Aidan Curtis
REGIONAL students are learning the importance of chasing their dreams through an Olympics program looking to inspire the next generation.
Winter Olympian Nicholas Timmings visited schools throughout the South East last week as part of the Olympics Unleashed program, sharing his journey with students and some of the challenges he faced.
Mr Timmings represented Australia in the sport of skeleton at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, and the key lessons he learned in reaching that point formed a big part of his presentations.
He said the program was especially important for regional students who may not have as much opportunity living away from metropolitan areas.
“I know that first hand, doing a winter sport in Australia, we don’t get a lot of opportunities and it’s a lot harder to compete,” he said.
“I know how they feel and I just want to give them a bit of inspiration so if they do stick it out, they do dedicate themselves, they can get to the top level even having limited opportunities.”
While competing in skeleton was a big part of his life and he wanted to share that with students, Mr Timmings said the over-arching message of his talks could translate to anything they were passionate about.
“The three things I’ve learned are taking your opportunities, finding your own passion, then the resilience to continue,” he said.
“I just want to impart some of the things I’ve learned onto these kids.
“At such a young age, they’re so impressionable, so it’s a good age for them to see these things and have it sink in.”
Mr Timmings said the presentations had gone quite well, with lots of students showing they were engaged and asking dozens of questions.
“I think that’s the most important thing, is actually having kids who want to know more and have plenty of questions,” he said.
“If you don’t get an engaged group, you don’t know if you’re doing something wrong or if sport or your presentation just isn’t interesting.
“It’s just amazing to have a group of kids with so many questions.”
Despite the great engagement, Mr Timmings admitted he was still more comfortable hurtling head-first down an ice track through his sport than he was doing public speaking.
“I feel pretty comfortable at the top of an ice track,” he said.
“I don’t know what questions I’m going to get [during presentations].”
Mr Timmings visited Allendale East Area School, Gordon Education Centre, Grant High School, Mount Gambier High School and Tenison Woods College.
