"When I heard my name called, the feeling was euphoric – everything I dreamt of since I was 11 years old was now coming true."
"When I heard my name called, the feeling was euphoric – everything I dreamt of since I was 11 years old was now coming true."
When Baeden Choppy sees television coverage of the Australian men’s hockey team at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, memories coming flooding back.
“I can’t stop myself from watching it,” says the side-lift driver based at Narangba in Queensland, who represented Australia in hockey at the 1996 Olympics.
Baeden, 45, who joined Cleanaway more than three years ago, recently returned to play hockey at masters level after a 10 year break, but keeps his illustrious sporting career to himself.
At the 1996 Games in Atlanta he scored the winning goal with a last minute penalty corner against arch rivals Germany to secure a bronze medal.
“The medal is just tucked away. It’s rare that it even comes out. Even some of my friends don’t know that I played hockey at the Olympics. It’s not a subject they bring up and I’m not the sort of person to raise it. That’s just not me,” Baeden says.
The first male Indigenous athlete to represent Australia in hockey at the Olympics, he has much to be proud of including a reputation as a ‘goal sneak’ with speed that left defenders scrambling and appearances at other major championships such as World Cups and Champions Trophies.
A natural talent who started playing the game at the age of four in Mackay, Queensland, Baeden had played 41 international matches for Australia by the age of 21.
He has won the National Sportsman of the Year award at the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sports Awards.
Baeden recalled his first Olympic selection: “One day after a competition match, they announced who was in the Australian team for the 1996 Summer Olympics team, the Kookaburras. When I heard my name called, the feeling was euphoric – everything I dreamt of since I was 11 years old was now coming true. I felt amazing relief, but I also felt bad as three of us were going for the one striker position, but all my hard training paid off as I was lucky enough to secure the spot.”
He also remembers the medal-winning moment in Atlanta: “The goal I scored against Germany was of a penalty corner set play. I was just supposed to go in nice and close and get a deflection. It just happened that it ended up coming off.”
He has endured highs and lows, including being selected for his first international at the age of 20.
“I was pumped when told I would be playing. I had my ‘kit’ on four hours before the game. Then the rain came, and the game was called off,” he says.
As a serious knee injury in 1999 robbed him of his chance at being selected for his second Olympics in Sydney in 2000, watching the current generation of Kookaburras leaves him with a “bit of jealousy”.
Although he returned to competitive hockey, Baeden was never selected for Australia again, but did play and coach in England for three years before returning to his home country.
Before joining Cleanaway, an opportunity which came via a hockey teammate, Baeden worked in a number of roles, including as a mentor to children, an Indigenous education and liaison officer and a tow truck driver.
Since leaving school he has never stopped working because hockey was not professional when he was playing at the highest level.
“When I came through, we all had jobs. You would train in the morning, go to work and train again in the evening. The game has changed out of sight since then. Now I couldn’t keep up with all these young fellas,” he says.
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