A quote from American humorist William Rogers was recently featured on Emma Mackie’s self-maintained website:
“Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”
It sums up the Jindera cyclist’s attitude to her blossoming international career.
Mackie is back on the Border after a breakthrough season against elite company on the European track and road circuit.
She achieved top-10 and podium results in events too numerous to list and cemented her spot in the Belgium-based Lotto-Belisol women’s team, alongside Australian Olympic gold medallist Sarah Carrigan.
She is now a world-class competitor in her own right and, at just 24, potentially has more than a decade of racing in front of her.
Mackie is very much “on the right track”, and would be quite within her rights to use her return to the Border to relax with friends and mentally prepare for another seven months of scaling Europe’s harshest terrain.
But, eager to capitalise on her stunning introduction to the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), Mackie refuses to “just sit there”.
Instead, she has spent her summer training hard and fundraising furiously, taking it on herself to sell calendars, organise a sports auction night and save, save, save.
“Us women riders are not as well known as the men and you have to be right at the top of the sport to get the sponsorship necessary to be financially independent,” Mackie says from a Dean Street cafe — her portfolio of goings-on, past and present, spread in front of her.
“Fundraising takes a lot of time and a lot of effort, which I’m very quickly learning, but you have to do it and it makes it easier when you have the support I’ve had.
“That’s what I love about Albury-Wodonga — it’s such a great sporting community where people get behind the local talent.”
MACKIE is in full-time pre-season training before returning to Belgium within the next two months.
With a year’s experience under her belt, Mackie said she was ready to take her riding to a new level in Europe.
“To give it some perspective, in Europe you’re racing with the female equivalents of Robbie McEwen and Cadel Evans and all of the world champions,” she says.
“The first year you go over there, it’s all about experience ... you’re going from doing well against 20-30 girls in Australia to racing against 100 girls just in local Belgium races.
“Now that I’ve had one season of that and started getting regular top-10s, I want to start getting podium finishes and winning races.
“I’m really happy with my 2008 season but I want to push myself to a new level — I want more out of myself.”
FROM just a few minutes with Mackie, you get the feeling that this is an athlete who will drive towards her ultimate goal until her body fails her. And what is that ultimate goal?
“I want to be at the Olympics,” she says with frank resolve.
“I want to represent Australia and not only go to the Olympics, but win at the Olympics.
“It sounds like it’s a long way away, but a lot of what I’m doing is striving towards 2012 (London Olympics).
“Just from the improvements I’ve seen in myself every season, I know that I can get more out of myself. I know that I can do it.”
The recently retired Carrigan, Mackie’s 2008 teammate and 2004 Athens gold medallist, believes Mackie has every reason to be dreaming big.
“I believe Emma is on the cusp of really cracking it, and she deserves that,” Carrigan said from the Gold Coast.
“She’s a rider with a lot of talent and I think with the right break, she’s not too far away from getting into that top bracket.
“Sometimes it just takes that one little thing for all of your potential to be unleashed and I think that is all that’s stopping Emma from being one of the world’s top-liners.
“I first met her in 2005 and have seen her progress and demonstrate all of the attributes a rider needs to be successful.”
- Mackie is the second of 12 nominees for the 2009 Norske Skog Young Achiever Award with a $1000 prize on offer for the region’s most promising junior sports person.
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