#TeamUniSA Profile: Olivia Parker Alumni-Athlete

Kirralee Thomas

2020-04-29T13:21:24

Olivia Parker is the latest athlete featured in our #TeamUniSA Profile Series. Olivia is an Alumni who was heavily involved in intervarsity sport as an elite student-athlete during her time at UniSA. Olivia represented UniSA in both the SA Challenge Intervarsity Tournament and at UniSport Nationals in addition to representing South Australia and Australia in Lacrosse. She was recognised for her achievements, receiving a Blues Award in 2016, Half Blues Award in 2017 and the Georgie Rowe Outstanding Achievement Award in 2019. A natural leader on and off the field, Olivia was appointed our Female Team Captain at last year’s UniSport Nationals Div 2. Check out our interview with Olivia to find out what she’s up to now!

What course did you study at UniSA?

Bachelor of Marketing and Communication

Where are you currently working?

Ryderwear as the Athlete Marketing Coordinator

What sport do you play?

Lacrosse

What is your experience at UniSport Nationals? AND the highlights of your sporting achievements?

At the 2019 UniSport Nationals we won every game and took home the Gold Medal, which was an incredible experience and definitely a highlight of my time at University! Also, being around my UniSA teammates and the other teams from UniSA made the UniSport Nationals a highlight. It was such a fun event, filled with good competition and we made some awesome memories.
My biggest achievement internationally would have to be playing for Australia in the 2015 U19 World Championships in Scotland. It was the biggest honour wearing the green and gold and playing for my country on the world stage.

What was your highlight as a student-athlete?

My biggest highlight as a University student was being awarded the 2019 Georgie Rowe Outstanding Achievement Award. Receiving that award was a massive honour and is and will be forever my favourite moment!

How are you keeping active and healthy while working from home?

With the 2021 Senior Women's Lacrosse World Cup still going ahead, we are still keeping to the campaign schedule, but we had to adapt pretty quickly when the gyms closed down and the social distancing protocols were put in place. We are really fortunate to have an awesome strength and conditioning coach, Sean Baker from Peaq Conditioning, who has been able to adjust our programs so we can do them at home. At the moment, I'm doing three running sessions a week and three strength sessions at home, along with my stick and agility drills supplied by our coach.

Olivia Parker images

For elite athletes, how has your training been affected?

It has been really different and hard in the sense of not being able to train with your Aussie teammates and coaches. But we are really lucky to have technology and awesome coaches who have been able to adapt our programs so we can do them at home. As the squad is spread out across the country and world, it has affected when we can train together again. We had a few tournaments and squad camps lined up in June and July which have now been cancelled. This is unfortunate, but hopefully the borders will open soon and we can reunite as a squad.

How are you connecting with your team online?

We have a Facebook group that we regularly connect on and do fun activities as a group. We also have become a bit of a book club 😂 Something we have been working on as a group is reading books together and working on growing our knowledge and mental health. We have read The Dare to Lead by Brene Brown and we have just started the Resilience Project by Hugh van Cuylenburg. Just recently, we have started zooming every Sunday to catch up as a squad and do a workout together.

What music are you listening to at the moment to keep you motivated?

Oooo this is a hard one as it really depends on my mood! I don't mind a bit of Kayne when doing my strength sessions and a fair bit of Flume vibe for my runs! Depending on my mood, some Green Day gets thrown in there too 😂

Name some of your hobbies besides sport?

A hobby I have recently picked up during isolation is knitting, something I have wanted to do for ages but never had the time to sit down and learn. It has been a very therapeutic hobby and I have started to knit a blanket, so I'm ready for the colder months.

Thanks Olivia!

JOIN TEAM UNISA

As a Team UniSA member you'll benefit from discounted memberships, get access to 25+ UniSA Sport clubs, have the chance to represent UniSA at intervarsity or community sporting events, and more!