, I just feel like my batteries are recharged and it's it makes it a lot easier to be able to train when it's like that, when it really is the thing that I enjoy the most.

Conversationalist Sarah 6:25

And Dad, did you like clearly you loved it too from the beginning? Did you have the same kind of feelings about archery right from the beginning for yourself?

Dad Peter 6:34

Yes. Um during the holiday, I was actually looking for something to do, as Lexi said. I don't do a lot of water sports, and there was a golf course, and I sort of wandered off and said, I'll be back soon. Um, and I intend to play golf probably about three to six holes. And on the way, I discovered this archery. Um it was being run by a couple of people who were the Oceana champions at the time, uh, Richard and Shandy Cook. And um, they had it all set up, and I sort of stood there and watched for about half an hour, and then they said, Oh, do you want to have a go? And yeah, it was just like, yeah, uh it was just something that clicked with me. Yeah, um, I sort of done other sports, I'd done athletics and I'd done badminton, but this just sort of clicked, and I yeah, just fell in love with it.

Conversationalist Sarah 7:27

Love that. It's really interesting. My daughter just um went to grade five camp and they introduce archery there as one of the activities, and it had me thinking about how little exposures you get, and what and maybe that'll be the moment for some of the kids, you know, that will be their first time, and maybe it'll be like you and Lexi, you'll fall in love.

Dad Peter 7:46

Yeah, yeah. You find that people either love the sport or go, it's not for me.

Holding Olympic Gold And Getting Obsessed

Conversationalist Sarah 7:53

Yeah, no, exactly. So from there, your daughter is allowed to join a proper club at 11. Apparently, she was chomping at the bed, and then the 2000 Olympics rolls around, sort of hometown for you guys, and then Lexi witnesses Simon Fairweather win a gold medal for Australia. I mean, you saw it too, but what did you notice that got sparked in her? And how did that translate into her training?

Dad Peter 8:19

Okay, um, well, we actually had an opportunity to meet Simon Fairweather. Wow. Um, the club that we were at, Blacktown Archers, they organized Simon to come out, and we had a lot of juniors in the state, um, youth archers, come up for the day. Um, and Lexi got to hold the uh gold medal from the Olympics as well, and that seemed to be the catalyst to go, well, I've touched it, I want one.

Lexie Feeney 8:49

Oh my god.

Dad Peter 8:50

Let's go.

Lexie Feeney 8:51

You know what's so funny? That is so powerful. Yeah, tell us my memory of that day is that I was the only person there. Simon was there to see me. I don't I don't remember that it was a hobby thing. Okay, don't you love 11-year-olds?

Dad Peter 9:04

Yes, yeah, yes, totally like clearly he's here for me. Yeah, and from that time forward, um, she started to train, and she got to the point of when we're at home, I'd be getting up for work in the morning, and she'd be getting up to shoot arrows in the garage, into the garage because we set up a target. Um, and she but she'd be up at 6 a.m. in the morning shooting arrows before she went to school. Um she'd come home in the evening, do her homework, and she'd shoot arrows again. So it was like this thing that just clicked in her to say, I want to do that.

Conversationalist Sarah 9:47

Okay, you have me thinking about something. Did she have other traits like that kind of focus and a bit of obsession in any other areas, or was it only archery?

Dad Peter 9:57

No, she was a very sporting uh child. She actually started doing t-ball and um softball, and she uh was identified as someone who was a potential for um like the state team for for softball. Um and um it was just that she was doing archery at the same time, and softball was on the same time, and it was like a choice that she had to make. Um and um she injured her arm throwing a ball from like second base to home with at 11 years old, and it was like wow, she's just but she ended up slipping a uh growth plate in her arm, so she couldn't do anything. So then it was a decision. Well, what do you want to do? Do you want to stay with softball or do you want to go with archery?

Conversationalist Sarah 10:51

Oh that's that a funny moment when you see these choices that get made at these critical times. Yeah, interesting.

Dad Peter 10:59

So uh she had to make the choice and she chose archery.

Conversationalist Sarah 11:02

Wow, good memory, dad. Yeah, well done.

Injury Time Away And The Return

Conversationalist Sarah 11:07

So, Lexi, that Olympic dream clearly was sparked a long time ago. So, like 11 and now 37, or you know, in that age. So you live you've lived a lot of experiences since that initial sparking. Where does that dream live in you today? Like, has it morphed and changed over the years? Can you even describe some of that?

Lexie Feeney 11:29

Yeah, so I think when I was 11, it was a dream. I it really was something that was so far out of the realm of you know, not just not a goal. It wasn't like, oh, I want to make the state rep team, I'm going to the Olympics. Um, and I think over time it it's morphed into so there was a long period where I wasn't competing and then I wasn't shooting at all. So there was a little bit of time where I was involved in archery, but not at the highest level. I shot a different kind of bow, like so a different division for a couple of years, and then wasn't involved at all. And during that time, it was still sort of this undercurrent of I could I could be doing more, like I'm not reaching my potential. And every time the Olympics rolled around, having been part of the Australian Institute of Sport team for three years and on scholarship, the kids that I went through that program with were the ones representing at subsequent games to myself. So London, Rio, Tokyo. So it wasn't just watching someone I don't know on TV. I was like, that's someone I went to school with, that's someone I trained with every day. We ate lunch every day together. I know them really well. And so not only was it this connection to the Olympics, it was a connection to the people competing. And so every four years it'd roll around and I just go, I want to be there. But I was in a period of my life where I couldn't afford to train and travel. I worked on weekends because I worked in retail and I was at university, and so I tried in 2013. I tried to come back for a world championships and I tried to balance all of that, earning I don't know, like what would like pretty close to minimum wage and living out of home. I was down in Canberra and I missed the team. I finished fourth in top three go. And it was a bit of a wake-up call then to me for I can't do everything and there's no money in sport. We were always told when we were younger there's no money, have another plan. What's your plan? What are you gonna do? What are you gonna study? How are you gonna work? You know, what's your life after sport, even as we were doing it, you know, revving up for the Olympic Games. And so I was like, oh, well, I've got to find, I've got to find my thing. I've got to find what I'm doing in in life. And so I prioritized university and getting a job. And but that fire was always there. I I always felt like I had unfinished business. I was injured in the year leading up to Beijing. I really didn't have a great lead into it, and so I feel like I left a lot of potential. It was a fantastic experience in Olympic Games, but I it felt like there was unfinished business for me. So I had a really big period away. About four years, didn't touch a bow. During that time, I started working for the government. I had some amazing experiences in my work life. And I connected again with community sports, playing different sports. I played Ultimate Frisbee, I played field hockey. I wasn't particularly good at any of them, but I loved them and it it gave me that sense of connection that and community that I was missing. I injured myself at the end of 2021. Um, and through that period, I I recognized that sport was really important to my mental health as well. I think being not just physical and being able to move my body, but being connected to people and communities was really important for that mental health aspect. So I need to do this, not just, you know, for keeping my body active, but to keep myself well and healthy and functioning adult. I I need to have a sport. And I spent archery, like it's the time. It felt right to come back, coming back from day one. I I knew that I wasn't going to just do the community level, shoot a little bit here and there. I wanted to do it right. I wanted to go to the Olympics again. It just felt so clear and compared to that 11-year-old with this big, vague dream up in the clouds. This was an intentional, this is what I want to do. I know that I can do it. And I know that I have the ability and the skills and the knowledge and the experience to be able to plan this in a way that is able to be sustained within my own life. So that was the beginning of 2022, March 2022. And one of my friends from the Institute of Sport is one of the head coaches for Archery Australia in the Paris space. And he messaged me after the very first competition I shot. He's like, Are you going for Paris? And I was like, Paris is too close. I could put my entire life on hold and train and just have nothing in my life but archery, and I could make, I could probably make the Paris Olympics. But I was like, I don't want to do that because I'll get to that point after Paris, whether I make it or not, and I'll be burnt out. And I won't want to keep going. So I was like, no, I'm gonna build this, I'm gonna build a system, I'm going to connect with my community again, I'm going to get back to my roots about what I loved about the sport so much, and I'm going to go to two Olympics. I want to go to LA.

Speaker 4 17:15

Yeah.

Lexie Feeney 17:16

I'm well on the way, and I want to shoot in Brisbane.

Conversationalist Sarah 17:19

Oh, you know what's so cool, Lexi, hearing you summarize the trajectory of your life like that is you really get a sense of when you're young, like the dream and some of the ignorance, some of the bliss of the ignorance, but then lived experience comes in, and then how you take that thing, and like even when you describe like 2022, I'm doing this, this is a plan, like even your capacity to understand mental health and community and why that matters, like all the things that as kids, I mean, it has me wanting to ask Dad this question a little bit too, because I'm wondering if, in some ways, the parent and the coach serve as the planners, like they're doing all the things you're now doing for yourself. But dad, can you remember this time for Lexi when you know we're talking about pre-Beijing, right? So she's now got this these seven years where she's training for her first Olympics. What are your memories of her trajectory during that time?

AIS Pathway And Early International Trips

Dad Peter 18:28

Okay. Um part of her training was uh there was a program in Australia called the High Performance Program. Um and the idea of the High Performance Program was to identify people who had potential um and were um going to be the high performance athletes in Beijing 2008. So this was very early on, and um they used to do assessments of P of the athletes, um, and sometimes they gave them a six-month scholarship. Uh Lexi was fortunate enough through the high performance program to actually get a six-month AIS scholarship. Uh, which basically meant that at the age of 16 she moved out of home and lived full-time at the AIS and was totally immersed in AIS archery. And she would she did her high school years for year 10, um, right the way through year 12, and then started university while she was still in that program. So with that program, they um with the AIS program, they go overseas and shoot internationally. Um, the AIS sometimes actually took a team to an event. Uh, one of the events that she did go to was um the European Grand Prix. And I got a this was the the days before you had all of the internet and all that sort of stuff that you know results came flowing through immediately. It we had delayed results, and I got a call at about 2 a.m. in the morning from the uh manager of the team saying, Lexi's in the gold medal match for the European Country.

Host Nat Cook 20:20

Gosh.

Dad Peter 20:22

So yeah, that was really exciting, and and trying to get results and and see what's happening was very difficult. Um so yeah.

Family Sacrifice And Funding Reality

Conversationalist Sarah 20:35

And like over that time, Dad, with the financial, so when she was in that six-month AIS full-time, I imagine she was supported, and but before that, Lexi kind of spoke into this a little bit about some of the challenges, like trying to balance having enough money to train and all this kind of stuff. What was going on when she lived at home and and trying to fund her dream?

Dad Peter 21:01

Uh, I suppose most parents uh tend to put it aside if you've got a high performance athlete or a potential at um athlete that's gonna go on to do bigger things, you actually start saving some money on the side. And I was putting money aside because we were going to lots of competitions. We were we shot every national event that we could. Um we uh at that stage um most of the indoors were held in Adelaide, so every year we'd be flying down to Adelaide, staying down in Adelaide for the weekend, um, and then coming home. Uh and that all costs money, and it's like you have to plan that um into your budget. So yeah, it was challenging at the time, yeah. Um, because uh these days, yeah, it's it's easier to do.

Conversationalist Sarah 21:56

Well, well, yes and no, and I I think The AIS program is no longer so archery, is that right, Lexi? Archery is no longer in the AIS. No, it's back. Oh, it's back. Yeah, it's back.

Dad Peter 22:09

In the beginning of this year.

Lexie Feeney 22:10

Oh, that's exciting. Yeah. I want to add to this question though. Please. So I think my dad is being very modest in that answer because in the years. So I started shooting in 2000. I went to the AIS halfway through 2005. And in those years, I am incredibly, incredibly lucky to have the support system. Maybe by chance, the club that we went to had athletic archers who competed for Australia. So I had role models. But my dad went above and beyond. Like, I would not be in the position that I am. I I would not have gone to the AIS. I would not have gone to the Olympics if it weren't for what he did. So he became a coach. He became my coach so that I could have the best coach. He met the head coach of Australia, Key Sickley, who's one of the great all-time greatest archery coaches in the world. And he spoke to him about me, got us down to the AIS. We went down. I remember going down for one day in I think 2002. So it would have been 12 or 13. And we went down and trained. So got up at five o'clock in the morning, drove down. Dad had the day off work to meet Kesick and to train with him. And then we got invited back again. And then I got invited back again. And so those kind of things just not everybody got, not everybody's parents got involved like my dad did. And you know, the rest of my family as well. You know, my mum was then at home every weekend with my sisters, and we I don't remember going on very many more family holidays after going to Fiji because we were always going to, you know, archery events. Um, so yeah, and I got a school.

Conversationalist Sarah 24:01

Because like you're saying about the Fiji trips stopped. Isn't that ironic? Fiji started it and then that was the end. And and like you're saying, for your sisters, there's impacts everywhere, isn't there? And yeah, and it it's nice that see, humble dad. See, this is another reason why we like to bring everybody together because we can acknowledge some of the things that maybe we took for granted at the time or we didn't maybe you didn't even know it was abnormal. You don't realize, oh, not everyone's dad's doing that. Um, and it's pretty special. And on that, Dad, can you because you've sort of been there all the way along, even as her supporter, even when you weren't the coach, what would have you noticed in Lexi? Like, what has changed in her comeback since let's say 2022? What have you noticed from having been there the whole time, watching this entire journey so far?

Dad Peter 24:54

Well, Lexi's um become a very independent, strong woman. So uh being very proud of her. Um, I suppose she has more determination now. I think she understands that the Olympic dream isn't just a dream, it's a lot of hard work. Um, the first time round, yes, she worked hard, she really did. Um, but she was in an environment that sort of fed that quite well with the AAS, and being outside of the AAS now, she still has that same drive to actually get to LA 28. And further on, Brisbane 32, yeah, which would be fantastic being on home turf.

Conversationalist Sarah 25:47

Um you can do a Simon farewell, you can do the Simon, you know, get your own, get some home turf on there.

Dad Peter 25:53

That'd be like as she said, she has uh her own coach up in Queensland now. Um like she was living down here for about 80 months and training alone, which is really challenging. Yeah, and she still was able to um rank first in Australia uh for a number of different events. Um, so moving to Queensland is is only going to benefit her in that she's got a coach that she can um work with every day and every week so that she's there. And basically, my supporters are more of the back seat now of um making sure that she's okay.

Lexie Feeney 26:35

Um and uh I consult with my dad on stuff semi-regularly. I'll be like, this is what I'm thinking, or like I've been doing this, or what do you think of that? So he's yeah, more of a consultant this time around.

Conversationalist Sarah 26:51

I love that. It's a beautiful relationship, and I like that we get to highlight

Solo Training Goal Setting And Intent

Conversationalist Sarah 26:55

it. And you dad, you got me thinking I wanted to ask you, Lexi, about solo because he brought that up. That's actually quite interesting and unique. What do you think um is required to be on your own chasing this dream? Yes, your coach is there, but really motivation-wise, it's you. Like, what do you think needs to be within you to be able to sustain motivation and and being like focused the way you are?

Lexie Feeney 27:24

Being able to see how individual sessions achieve the goals. So I do, I've read a lot about different goal setting strategies and things like that, periodizing training, setting up my own training programs. And so I really am in that regard doing a dual role. Like I'm the athlete, but I'm also the team manager or doing that that aspect of the coaching for myself. So I think knowing how every session is building towards the immediate goal and how that immediate goal is moving towards the ultimate goal of the Olympics helps. Like I said earlier, I love shooting. I think even if I wasn't going for the Olympics, you know, if the IOC turned around tomorrow and was like, Archery's not in the Olympics anymore, I would still shoot, I'd still shoot regularly because it really is just something that I love. It is hard to train by myself and moving to Queensland. I've moved to a club that has some other high performance athletes. So Ryan Tayek is up here, he's on our Australian team. Um, and so being able to train regularly with him and the others in the club is easier. And also, it's hard to shoot competition formats by yourself when in archery. Nobody to compete with. Yeah, that's right. You have no one to compete with. It's a a sport where you shoot head to head. So sort of like a you know, a tennis match where you you have one opponent at a time, and if you win, you go through to the next round. And so doing that by yourself can get a little bit repetitive.

Conversationalist Sarah 29:10

That's a good point, because the the mindset stuff and pressure and yeah, that's great.

Lexie Feeney 29:16

Yeah, yeah. So uh making sure that I have in intent in all of my sessions as well. So I'm not, I don't just go out there and and you know, shoot arrows towards a target. I'm going out there and in a session I might be doing competition drills, or I might be doing strength-focused things, or I might be focusing on a particular point of my technique or something like that. So having an intent for each of those sessions. I also just I'm I'm one of those people who just loves a list. I love to tick things off.

Conversationalist Sarah 29:48

I was just gonna say, like you, it's beautiful to hear your um process and how systemized you are. It's also maturity, I think, but it's it's really cool to hear. Yeah, like you're literally your own coach within yourself, you know, the things you set up, and and that obviously suits like these two things go together and lead to success. And when so we're talking about like the the actual shooting of the arrows and the dynamics.

Paying To Compete And Learning To Ask

Conversationalist Sarah 30:19

Talk to me a little bit more about funding the dream all the way to 28 and 32, and how has the Aussie Athlete fund helped you so far?

Lexie Feeney 30:29

So coming back into the sport, one of the things that held me back in previous years was I know that there's a lot of money that goes into not just international tournaments, but into getting there. So equipment is expensive, entering tournaments is expensive, traveling to nationals is expensive. And then you finally get onto a team and you have the privilege of paying to represent your country. So I, when I came back, I was in a position where I was like, I can fund some of this myself. But it was really restrictive. I had to pick and choose what I was doing. Uh, it was always very, I was always very conscious about how much money can I save? How much am I spending? Do I have enough money for this? And as we get closer to the Olympics and as I get more competitive and as I reach to become more competitive internationally, those expenses just go up because I want a strength coach that's going to be really specific for archery. So I have to pay for that. I need to work with a mindset coach to give me the edge on the competition field in the day, because being a skill sport, you can practice that skill perfectly with no pressure. It's about being able to perform under pressure. That costs money. Um, I work for the government, but I'm not I'm a contract worker, which means if I don't go to the office, I don't get paid. And so that's probably the biggest expenses, loss in wages at the moment, really expensive. And so uh becoming part of the Aussie Athlete Funds, this is my second year. I was in the fund last year in 2025, and learning about how to ask people for their support was really eye-opening because I was flawed at how many of my own network wanted to put money behind me, to be honest. Um, it might have been $25, it might have been $100, it might have been more. Um, so being able that sort of started the ball rolling and it shifted my mindset into not what can I afford to do, but what do I need to do to give myself the best chance, to give myself the best preparation? And then I would work backwards and go, how am I gonna make this happen? I need to have four extra weeks off work this year. How am I going to support that? How am I gonna go and ask businesses, ask, you know, like get discounts off things, get last year in the lead up to world championships, my training loan was a lot higher. And so being aware of injury and being older, one of the key things in all of my preparations is that I do not want to have to spend any time off injured. So that comes down to building a strength training and recovery, but also preemptive physiotherapy. And I was able to get physio free for sort of the four weeks leading into the world championships just because of those techniques and that support and that network that Nat is building at the Aussie Athlete Fund, I felt comfortable enough to want it and to ask for it.

Conversationalist Sarah 33:34

You you bring up it's like a different kind of university, you know. You went to university for that, but we don't really have education around fundraising. And when you shared that idea that people once you just hadn't asked and people wanted to support, I think that's a real eye-opener for an athlete to realize that the support is right next to you, but yet we're not educated or we have too many fears or whatever it is around the ask. And so I'm glad you're you're sharing that because I think a lot of people can relate to not asking.

Lexie Feeney 34:12

I think there's a lot of stigma around it as well that it's like, oh, other people have these costs, other people are going to these tournaments, and people aren't supporting me to go to a tournament. They're not supporting, like, they're not like, oh, I'm gonna pay for Lexi's fuel bill this month. They're paying for the dream, like they're supporting the dream. Correct, Lexi. They're they're looking at what you know, what my ultimate goal is, which is LA, Rose Band, like you said, being able to stand on the Olympic podium with a gold medal around my neck in my home city in six years' time. And that is what they are supporting because not everyone has dreams like like this. Um, her my mom, my mum said to me a little while ago, I was preparing to do a presentation to school kids, and I said, you know, I just always knew I'd I'd go to the Olympics. And she said to me, I didn't think you'd go to the Olympics. I don't know, what do you mean? And she said, we were just normal people. Normal people don't go to the Olympics. Wow. And I was like, oh I grew up a hundred percent believing that everybody in my life knew I was going to the Olympics when I was 11 years old. And so, but I I think that that like when you're so ingrained in sport and you have kids who grow up who are good at what they're doing and who have these dreams, you can sometimes forget that that doesn't always exist in everybody's world. And to for them to be able to be part of it and to be part of your journey and can connect with your story. I think we forget that that's not everyone's everyday. Exactly.

Conversationalist Sarah 35:53

And also the joy of people coming along, the journey, when maybe their everyday is more mundane. The to live inside your story with you and be part of it, be a supporter. Um, it's really powerful. Like, I don't know if you ever watched that show Wrexham, where the the famous actors support this football team that was ranked last and blah, blah, blah. But it's it's actually an amazing show about it's a documentary, basically. But but what I learned from watching that was about the supporters. There's a like they do an amazing job at highlighting the life of the supporter and what it means in their life to support this team, and not just, we always assume it's only when they're winning. Heck you. Like they are on the ride, like the lows and the highs, and they're they're like there with them. And I, when you're the player out on the field or you're the the comp, you know, you're the athlete, you'd often don't have that experience. So then to ask them, we wouldn't even think of it because we're not that, you know, and so so it is an amazing education to to be able to share that and see what it's done in your life.

LA 2028 Brisbane 2032 And Legacy

Conversationalist Sarah 37:12

And so, with all of that, because I see the structure and the systems that you have the capacity for, and I know like you're on track for 2028, and we slightly mentioned 2032, but is tell me how you do that when you have like, let's say, two visions. So basically, you held the gold medal, you held Simon's gold medal, and dad saw, okay, it's on. What are you visioning these days? Like, what's your kind of like you go to bed? Well, I know you sleep really well, so maybe you don't have any dreams, but what are you visioning for 2028 and are you visioning for 2032? Yeah.

Lexie Feeney 37:52

So visioning for LA 2028. I mean, the ultimate goal is always a medal, always standing on the podium. I just there's so much pride and I don't know, something within me that even just thinking about it, you know, is very emotional. I know. Um but I think I think for Brisbane, it would just be incredible. I know how much of an impact the Sydney Olympics had on me. I know how much of a legacy it has left in Sydney, and to be able to be part of that for Brisbane 2032 would be incredible to have that legacy and to have hometown support, I think, to be able to be a role model for other 11-year-old archers who are just starting to be able to be like, wow, I want to be like her. So I really do want to be that role model. Um that's so beautiful. Yeah, and I just I love statistics as well. So um if tell us, tell us about the statistics. Um, so if I am successful in going to LA and to Brisbane, I'll be only the second female archer for Australia to represent at three games, and I will also be the oldest Australian to represent. Assuming no one older than me is gonna come through and and pit me at the post. But I think that would be really cool because it's it's a sport that you don't need to be young. You don't need to, it doesn't have to be the first time you've shot, you don't have to have shot for years and years and years. I think it's just so powerful a message that if you can dream it, you can do it. I have a lot behind me in terms of you know my my first experience at AIS, and I have so much of that knowledge, but I genuinely believe that anyone could achieve their dreams that you just need to really tune in and get to work.

Conversationalist Sarah 40:08

That is so exciting. I love it. I love I love your goals, but I have to say I love your who you're being through the whole process. I can see dad being so proud. I mean, obviously, who you are lives in her, dad. Um, it's just awesome. And I remember watching Taylor in 2012, and there is just something about somebody rising to the occasion, their occasion, and that's you. So thank you very much for sharing. Um, I totally relate to the emotion. It speaks to all of us in different ways, whether it's what's possible in my pickleball, because I've seen you, or whether it's your own Olympic dream, or whether it's something at work or um things with your kids, it's like rising to your own occasion speaks to us all. So thank you. Thanks, Sarah.

How To Support Aussie Athletes

Host Nat Cook 41:04

And that's a wrap on another episode of the Price You Pay podcast. We hope these stories move you to want to be part of these athletes' journeys. It is our mission at the Aussie Athlete Fund to create a sustainable funding model to support our athletes for both their financial well-being and the education to stimulate their own localized economy. To get involved, please visit our website at www.aussieathletfund.com and choose your impact. Whether that's as a corporate partner, teaming up with an athlete in our Million Dollar Challenge, buying a supporter's jersey, or signing up to host a great Aussie Athlete barbecue. Sharing the fund's mission or even an episode of this podcast is how we grow and expand the reach to better support these young athletes. Pressing the follow button means that you won't miss an episode. And giving us a great review is how these athletes' stories travel further afield. Be listening for the next captivating story of what it truly takes for these Aussie athletes to live their sporting dream!