Tokyo 2020 a childhood goal ticked off for Mary Fowler
After featuring in each of the Matildas friendlies this year and scoring her debut international goal, Mary Fowler has now booked her ticket to Tokyo.
“It feels absolutely amazing to be selected for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. As a kid, it's the one dream I had in sports so it feels amazing,” Fowler said.
Fowler has gone from debuting against Brazil at the 2018 Tournament of Nations to a FIFA Women’s World Cup squad, and now an Olympic squad.
The 18-year-old – who is the youngest member of the Australian women’s football squad – found out she was on the team in a meeting with the coaches.
“I go into these situations and I'm kind of thinking, whatever happens, happens, but I don't really expect myself to react over the top and be so emotional,” the forward explained.
“But when I was told and handed the piece of paper saying I'm going, everything just clicked and I was like, wow, this is really happening, then I just started tearing up.
"I was a bit taken aback because this doesn't usually happen. But it was just a really good feeling.”
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The weight of the moment and the overwhelmingly positive feelings link back to a childhood dream, one that she can now say she has completed.
“As a kid, it was the one dream that I had, just going to Olympics," Fowler shared.
"It was just the thing that would top off my sporting career, to say that I'm an Olympian, I've been there.”
“It was a big achievement for my younger self - it was something that I wanted to tick off and I can say that I did it for them [my younger self].”
Fowler and her Australian teammates have a final hitout against Japan before taking on New Zealand in the first match of Group G on July 21st.