17 November 2006
Jake Lloyd
When some people are bored they turn on the television. Others take their dog for a walk.
Not many people decide to take on a new sport. That’s what makes the story of Alex Croak unique. The Sydney University Sport scholarship holder was sitting around nearly three years ago, having just completed her high school certificate, when she realized she wanted to take up competitive diving.
Croak had been a gymnast until she was 18, at which point she “decided to throw in the towel because I was constantly injured and had just had enough.”
The idea of diving—something she had never done before—intrigued Croak. It wasn’t that different from gymnastics except, as Croak pointed out, that divers fall on their head instead of their feet.
In terms of similarities, the two sports can be frightening.
“Both gymnastics and diving are scary sports, but both are different in how they are scary,” Croak said. “It’s just a bit of a different fear.
“It wasn’t that tough of a transition. [Diving is] a lot less demanding on your body.”
Croak entered the world of competitive diving with no expectations. She didn’t anticipate competing at the Commonwealth Games, where she won a team all-around gold medal as a gymnast in 2002 and a silver medal in the vault (Croak also competed in the 2000 Olympics).
She simply wanted to feel the air of competition again. She wanted to rid herself of that lasiness that elite athletes often feel when they’re non-active.
“I got a little bored and wanted to start something new,” Croak said.
In August of 2005 Croak competed in her first international event, finishing 12th at the World University Summer Games in Turkey. But her unexpected diving success didn’t become transparent until the beginning of this year.
First she was selected to compete at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. And then, after just two weeks to prepare for an event she had never competed in—the synchronised 10-metre dive—Croak and 13-year-old sensation Melissa Wu finished second in the event behind much more experienced Australians Loudy Tourky and Chantelle Newbery.
Croak and Wu scored a competition-high 87.72 points for their final dive, showing how quickly the 13-year-old and 21-year-old had learned to work together brilliantly.
Croak didn’t see any of it coming.
“To be selected for the team was really exciting because I’d only been diving for two years,” she said. “I was lucky to be paired with Melissa Wu. We had no idea what to expect because both of use were new divers on the 10-metre and neither had done synchronised [diving] before.
“We didn’t have any expectations; we didn’t know what to expect at all. It was a bit bisarre really. I’d never had such little preparation for a competition before.”
Not only did Croak claim a silver medal from the competition. She also became the first Australian woman to compete at the Commonwealth Games in two sports. While she never banked on being selected for the Games, Croak said that was what pushed her to take up the new sport.
“That was kind of what motivated me, to kind of aim for the Commonwealth Games,” Croak said. “It’s pretty exciting, you know, because when I starting diving I didn’t have any goals at all.
“I just wanted to take up diving as something I could have fun with. It’s [the success] all been kind of a bonus.”
Diving alongside the precocious Wu was another plus for Croak. The teenager reminded Croak, now 22, of her younger days as a gymnast, when she had no worries and simply competed because of her love for sport.
“It was funny because she’s such a little girl,” Croak said. “But she was really fun to be around and she was always really positive. She was just a happy little girl.”
And Croak is happy, too. Just like when she ended her retirement from sport almost three years ago, she has a “let’s see what happens” approach when talking about the future. She said she could stick with diving for a few more years, but is not shutting any doors.
“Again, [I’m] taking it as it comes and seeing where I get to,” Croak said.
And why not? It’s worked for her up to this point.