Eight years ago, Olivia Nattey was in hospital recovering from spinal surgery. Now the 21-year-old will represent Australia in the U23 rowing team at the World Junior Rowing Championships in Poland, July 23-27, reports ELIZABETH KOVACS. 

Qualifying for the national rowing team at week-long trials in Sydney felt like a bit of a blur to Olivia Nattey, who says it was more anticlimactic than anything. 

“I got to the end of the week of trials and was like… ‘is that it?’,” she says.  

“It feels like it was more exciting for everyone else to see you succeed in something that you’ve wanted to do.

“You get through the week and you’re so tired because you’ve raced every single day for seven days after training all season and you kind-of just can’t wait to go to bed and have a sleep.” 

George took the call at 5pm after Olivia was told she’d been selected to compete. “She called me up that afternoon and said: ‘Dad, I’m buggered, I made it and I’ll talk to you in a couple of days’. 

“In the background, my wife and I, her grandparents, uncles, cousins and aunts were getting on to text messages and blowing her phone up.”

This was Olivia’s second time competing in the trials, an event that needs an invitation to attend. 

“You spend the whole season racing at local regattas, waiting for an invite,” she says. 

Although she was unsuccessful last year, Olivia was still given the opportunity to row for Australia in Holland for the Australian Uni Team. 

For Olivia, this was her “pinch-me” moment. 

“It comes in waves,” she says. “It’s little steps along the way, the main [pinch-me moment] was when they started referring to us as Team Australia, because when you’re on the start line, they don’t call you by your names, they call you by your country.”

Currently studying criminology at the University of Sydney, Olivia says she is grateful that the school’s EAP elite athlete program has ensured she can work her studies around rowing.

Although things are working out now, finding herself undergoing spinal surgery eight years ago was never part of the plan. 

“I was 13 and dad looked at me weirdly one day and asked if I was standing on a bit of an angle,” says Olivia. 

Several appointments and hospital visits later and Olivia was sent home with a new back brace for scoliosis. 

After six months, Olivia’s back hadn’t improved, with the angle getting worse. 

“In year nine, I went to Sydney, got surgery, spent a week in hospital and then was heavily sedated as I got out,” she says. 

“Ever since, my back has had some titanium hardware in there.”

When Olivia’s scoliosis was first diagnosed, her back was at a 20 degree angle. By the time she had her surgery, it had bent to almost 40 degrees. 

With a spine fusion from C5 (cervical spine) to T12 (thoracic spine), Oliva’s ability to row had to be changed to suit her needs. 

“Ironically, after the surgery, they sent me off and told me not to play contact sports,” she says. 

“So I said, ‘sweet, I won’t play rugby or AFL’.”

What had begun as rowing with friends after surgery turned into a passion. Although Olivia realised that she would never be a “sculling” rower (someone who uses two oars), after discovering she couldn’t row at all on her right side due to the scoliosis surgery. 

“I have no thoracic rotation, but my arm span is really long, so I can get away with it on my left side,” she says. 

As elite athletes, most rowers already favour a certain side, and Olivia says it hasn’t been too big of a problem.

For George, seeing his daughter stick to her guns and go for her dreams has made him “so damn proud”.

“We’ve gone from the tears and heartache of a parent seeing your daughter going through what she went through with scoliosis, right through to the joy and happiness of seeing her actually set her mind to something,” he says. 

“It’s just amazing.” 

With around-the-clock training hours and completing an undergraduate degree, Olivia struggles to find the time to balance work hours to fund her trip to Europe. 

Donations to asf.org.au/campaigns/olivia-nattey/u23-world-championships