Amanda Bateman has visualised the Tokyo Olympics for years — the sights, the sounds, the smells, "everything" — but she never saw herself here: Rowing with a new partner in a weed-ridden, crocodile-filled river in regional Queensland just weeks out from the world's biggest sporting event.
Bateman did not foresee a delayed Olympics, nor that her family's absence would tinge her eventual induction with sadness — she hasn't hugged them or seen them since March.
But the 24-year-old says it has only strengthened her resolve and the bond shared with double scull's partner, Tara Rigney.
"I struggle to describe what we have, but it's a bit of magic — our relationship with each other and with our coach," Bateman said.
"We've had bushfires, we've had floods, and now we're here in Rockhampton.
"We haven't let it derail us. We've actually let it strengthen what we have and what we're taking to the Games.
Ask any of Australia's 38-strong rowing troupe and they will tell you the same thing: It's all about mentality, as first-time Olympic rower Rosie Popa explained.
"I think no matter what the circumstance is, it all comes back to how resilient you are," Popa said. "At the end of the day, it's how you perceive things."
The squad's latest training ground — the muddy, snaking Fitzroy River which sits in the heart of central Queensland crocodile country — is testament to that mindset.
Don't fall in
Australia's rowers used the Fitzroy River in 2018 to prepare for the world championships.
According to 2016 silver medallist and two-time world champion Alex Hill, the river has been chosen again due to its similarities to the climate and timezone in Tokyo.
"We were obviously super happy with how everything was then and we got a really good benefit," Hill said.
But even the veteran rower admitted the prospect of rowing in croc country raised his pulse "a little bit" at first.
"I'm not going to lie, but you've got to be adaptable as an athlete," he said.
"It's a good tool in our toolbox."
The team has proven its adaptability time and again in the lead up to Tokyo, moving from Canberra to Tasmania and now to central Queensland and — along the way — overcoming bushfires, floods and the pandemic.
If that wasn't enough, the Rockhampton training camp was pushed back due to an overgrowth of water hyacinth that made the river unrowable.
"The council's worked really hard to clear that up for us, and we're loving it," Hill said.
A very different Olympics
Popa said she had sought comfort in the advice of her parents, who each won bronze at the 1984 games.
"Their words are very powerful," Popa said.
"For both of them, things didn't go right during certain parts of their preparations or during the regatta.
"What I've taken from my parents, really, is making sure no matter how hard it gets from the outside, that your inside dialogue stays calm."
It is the same composure Bateman channels as she dons her Olympic uniform, turns on a victory song and visualises the start line from her Rockhampton hotel room.
"Every piece of Olympic memorabilia and uniform that we get given is like another piece of the puzzle coming together, almost complete by the time we sit on the start line," she said.
"No Olympic campaign is perfect. Something will go wrong, no matter where you are or who you are.
"It's the crews that handle those issues and those problems the best that end up achieving success.
