Team Processing for the London 2012 Australian Olympic Team kicked off Friday with over 30 athletes and officials meeting in Canberra.

Athletes from the sports of sailing, athletics, swimming and judo gathered at the Australian Institute of Sport for the first of 15 sessions being run by the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) around the country in 2011.

In addition to a presentation about the city of London and the Games setup, athletes were given a media briefing and were outfitted by Team uniform partners adidas and Sportscraft.

Layne Beachley, one of four Athlete Liaison Officers for the Australian Team, took the athletes through a Winning Attitudes seminar and gave some of her vast experience and enthusiasm to the Olympic hopefuls.

One athlete who was excited to be experiencing her first Olympic Team processing, was Nicky Souter, skipper of Australian sailing’s women’s match racing crew.

Souter is the current world champion in women’s match racing, which will make its Olympic debut in London.

“We’re showing really good form right now having been just ranked number one,” Souter said. “We’re really looking forward to taking on the British!”

With just three spots available in London for the Australian crew and six strong athletes vying for a position, the competition is tough but with team processing out of the way, the athletes can concentrate on the action and their ultimate goal of being in London in 2012.

“The day was just awesome,” AOC Director of Sport Fiona de Jong said.

“It was smooth operationally, but more importantly it was really exciting to see the prospective 2012 Team members and know that they can really start to see their goals for London.”

The AOC will next head to Adelaide and Melbourne on Monday 14 and Tuesday 15 March.

AOC