It Takes Heart
It Takes Heart is an unmissable podcast where healthcare workers share their honest and unique experiences from Australia’s frontline.
Discover real-life stories of passion and purpose, insight and inspiration from people on the inside and tales that are equal parts heart-warming, heart-wrenching and hilarious. It Takes Heart is co-hosted by cmr | Cornerstone Medical Recruitment CEO Samantha Miklos and Head of Talent and Employer Branding Kate Coomber.
It Takes Heart
Olympic Athlete to Olympic Physio: Marguerite King on High Performance
Join us as Marguerite, an accomplished sports and musculoskeletal physiotherapist, shares her incredible journey. Fresh from the Paris Olympic Games, she reflects on her role as team physio for the Aussie Stingers, Australia’s women’s water polo squad. With a career spanning leadership at Water Polo Australia and PhD studies at the University of Queensland, Marguerite's story is one of passion, resilience, and balancing elite sports with family life.
Step behind the scenes of elite sports through Marguerite’s eyes. She reveals the adaptability needed to manage athletes' physical demands, especially water polo players prone to hip and shoulder injuries. From psychologists to dietitians, the Aussie Stingers' support team fosters trust and mutual support, crucial to their success. Marguerite’s perspective as a former elite athlete enriches her understanding of the challenges faced by players.
Relive the Olympics through Marguerite’s personal stories of camaraderie, global unity, and memorable encounters with icons like Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz. She also shares her vision for advancing athlete health through her PhD research and Water Polo Australia’s strategies for future Games. This episode celebrates sports, community, and the enduring spirit of perseverance.
This episode of It Takes Heart has CEO of cmr Sam Miklos hosting alongside Head of Talent and Employer Branding, Kate Coomber.
We Care; Music by Waveney Yasso
More about Marguerite's Charity of Choice, Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) Centre for Ageing Dementia Research.
Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) Centre for Ageing Dementia Research
The Queensland Brain Institute is a leading neuroscience research institute, devoted to a fundamental understanding of how the brain works, from its smallest components through to the integrated networks that underpin human thought and behaviour.
Visit https://qbi.uq.edu.au/research/centres/cjcadr/about-centre for more information.
Get to know cmr better!
Follow @ittakesheartpodcast on Instagram, @cmr | Cornerstone Medical Recruitment on Linked In, @cornerstonemedrec on TikTok and @CornerstoneMedicalRecruitment on Facebook.
We care for the land and sea. We care for the energy. We care for our community. We care. Welcome to it Takes Heart. I'm Sam Miklos and I'm Kate Coomba. We hope you enjoy these incredible stories of healthcare professionals making a difference in communities across Australia and beyond. Through our conversations, we look to celebrate the spirit of community and care. We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land who have long practised and shared ancient methods of healing, providing care and support for their communities with wisdom passed down through generations.
Kate Coomber:Join us as we explore what it truly means to take heart.
Sam Miklos:So our guest today is a sports and musculoskeletal physiotherapist who's just returned home from the Paris Olympic Games. There she worked as the team physio for the Aussie Stingers, our female water polo team, who came home with a silver medal. She has a master's, a PhD, is a world champion rower and a Beijing 2008 Olympian. She has had an incredible career and a job many could only dream of. Welcome Marguerite to the it Takes Heart podcast.
Marguerite King:Thanks so much for having me. I really appreciate the opportunity to come in here and chat to you guys. No, we were thrilled, to be honest.
Sam Miklos:I don't know if you even know Kate Hamager came to be here, but I was at a lunch where her husband, tom, was speaking and early on he'd mentioned that you were over at the games at the time and, honestly, I don't know.
Sam Miklos:Another thing that he spoke about for the rest of the lunch because I was so obsessed with how do I get to his wife and get her on this podcast so we can hear about this job. So we are so grateful that we can get you in and definitely squeeze this episode in. So I want to know, obviously I was an occupational therapist and when I heard about your role I thought so many healthcare professionals would think that that is just a dream job.
Kate Coomber:Imagine if you knew that was an opportunity.
Sam Miklos:Maybe I'd still be an OT. How did that come about? Like? Was this always part of your career plan? Is it a full-time job? Do you have a couple of other jobs, like? How did this come to be?
Marguerite King:I guess I currently actually have three different roles. So I'm the lead physio for the women's program for Water Polo Australia. I'm also the program physio for women's water polo at the Queensland Academy of Sport and.
Marguerite King:I'm actually a PhD student at the University of Queensland in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences. So all of that I guess it all started when I graduated undergrad physio from UQ. I guess it all started when I graduated undergrad physio from UQ and I then worked for a couple of years in the acute stroke unit at the Green Slopes Hospital here in Brisbane, and I think that that experience taught me a lot about human emotions, really being able to trust and care for people, really being able to trust and care for people, and also I think it also taught me how to work really well in a multidisciplinary team as well. So then after that I ended up working in Adelaide because I was an athlete as well on the Australian rowing team, and then I actually came back to UQ to do my sports physio masters. I then met my husband, tom, and we moved to Sydney where his work was, and then worked there in private practice, mostly in rowing.
Sam Miklos:He was also an Olympian. Yes yes, so a very incredible way. I didn't know that.
Marguerite King:Rowing as well. No, no, he actually went to two Olympics for sailing. So he went to Atlanta and Sydney and he actually won a gold medal in the men's 470 in Sydney, and so Did you meet in some like Olympian alumni?
Marguerite King:Well, there is a particular bar where all the Olympians go. There is a back story to this where I bar where all the olympians go. There is a backstory to this where, uh, I he was actually at the beijing olympics um, as a the head of athlete services, and unfortunately, when we were competing there, we actually didn't make it through to the a final, and so I was on a bus crying back to the village village from the rowing course because we'd spent seven years working towards this goal and we hadn't made it and everything. I was so disappointed and he actually came and sat next to me and I just remember thinking what this guy is telling me right now is exactly what I need to hear, which was your life is not over as an athlete If you don't get to your goals in that moment and everything. It doesn't devalue you as a person.
Marguerite King:All of that really sort of quite heavy stuff. But at the time that was a really pivotal moment for me because I was just so disappointed in what had happened and everything. So we then didn't see each other for about three years and then we ended up reconnecting after about three years and yeah, and now we have two beautiful boys, lockie and Hamish. And yeah it's. I'm really fortunate to be married to such a great man.
Sam Miklos:And so when you then got to Sydney, then you moved to Sydney for your husband's work. Then what happened?
Marguerite King:Yeah, I actually started working in private practice in Sydney, in North Sydney, as a sports physio as a sports physio yeah, so I just finished my sports physio master's from UQ and I started working with a lot of the different school growing programs. So I started working with Shaw Loretta Kiribilli in Queenwood and just doing a lot of preventative work in terms of sort of preventative exercise prescription and things like that. And then I also started to do more sports coverage for water polo sorry, water polo rowing Australia mostly situated out at Penrith. And then I then got the opportunity to go away with the under-21 rowing team as well, just before I knew I was pregnant with Lachlan. So I was on a water rowing trip and I was feeling really morning sick.
Kate Coomber:I'm just saying you're rowing at this point, not the physio at this point, but still rowing.
Marguerite King:No, I was actually the physio for the under 21 team at that point. So after we had had two children, we decided to move back to Brisbane. So I'm from Brisbane, I went to school here and uni here, and so we bought a house and then I got approached by Kate Watson, who's the head of performance health at the Queensland Academy of Sport, to go and work as actually the rowing program physio at the Queensland Academy of Sport. And the funny story goes where she gave me a phone call and said oh look, I want you to do rowing, but can you also be the water polo program physio? Because you used to work with a couple of shoulder specialists in Sydney and we have a really big problem with water polo shoulder injuries. And I was like, look, I don't know anything about water polo, like I've got friends that are water polo players.
Kate Coomber:Quite different from me too.
Marguerite King:Oh, completely, it's like I don't know if I can do a sport that has contact in it. It's a bit scary to me. So I know if I can do a sport that has contact in it, like it's a bit scary to me. So I was like, look, I'll give it a go. And um, that's when I realized that some of the really big challenges in water polo were injury management and how musculoskeletal injuries were actually um, being managed, and also the long-term chronic issues that can occur if they don't get managed properly in water polo players. And I had a moment where I went back to Kate and I was like I don't know if I can do this, and so she was like, no, no, I need you to actually sort this out, because this is like a massive problem, it's like one of our highest sports for shoulder injuries and we don't really have an answer to why it's happening or what we can do about it. So that's how it all sort of began, really.
Marguerite King:And so what year is that? That was in 2017. So it's just, yeah, just after the Rio Olympics. And so what was happening was there were quite a few, there was a few water polo players that came back into QAS after that Olympics and I was really quite shocked at how much sort of pain and disability they actually had on an ongoing basis from their shoulder injuries. And one of them in particular I can think of ended up having to retire because of her shoulder injury and she was one of the best shooters in the world and I thought what a waste like, what a waste of talent and you know.
Sam Miklos:Is that where your research then started to intersect? Or yeah, Like how did that come together?
Marguerite King:Yeah. So I ended up speaking with one of the sports engineers at QAS at the time, amy Lewis, and I was like surely there has to be something that actually measures how much passing and shooting, blocking and swimming that the players are doing. There has to be something in baseball. There has to be something in volleyball. There has to be something in baseball, there has to be something in volleyball. There has to be something out there. And she, because her previous research was on using accelerometers, gyroscopes in wheelchair racing, and she kind of did a bit of a search and she's like actually there's nothing out there for it.
Sam Miklos:And you would have had the water challenge as well.
Marguerite King:And the fact that the devices at that point weren't waterproof, and so we were kind of at a bit of a loss. And then I realised that one company actually then made a waterproof sensor, and so I was like, hang on a minute, this could actually work. And so that's when we started to trial do some dry land trials work? And so that's when we started to trial do some dry land trials and thankfully, one of the really senior players, bronwyn Knox so she's a four-time Olympian Olympic bronze medalist as well really worked with me as my athlete representative in terms of, oh, this will work or this just doesn't feel right, you couldn't wear that in the water. And so that's when we started to do things like co-designing pockets to put the sensors in catsuits, working with Delfina, who are a water polo swimwear company, to co-design yeah, the pocket for the sensor, so you didn't have to tape it on the athlete, you could just put it in the catsuit.
Kate Coomber:Cat suit, we're just showing us the the cat suit.
Marguerite King:It's just incredibly durable and being able to to put those things in yeah, it's um, and so it meant that if we were going to collect data over a really long period of time, you weren't having to tape the sensor onto the athletes and having to tape the sensor onto the athletes. And so I think because I was the program physio, when I went to the athlete group and I was like, oh, will you wear these things for 69? Yeah, water polo sessions, please, please. They actually said yes, and I think it was just because they realised the enormity of the problem and they also wanted to be part of the solution, and so some of those athletes were in the Olympic team that just won silver, and so Do you think, like what is the bit that you think from there that changed their performance?
Sam Miklos:Like what have you learned? Or.
Marguerite King:Yeah, I think the way that the performance happened was so multifactorial, I think like, literally, the medal is like the cherry on top and there's so much, so many bricks below that that you have to get right.
Marguerite King:Um, I think probably uh, a couple of things, particularly in the last couple of months is probably Bec Rippon's coaching leadership as head coach. I think that she sat the group down in January and was really clear about what her expectations were in terms of how she would like this group to play, and so, because of that clarity of message, I think everyone really got behind her philosophy 100%, and when you think about the number of people involved with the water polo team players, coaches, staff it's a lot of people to have that philosophical alignment with. So I think her leadership was really crucial in really making sure that the group came together as it did. I also think the amount of time and effort Beck and our psychologist, adele Langen, put into again making sure that the philosophy of both play in and out of the water, of playing and just being around the group, was really aligned to the values that the group had set out that they wanted to achieve. Yeah, so which was brave and respect.
Kate Coomber:That's fantastic, we were going to ask. Actually, you mentioned the coach speaking to the team in January.
Marguerite King:What is?
Kate Coomber:the lead time going into Olympics like this. When did you secure that lead physio role with this particular team, knowing that you were going to Paris?
Marguerite King:Yeah, I got asked to be the lead physio in the very, very start of 2022. So not actually that long ago and so I guess what you really want is to make sure that you're doing the absolute best job possible for the playing group that you have and that you also have really good relationships with all the coaches, that they can trust you and you can trust them, and that the players can trust you as well, and the players know that you care about them, not just as athletes, but as as people as well, because they can. They can feel that if you don't like, if you're on a support staff and you're there to get a track suit at the end.
Marguerite King:Yeah, I bet I can see through it the athletes know that and they can see that, and having been an athlete myself and seen, and having seen a bit, a bit of that, go on I guess you're just really conscious that you don't do not want to be that person.
Kate Coomber:We talk a lot about having the right people in health care, and I guess this is no different in that setting absolutely really paramount. We were going to ask about the, the team you mentioned, their psychologist. You know how big is that support team for that particular team? That?
Sam Miklos:maybe more broadly, even the physios like how many physios are on the water polo team went with australia to paris.
Marguerite King:I actually don't actually know no one has ever actually told me the number of physios that went to Paris. There were a number of physios in the headquarters staff as well that were then assigned to different sports as well. Within women's water polo, within water polo itself, there's a physio for the men's team, and I was the physio for the women's team, so there's one and one. Alongside that, in the women's's team, we had a strength and conditioning coach, jordan Desbro. We also had a doctor, dr Gary Kouanis, as well, and the psychologist, adele Adele Langan, and then we also have a dietician that worked remotely with the team as well.
Sam Miklos:So and what's your? What is the role that you do as a physio for the team, like really breaking it down like what's a day in the life? But then does that role shift when you're here in Australia versus when you arrive in Paris?
Marguerite King:Yeah, I guess adaptability in elite sport is a really good quality.
Kate Coomber:So, which is interesting because I think people think of, you know, high performing athletes being very disciplined and perhaps a bit rigid. So yeah that's quite interesting.
Marguerite King:Yeah, having that flexibility is super important. So, for example, in my week here I would be out at the Queensland Academy of Sport three days a week treating some of the program athletes there, and then the other half of the days I would usually be doing some sort of administration for the national program as well, and then on the other two days I am meant to be doing my PhD which works out sometimes and then doesn't work out other times as well.
Marguerite King:So, but I'm still moving forward with that, which is the main thing.
Marguerite King:And I guess an example overseas would be, if we're doing a training camp, the athletes would do a morning training session so I might go and check their wellness data to see if there's any reported soreness or anything that's going on toward through the night.
Marguerite King:Uh, you would then attend training and do all the taping that they would need, if any, um, to do the session. Uh, you then have to be really quite highly aware of the intra-session content of the water polo session, because it's made up of so many different skills, um, such as, like, they may do a swim set, or they may do, um, uh, like a power play we call it extra man drill in front of the goals, and so the water play session itself can be really varied, and so it's really important to actually have and this is something that beck does well the planning sheet of what the session content is going to be, because it could be everything from a higher swimming load to no swimming load very much, except the warmup and a very high, say, leg work, leg sort of session load. So, yeah, having that, knowing those nuances, is really, I think, important. Then we would usually treat, sort of during the middle of the day, anyone that was needed. We then do like another debrief to the coach about who sought treatment, for example.
Sam Miklos:And what sort of things would treatment be for Like? Is there a common injury?
Marguerite King:Oh, okay, so probably hip injuries, shoulder injuries, lumbar spine yeah, sometimes neck sort of tightness and soreness from the head up swimming as well. So that, yeah, because that can then affect their shoulder positioning and strength as well. So, yeah, very heavy contact sport, I believe, yeah, and then you get different things like different lacerations, bruising, you name it.
Sam Miklos:You've got to surprise people. Yeah, that's such a Corneal abrasions, you know. Yeah, and probably a lot happens underneath the water that all of us don't see.
Marguerite King:Yeah, absolutely yeah, yeah, but I yeah and like it's yeah, I think it's from discussing it with the athletes, because obviously I haven't actually played water polo. It's just considered part of the game.
Sam Miklos:And was that coming from rowing? Yeah, did you have to get in and play a game to? Catch some awareness.
Marguerite King:Well, I haven't actually played a game at all, but what I started to do was to really go and just watch a lot of water polo and watch a lot of training and talk to a lot of coaches and really just try and understand the different sort of injury epidemiology of water polo as well. So it was more just a lot of watching, discussing that kind of thing, I think, more than me getting involved with the team and having a go.
Marguerite King:Because I think they would find, like me, swimming very, very funny to watch. I can say that.
Kate Coomber:I'm sure, though, that they would. The fact that you have been there competing yourself, albeit a different sport, would really help with that team relationship and buy-in. Do you think that that's a really important factor, that you've been in their shoes essentially?
Marguerite King:Yeah, I think so. I think it's appreciation of like you know like, regardless of the sport, like you know what hard training feels like and you know that feeling of fatigue when you've just done three weeks of hard training and you can't even talk properly. Yeah, but I think what was lovely about the staff group we had in Paris was Rebecca Rippon, who's obviously she's an Olympic bronze medalist in women's water polo herself. She competed in two Olympics. Taryn Woods she's an Olympic gold medalist in women's water polo. The assistant coach, eddie Dennis, and he's another Olympian from the 2000 Olympics. Our manager was in the 2000 women's water polo team.
Sam Miklos:Is it a prerequisite or it's just the way it?
Marguerite King:happened.
Kate Coomber:It was just the way it happened. What? An incredible group.
Marguerite King:Yeah, a really incredible group of people who had been former athletes, and so I think that definitely contributed to no one really getting too overawed by the Olympics as a staff member, which can happen, like for sure. Like you can see everyone sort of, so some certain people, if you've never been in that situation before, can be a little bit deer in headlights.
Kate Coomber:I'd love to dive into that. I think people are so interested to know what's it like, how does it feel when you approach, when you arrive in Europe. I assume there's lead time, training camps, things like that. But once the Olympics starts, you know how does it feel.
Marguerite King:I think I can only like speak for myself, but it's kind of you kind of just put the blinkers on and really stay focused on what really matters, because I think it's very at the Olympics it's really easy to get distracted, I think both as an athlete and a staff member and Adele, our psychologist, they well she did a lot of work with our group staff and athletes on being keeping that sort of vision forward and being able to not get distracted when it really counted and also being able to go through the cycles of emotion as you do the tournament. So, for example, women's water polo, we play day on, day off with the men, and so you're sort of on this 40-year-old yeah.
Kate Coomber:What do you do?
Sam Miklos:in the daily time.
Kate Coomber:Are you spectating for others? No, You're just in the zone focused.
Marguerite King:Yeah, like, yeah, I didn't go and watch anything or anything like that, and the coaches were all working so hard during that period doing video analysis. So, yeah, I think it's really easy to like get distracted by the shiny. Shiny as Adele Corslett. Yeah, yeah, I think it's really easy to like get distracted by the shiny shiny as Adele Corslett yeah yeah, because you're there to do a job, oh exactly.
Marguerite King:And it's a job that everybody athletes and staff have worked so hard to get to that point where you have the possibility of succeeding in what you want and you can't kind of let different things get in the way of that. Yeah, which is where I think the staff like a lot of the staff being former athletes they weren't overall with that situation. They could keep focus and then model that behaviour to the athletes as well.
Sam Miklos:So are you all together in the village, together Like the opening and closing ceremonies. Are you all still together? And even those opening?
Kate Coomber:ceremonies. If you think about having to be focused, that must be a huge distraction in itself. That you participate in them, yeah, well, we actually didn't.
Marguerite King:Awesome, yeah, so we actually didn't.
Sam Miklos:Yeah, so you don't attend the staff don't attend any, or even a spectator.
Marguerite King:Well, I think what we did is discuss it as a staff group and we decided that we wouldn't do the opening and closing ceremonies and everything.
Sam Miklos:What was your reasoning behind that?
Marguerite King:I think it was like at the start I think you're highly aware of you've only got a finite amount of energy and you can't spend it on you know what.
Sam Miklos:I mean.
Marguerite King:Because going to an opening ceremony is quite long. It's quite. You know, it's quite a long process. Yeah, and we were starting to compete very close to the opening ceremony and so as a group we couldn't really spend that energy on that.
Kate Coomber:And then what happens when your events are over, your team's events are over. What happens then?
Marguerite King:Well, we go for essentially basically the whole two weeks. So we kind of watch people start and then finish way before us and everything and do they then flip to a spectator and go and see things in their minds, or is there that process?
Marguerite King:Yeah, so I think the rule for the team this time the whole Olympique team was they had to leave the village within 48 hours of their event concluding and then they could come back for the closing ceremony. Yeah, so, and that's some, I believe, just to make sure that the people in the village, the ones that are still competing, they can stay focused, they can get enough sleep, all that kind of, all those kinds of sort of factors.
Kate Coomber:I think that makes sense because you can imagine the mindset after you're done completely shifts to those who are in the zone, who are everything ahead of them. You can want them out, get out.
Sam Miklos:I'm focused. What about you mentioned about your experience and being really disappointed? The team did an incredible job, and then Silva is still incredible, but is there a sense of disappointment where they're like oh, we've been here for gold, or is it just we're so thrilled with that?
Marguerite King:I can't really speak for the athletes at all, but I think that you know it's quite difficult when the last game that you play is the game that you lose.
Sam Miklos:Because they did so well, undefeated, all the way.
Marguerite King:Exactly exactly like that group of Spanish players. They are quite a bit older than our group and also they have been in the mix trying to win that Olympic gold medal for three cycles, and so, yeah, that's something that else, like you, have to factor in as well. So, but I think you know, like I don't personally, when I look at the team winning silver, I am just so proud of the fact that in those really key moments where people, where players, needed to do what they needed to do, there was just unwavering confidence that they could do it, and also that that being able to execute in the moment is just so hard, yeah.
Kate Coomber:It's just like any athlete can appreciate.
Marguerite King:So many variables and everything, and so the fact that you know different players executed in that moment and weren't overruled by the situation or anything like that, that just makes my heart sing, because that is just so difficult to do in any sport.
Kate Coomber:Yeah, and credit to the support team. By the sounds of you know, I think there's obviously a lot to be proud of.
Sam Miklos:How do you come down too? From that I mean like, particularly because you were there for that whole two-week period undefeated, undefeated.
Kate Coomber:And the intense process in the lead-up to even get there. Yeah, it's obviously incredibly intense.
Marguerite King:Yeah, we were away for seven weeks in total and the last two weeks were the actual Olympics. So we actually had a tournament in Greece which the team won, and I think that tournament was After the Olympics oh no, this was before the Olympics, oh sorry.
Sam Miklos:Okay, yeah, before the.
Marguerite King:Olympics. Yeah, and I think that tournament was really crucial because the first game we played was against Hungary and they're a very good team and the team was in the first quarter we were up like five nil and it was just like wow, okay, like I think it was, there's something here. Yeah, there's something here, and I think it was. That was when you could start to see everything, all the blocks and bricks starting to come together and everything, and I could, yeah, you could see, you know, I think the coaches seeing like the fruits of their labour, it really is well, because I was like, oh, wow, this is, this is actually something special, because I haven't seen, necessarily seen the team like be so cohesive and everything together.
Sam Miklos:So and then at the end closing ceremony. See you all later. Yeah, and you've been away from.
Kate Coomber:I assume there's a lot of people away from children like yourself and lots of other people away from their families, yeah, no, absolutely.
Marguerite King:and like staff and like, and players as well, like they're away from their families as well. So, and like one of the players, keisha Gofers, she had a, you know, she had a baby this cycle and so she had been away from her child for a period of time and, thankfully, tulare was over in Paris, you know, with Keisha's husband, scott. So I think, yeah, the support team adjacent to everybody is really really extensive.
Sam Miklos:Yeah, can I ask one thing before we talk about, like, where to now? But you talked about no one's distracted by the shiny lights. Is there an athlete or someone that you saw over there that you went? Oh, hang on, I just need a minute. You talked about no one's distracted by the shiny lights. Is there an athlete or someone that you saw over there that you went? Oh, hang on, I just need a minute.
Marguerite King:Like I've just seen. I don't know LeBron James walk past?
Sam Miklos:or are you all just really cool, like you're all so focused? Is it just us on the other side?
Marguerite King:No, I definitely had a moment.
Kate Coomber:Oh, thank, God Please share.
Marguerite King:I was speaking to Tom on FaceTime and I was walking down one of the roads in the village and on that road was the Spanish team apartment block and Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz were walking towards me and I sort of looked into the camera and Tom's like what's wrong? And I'm like you know? And then I sort of turned the camera that way and he's like, is that Rafael Nadal? I was like yep.
Sam Miklos:Yeah been cool, so focused.
Marguerite King:So cool yeah exactly, and he was like oh my God. So yeah, it was yeah. You're still human. That was my moment where I was like oh gosh, but I could see so many people were coming up to him trying to get autographs. I was like I don't want to be that person.
Sam Miklos:I would have been the same yeah.
Kate Coomber:Really True.
Marguerite King:Maybe for like a minute. Yeah, just seeing the two of them together, just like having a chat, walking down the olympic, it's surreal.
Kate Coomber:I imagine just all of the most high performing athletes in the world all descend on this one small space essentially amazing. I just, I just can't imagine. You know we came into work every day. Everyone would be talking about it every single morning. What did you see last night? What were the highlights? What did you do? You know it's something that the entire world gets behind.
Marguerite King:And I think it also brings an amazing sense of solidarity to the world as well. I think, like just being there, I was there. When I was there I was actually thinking there's not many things in the world that really bring the whole world together yeah, and goosebumps you
Marguerite King:know and you're sort of seeing different people, especially when you can see like athletes trading pins with each other that wouldn't necessarily speak for each other, you know, in other situations, and so you're like, oh you know, there's got to be something to you know to say for things, something as big as the Olympics which actually brings the whole world together. When there's I guess, there's just so much division and everything like that at the moment, what did you say?
Sam Miklos:the trading pins.
Marguerite King:Yeah, so you get given pins, like with the Australian Olympic team symbols on it, and each country gives athletes and staff members pins and there's like a pin trading economy at the Olympics. Wow, yeah, so where you end up.
Sam Miklos:I thought it was more like jabs. Yeah, that's right. I'm sorry, we have to clarify that.
Marguerite King:No, just like special pins, and so you might want a pin from Costa Rica, and so if you see a Costa Rican athlete, you may be able to go off and say, oh, do you have a pin? You know we could trade, and so then it's like Pokemon cards. Yeah kind of like that. And so with the lanyard where your accreditation sits, you actually end up adding all the pins from the different countries around it. So I still have my one from Beijing. I know Tom has his one from Sydney as well.
Sam Miklos:We should have, and we asked you before we started. But as part of the staff you don't get a medal. No, but you did get a beautiful gift from the team.
Marguerite King:Yes, so I brought along today the Olympic team catsuit that has all the signatures of the team on it and that is definitely going to be put up framed pride of place.
Kate Coomber:Yeah, absolutely yeah, here you go. It's just amazing, isn't it Like?
Marguerite King:the, the fabric's amazing, isn't it? Yeah, all the signatures.
Sam Miklos:That would be beautiful, framed as a lovely memory.
Marguerite King:Yeah, and I think I loved each play's signature on it, because it actually reminds me of all the different journeys I've had with each one of those plays as well, in terms of different things that they've overcome, whether in terms of different things that they've overcome, whether, you know, in terms of injury and those sorts of things over the years, and so some of them I've, you know, I've been treating since 2017. So they're very special people in terms of how much time you've spent with them and the sort of, you know, different hurdles you've helped them overcome.
Kate Coomber:Yeah, so I guess where to where to next? You know we've got the Olympics here in the not too distant future. What's?
Sam Miklos:your role going to be.
Marguerite King:At the moment. I'm actually having a little break from clinical work and I'm just solely focusing on doing my PhD at the moment because I have my progress review exam in November which I have to jump through a few hoops with and then hopefully submit my PhD midway through early next year, with my defence midway through next year, I think. After that probably it's probably more implementation stuff around the actual research and seeing if we could potentially use the sensors and that research on an ongoing basis as a tool for coaches and athletes. A lot of different sort of applied research to be done in terms of strength and musculoskeletal screening elements in water polo, and, yeah, they're probably some of the things that kind of sparked joy in me, I guess.
Sam Miklos:Do you now start like are you now guaranteed for LA? Do you have to apply for a position?
Marguerite King:I think well, at the moment, lorinda Rugless, who was our high performance manager in Paris, has been doing a lot of really extensive work with the board of Water Polo Australia to essentially come up with a new strategy for Water Polo Australia which basically aligns all of the programs, whether it's pathways or high performance, together, and so I think the roles within Water Polo Australia probably will change. And yeah, I'm definitely not guaranteed to go to LA, but I'm really excited by the fact that we have such a strong network of physios around Australia who care for water players right around Australia. And probably the biggest one I want to shout out to is Bernadette Petzl from the New South Wales Institute of Sport, who treats like the other half essentially the other half of the national team um, or treated um during the Paris cycle. So her work was really really pivotal in everyone coming together to be as available and as injury-free as possible in Paris.
Kate Coomber:And is water polo your passion now?
Sam Miklos:Or do you feel the next generation are going to the rowing team or something new you know?
Kate Coomber:like. Is there other interest areas?
Marguerite King:Yeah, or you don't know yet. I don't know yet, but I think what's happened is having gone from doing a sport that I knew so extensively, such as rowing, to doing us, to having to get to know a sport that I knew nothing about, probably gives you confidence that if you were in a situation where you did need to know about a different sport, you could go back to first principles and actually work it out or have the skills to work out what you needed to do. And so I think that's what this journey has given me is just and including in the PhD is just knowing, if there's a problem, that you have the capacity and the belief that you can find the solution.
Sam Miklos:So if you reflect back on your physio career, I imagine this has been a bit of a highlight. But is it where you thought you'd be? If you were to tell your graduate physio self like one thing, what would you say?
Marguerite King:Uh, I probably would say just make sure you take the opportunities that are presented to you, like and I think particularly as you mentioned before, like having a family and everything. So often I think you say you're you sort of second guess yourself and doubt yourself in terms of, oh, I can't do that because of this, or I can't do that because of this. And I think it's really about, uh, shifting your mindset to going maybe my default has to be no, I can do this and I'll work, work it, work the rest out, rather than limiting yourself because, oh, I couldn't be possibly good enough for that or I couldn't do that because I don't have the right skill set.
Marguerite King:I shouldn't apply for that because of this. So, rather than that being that way, just really switching it around, going, oh no, like I wouldn't have been asked to do that if they didn't believe I could do it, say yes, and figure it out later. Yeah, that's my motto. It's come up quite a bit actually in this series, a few people with the same notion.
Kate Coomber:So thank you so much for coming in today. It's been so nice to talk to you.
Marguerite King:It's so fascinating we're giving away $500 to a charity of your choice. Where is that money going today? I would love it to go to the UQ Centre Clem Jones Centre for Aging Dementia Research, and the reason for that is during this cycle, unfortunately, my father passed away from symptoms related to dementia, and so I know, and he was a dentist, so he was a healthcare professional 42 years as a dentist. So yeah, I know he would really appreciate that, for sure.
Sam Miklos:Fantastic Marguerite. Thank you so much. I'm so grateful that we've been able to get you in. Honestly, the other night we were prepping for this and we just kept this question, this question, this question, this question, to which Sarah said you can't ask all those questions but I reckon we did a really great job at getting through like a few of those questions when we were like we'll just have a few more. But um, you've been so real. And um shout out to Tom but didn't he move house for you as well while you're away?
Marguerite King:or you came back and yeah, so uh, we ended up buying a house in june, and so we asked for a two month settlement, and so when I came back from the olympics, he had moved everything into the new house incredible man, but yeah, thank you to you he's the rock star, he's the back phone.
Sam Miklos:But um no, it's been incredible to speak to you, and we've just loved having you here today, so thank you.
Marguerite King:Thank you so much, Thank you so much ladies, thanks for listening.
Sam Miklos:Don't forget to share, rate and review. This allows us to reach more people and share more incredible stories. Click the follow or subscribe button to ensure you never miss an episode. Thank you.
