Georgina Collin – paddling her way across the globe
After seeing an ad for canoeing in her school newsletter, Georgina Collin gave it a go and that journey has led to representing Australia on the international stage. With both long and shorts stints living overseas for her sport, the multi-talented athlete has returned from Europe, and finds herself in Penrith, preparing for the Canoe Slalom Australian Open later this month.
Collin, who played an array of sports growing up, made the switch from competitive athletics to canoeing, following the injury advice of a surgeon she’d sought advice from.
“I started canoeing when I was eleven after I saw an ad for it in the school newsletter. I thought it looked cool so tried it out. I had problems with my knees at the time and the surgeon I went to see said that canoeing would be much better for my knees over athletics.
“I got lucky in having a really good coach, so started training a lot more and begun to really love the sport.”
Collin first competed internationally in 2015 at the Junior World Championships, in Brazil, where she came away with a bronze medal in the team event.
“I didn’t really know what to expect leading into my first international competition, I was just stoked to be there for the ride. Winning the bronze medal was a huge goose bump moment.
After moving to Prague for training and competition opportunities, Collin unfortunately suffered a minor injury and had a short-term loss of passion for the sport.
“After another injury I became disillusioned with the sport, so actually ended up taking a year and a half off. I came back to Perth in the winter and did some training at our local training ground with my coach and realised I still loved it.”
A return to Europe followed, with the now 23-year-old taking advantage of the plentiful courses and training and racing opportunities to advance her career.
“I lived in Slovenia for five months, the Czech Republic for five years and now France for four months. The training opportunities that I’ve had around the world have been amazing. It’s incredible training with various athletes that I’ve looked up too and it’s awesome to see the how far hard work goes.”
“I finished my Physio degree in September 2020 and with being overseas, came the opportunity to work over the summer as a physio for the Czech Republic National Baseball Team for one of their tournaments in Prague, which was insane.
“When I moved to France I wanted to focus more on paddling, it’s always been tuff balancing study, work and training, so I’m just doing some freelance work a couple of hours a week as a physio.”
Back on Australian soil for the first time in more than a year, Collin competed two weeks ago in the Oceania Slalom Championships, in Penrith. After a difficult preparation including coming down with COVID-19, only weeks before competition, Collin still managed to place sixth.
“I was a little disappointed with my final run in the end, the first minute of my run was aggressive and fast, however the bottom half of it I was lacking the energy.