Unearthing Olympic Potential: The Transformative Journey of Riley Rees-Turner Through WAIS’ TID Day
From what was expected to be a typical school PE class for Riley Rees-Turner, became the springboard to his representative rowing career. Riley’s class, by chance, was selected to take part in WAIS’ Talent Identification Day (TID) in 2018, which then fortunately turned into early success in the sport.
“I was at Christian Brothers College (CBC) Fremantle, when our PE class got picked to participate in WAIS’ TID day. I treated the experience as a chance to see where my preseason footy fitness was at.”
“I gave it a red-hot crack and now here we are, five years later, with a couple of international rowing experiences under my belt.”
The day consisted of an array of testing activities including; testing for peak power on the watt and assault bikes, dynamo push/pull testing and fundamental anatomy testing, such as looking at reach, height and flexibility.
“The testing day is what exposed me to the potential of taking up rowing as a sport, rowing was never really on my radar previously.”
“It’s a pretty tough sport, it’s a lot more disciplined than people think – it was challenging to start with. Just staying upright was my biggest challenge, I think I spent more time upside down than upright for the first few months.”
Riley excelled in the sport at a rapid rate, after finishing his experience with the TID Program after six months, it was only a year after starting the sport that he was representing Australia at the Junior Worlds in Tokyo.
“After finishing up with the TID Program, I moved across to row with the Swan River Rowing Club. I then went to Junior Worlds, which was an amazing experience and following this was awarded my WAIS scholarship.”
“The facilities we have at WAIS are state of the art and the internationally accredited coaching I receive from both the institute and my club, just doesn’t get better in the state, let alone the country.”
After recently coming fourth at the U/23 World Rowing Championships in Bulgaria, Riley is back to training this week after some time off post the tournament, in the hopes of positioning himself for an Olympic debut.
“Training is back in full swing now, with six days a week and three sessions a day! The Olympics is now my goal.”
“I wouldn’t have had a go at rowing or have these ambitions in the sport, if I hadn’t attended the WAIS TID Day. I would 100% recommend giving it a crack, you never know what’d going to come out of it. Any opportunity can come your way, so you may as well give it a go. You could be travelling the world with a new sport you end up loving.”
This year’s Talent Identification Day will take place on Saturday the 9th of September at our WAIS facilities. The talent day is 100% free and absolutely no experience is required.