Industrious and talented, Olivia Corrin has represented NZ in multiple sports, but found her true calling in surf lifesaving. Merryn Anderson speaks to the Black Fin and Ironwoman ahead of the world champs.
We all have the same 24 hours in a day, but somehow Olivia Corrin manages to fit a week’s worth of work into one day.
The 21-year-old begins her day with a swim, then goes to the gym or for a run, and returns home to study for around four hours. She trains some more in the afternoon, then heads to work as a waitress at her local surf lifesaving club in the evenings.
But the gruelling schedule is all worth it for the multi-talented, Gisborne-born surf lifesaver, who was 10th in the Nutri-Grain IronWoman competition this summer and is now in Italy, back in the Black Fins, for next week’s lifesaving world championships.
Corrin has been used to full-on agendas since she was a kid. She’s represented New Zealand in three sports – trampolining, swimming and surf lifesaving - and at 14, was identified as a potential New Zealand triathlon star.
But it was lifesaving that won out – a sport she started when she was just five.
Corrin now lives on the Gold Coast, moving there after graduating from Gisborne Girls’ High School to pursue her childhood dream of competing at an IronWoman series in Australia.
Last year she was forced to withdraw from the professional series after three rounds with a labral tear in her shoulder. But this summer, everything came together.
“Finally everything clicked for me and I had a really good routine going - training, study and working - it just all seemed to line up,” Corrin says.
Being accustomed to demanding routines has set Corrin up perfectly for the latest lifesaving world championships in Riccione, where she'll be busy.
The world champs are finally taking place after a two-year delay due to Covid, and there are 47 events spread across pool rescue, ocean and beach disciplines.
Corrin’s specialities are the beach and ocean racing, and she was a world champion in 2018 in the ocean women’s relay. But as a crossover athlete, she’ll be competing in all three disciplines across six days.
She hasn’t competed in surf lifesaving for New Zealand for a few years, due to Covid restrictions, but remained in touch with the Black Fins team, who were eager to have her back.
“Everyone seems to have got together and connected really well again, so it’s getting very exciting to head away and race,” she says.
Corrin was just 10 years old when she saw an IronWoman race on TV, and knew she wanted to be there one day.
“That was my dream, watching them run around the course and racing in all that surf against the best of the best, I really wanted to do that,” she says.
She learned to swim before she learned to read and write - put in swimming lessons at a young age in order to be safe at the beach.
Her family were at the Midway Surf Life Saving Club one weekend, and Rocky Hall (a legend of the club, says Corrin) approached them to suggest little Olivia try out nippers, the under-11 programme.
“When I was five, I went down on a Sunday morning and haven’t stopped since,” Corrin says.
Corrin’s trips to Australia started as a teenager, a competitive swimmer through school, spending two weeks across the ditch during holidays for surf lifesaving training.
There weren’t many older girls for Corrin to look up to back home at Midway. “There were a lot more boys doing the sport, that’s for sure,” she says.
“As I got older, a lot of the girls seemed to drop out, whether they were going to uni or just weren’t interested in the sport anymore.”
Corrin is studying a Bachelor of Arts remotely through Massey University, majoring in education and minoring in psychology, to go into teaching at a primary school.
“I actually really enjoy doing it distance so I can get into my own routine and I don’t have to leave my house,” she jokes.
The tough move away from family was necessary for Corrin however, to keep her at the top of her game and in a high performance environment.
“I definitely can see the difference between the amount of girls who do it back home compared to here,” she says from her new home on the Gold Coast.
“It is kind of sad, at nationals when there’s only one or two heats and then a final, or even a straight final sometimes, it just kind of takes away that prestigious title to it.”
Last summer’s Nutri-Grain IronMan and IronWoman series was broadcast on Sky Sport back in New Zealand - a move Corrin hopes furthers the reach of surf lifesaving, and inspires girls like Corrin was a decade ago.
“I’m hoping all those young girls looking up to us want to follow in our footsteps and put their foot on the line,” she says.
Thanks to her 10th place finish this year, she automatically qualifies for next year’s IronWoman, and hopes to further the reach of the sport, especially to girls.
Her advice to anyone interested in competing in surf lifesaving or an IronWoman series is simply to enjoy it - advice she’s taken to make herself a better athlete.
“If you’re not enjoying it and you don’t love it, there’s kind of no point,” Corrin says.
“When I was growing up, I set such high expectations for myself. But I kind of didn’t really enjoy racing every time it came to a competition, because I’d get so nervous.
“But now I’ve learnt to deal with that and my emotions. So definitely learn to have fun and don’t put pressure on yourself.”
