Novocastrian Nathan Power is the Captain of the Australian Water Polo team. He has been to the Olympics, competed in several tournaments in Australia and overseas, and is preparing the Aussie squad for their first international competition in Australia since the 2000 Olympics.
Water polo was the sport Nathan’s mum excelled in. Nathan played a lot of different water sports growing up and water polo wasn’t one of them until he lost his mum when he was just 12 years old.
“About a year later someone from the local water polo club where Mum played approached me and asked if I wanted to have a crack at the sport. I had a play around in the backyard pool but I really didn’t know what I was doing!
“But I went along and took to it pretty quickly! Not long after starting I was picked for a rep team to go to Brisbane and then to New Zealand and from there I just haven’t stopped.
“It’s definitely a sport where you get out what you put in. Ever since I started, I’ve been training early, and again until late. Even while I was still at school I would get up early and head to Sydney to train and come back in time for school in Newcastle,” he said.
Nathan competed in Australia’s national competition for the Hunter Hurricanes before shifting to the UNSW Wests Magpies squad. He made his debut with the Aussie Sharks in 2013 and his Olympic debut at Tokyo in 2020.
He’s travelled overseas countless times, seeing the world in a way that not many can.
“I spent five years living overseas playing professionally so that was pretty cool. I did a year in Croatia and lived in Spain playing in their champions league testing myself against the best in the world which was unreal.
“The sport has allowed me to do so much. I got a scholarship to study at university so I could get my degree and have something up my sleeve – sport isn’t the highest paying of jobs!”
The Olympics in Paris is a highlight for Nathan.
“Our time in Paris was probably the happiest memory of the sport so far. We had three wins there and for a week we felt like we were on top of the world. We also went through the lows of losing the quarter final – you feel the emotional highs and lows; it’s a special journey to be part of.”
Nathan and the Aussie team are getting ready for the Water Polo World Cup which lands in Sydney in July. It’ll feature the top eight men’s and top eight women’s teams from around the world between July 1 and 26.
“This will be the first time Sydney has hosted a major water polo event since the 2000 Olympics so that is incredible. For our sport, only about 10 to 15 per cent of our games where we represent Australia have been played on home soil.
“I think we will shape up well. We hit our peak at these major tournaments, and we have gotten medals at this tournament in the past, so for us it’s a really big opportunity to use the home court advantage.”
In his spare time Nathan is working as the Manager in Operational Risk and Resilience team for KPMG who he says has been incredibly accommodating to allow him to follow his sporting dreams.
