The road to Rio is all about balance for London Olympian Johnno Cotterill.
The 28-year-old is looking to be selected in his second Australian Olympic water polo team, but is currently still balancing full time work as well as a full training load.
With a job in finance, the Sydney sider will be in the pool one day and the office the next.
“They’ve given me the opportunity to come to games and train as often as I can,” said Cotterill who isn’t alone juggling water polo and work.
“Three or four of us are still working full time, so it’s about balancing everything for the next few months.”
With only a few months until the Olympic Games on South American soil, April will mark a change in priorities for many of the team.
“That’s when we really need to buckle down and spend as much time together to sort out as many problems as we can and really make it happen.”
To be prepared for Rio and make sure he carries his weight in the team, Cotterill says his focus on training and competing will ramp up as the Games of the 31st Olympiad draw closer.
“When we really start coming together as a team and travelling a lot more I won’t be at work very often and I’ve been very fortunate that the Westpac group have been amazing with that.”
A seasoned member of the team, Cotterill believes the current squad may be the ones to bring home Australia’s first men’s water polo medal.
“I’ve played with a lot of different and brilliant players and individuals, but now we have this core team that can really push for a medal.”
The lure of the first South American Games is also pushing Cotterill to keep training as hard as he can.
“I don’t need any extra motivation to go to an Olympics, but if I did I know Rio would probably provide it. I think they’ll put on an amazing event.”
A more experienced member of the squad, Cotterill made his first appearance in the senior Australian team in 2006, going on to win bronze medals at the World League Finals in 2007 and 2008.
A year later he was part of the Australian team that won the gold medal at the 2009 World University Games.
But it was the opportunities to play professionally in Spain and Greece that helped him up his game.
“That atmosphere just made it an amazing experience. And I was fortunate to play professionally for five years, so just wake up and train and I was studying while I was doing it.”
Cotterill said there was nothing like water polo in Europe, but Greece was truly the heart of the game.
“In Greece, the sporting hooligans support all sports so you end up with flares in the crowd, thousands of people booing and cheering for you at every game.”
Having returned home from Greece, Cotterill was selected to don the green and gold cap at his first Olympic Games at London.
However the 2012 campaign did not go to plan for the Aussies, who, despite holding a 7-4 halftime lead, went down 8-11 to the eventual bronze medallists Serbia in the quarter-finals.
It has been a long four year cycle for Cotterill since his debut Olympics, who is desperate to improve on the seventh place finish in London.
“It’s a long cycle and for the people who work it’s really a tough balance of training in the morning, going to work, training at night and trying to fit in a gym session at lunchtime,” said Cotterill who’s favourite thing to do in his spare time is quite unsurprising - sleep.
The boys also suffered a disappointing result at this year’s FINA World Championships as they finished eighth despite some fantastic results against the top teams.
The Aussies went down to eventual bronze medallists Greece in a one goal penalty shootout bringing a frustrating early end to their medal hopes.
“Each year we’re getting closer and closer, I think this year we almost deserved to get a medal and it didn’t end up like that.”
Cotterill is determined to learn from these results and not let them deter him or the side on their dreams of an Olympic medal.
“Now it’s our time, there’s no excuses. If we don’t get a medal everyone’s going to be devastated”
If selected, Cotterill feels that achieving an Olympic medal will really mean everything has gone to plan.
“That realisation that I’ve managed to achieve on a both a career front and with water polo, I think that realisation will be really rewarding and something that will stay with me for a really long time.”
The Australian men’s water polo team will face Italy in a training camp next week, before battling the Europeans in a total of 3 international test matches, including the annual Water polo by the Sea event on Saturday 19 December.
The Aussies will enjoy their second training camp in their Rio 2016 preparations after disposing of Japan 3-0 in a test match held recently in Cronulla, Sydney.
Ashleigh Knight
Olympics.com.au
