Olympian Kelsey Wakefield set to reach new heights at Pan Pacific Masters Games

Former Australian Olympic water polo star Kelsey Wakefield is preparing for a sporting reunion with a difference at the Pan Pacific Masters Games, where she will not only return to the pool alongside former teammates but also revive a long-forgotten talent for high jump.

The Cairns-based Olympian will make her Pan Pacific Masters Games debut on the Gold Coast, reuniting with players she shared the pool with more than a decade ago.

“I’ve always loved water polo and continued playing since retiring from elite sport, but the opportunity to get back together with girls I played alongside 10 or 20 years ago is really exciting,” Wakefield said.

“We’ve got a combination of players from the two Brisbane National League teams, along with girls who represented Queensland and were involved in Australian squads.Some of us haven’t played together for 10 or 15 years, so it should be a lot of fun.”

While Wakefield’s Olympic water polo career is well documented, her impressive achievements as a junior high jumper are perhaps less well known. From Years 9 to 12, she won four consecutive Queensland high jump titles, competed at national championships and earned selection in an Australian athletics development squad with a personal best of 1.75 metres (which was taller her own height at the time).

However, as her water polo career progressed, Wakefield was forced to choose between the two sports.

“I’ve always wondered how far I could have gone with high jump if I’d kept doing it,” she said. “When I started getting serious about water polo, I began doing more gym work, which was something I never really had when I was high jumping. I always wondered what I might have achieved with that extra strength, but water polo was definitely the right choice in the end.”

Now, almost two decades since her last competitive jump, Wakefield is preparing to give the event another crack.

“I haven’t done a lot of specific high jump training, just some explosive exercises in the gym, so I’m really relying on muscle memory from about 18 or 19 years ago,” she laughed.
“It’s not exactly a sport you can just turn up and do, particularly at Masters age, but the Pan Pacific Masters Games seemed like the perfect opportunity to have some fun with it.”

Wakefield, who still plays social water polo weekly in Cairns, says the friendships forged through the sport remain among its greatest rewards.

“Water polo has been such a big part of my life and I’ve made lifelong friendships through it,” she said.

“I had 10 girls I’d played water polo with come and support me at the Olympics.
It really is a community and a sport you can play for life. 

“We’d obviously love to win at the Games, but more than anything it’s about playing good water polo, having fun and enjoying the chance to catch up with everyone again.”