Oh Baby, It's Time To Learn About Time Management
Sydney Morning Herald
Tuesday December 7, 1999
IN the lead-up to the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, basketball star Trisha Fallon posed nude for a photographic magazine. Like the current Australian women's soccer squad, Fallon recognised a chance to promote herself and her sport to a public that was less than enthusiastic about female teams.
``I'm glad that I did it, it's something I don't regret," she said last week. ``Unfortunately for women's sport, it seems to be the only way to get noticed - then you hope they will look at the way you play."
The way Fallon plays leaves no doubts about beauty being substituted for brawn.
Four years after her nude posing, at the age of 27 she is arguably the best female basketballer in Australia.
The 190cm ``glamour girl" of the courts has been named Most Valuable Player in most of her matches this season with the Sydney Flames and scores an average of 21.2 points per game second only in the league to wunderkind Lauren Jackson, who has yet to match Fallon's maturity, stamina and leadership.
At the start of the current Women's National Basketball League season, she was third on the list of all-time club point-scorers.
When Olympic training begins with the national Opals team in March, this slim but well-toned athlete (always described as ``willowy" or ``statuesque") will be one of our most crucial players.
Even in Atlanta, before she had reached the physical peak of performance she's approaching this year, Fallon was scoring 18 points in crucial games to help the Opals win the bronze medal.
She was named MVP of the WNBL championship game in 1997, when she led the Flames to the title despite being 14 weeks pregnant.
Becoming a mother (her partner is the well-known DJ, Rodney O) has had a profound effect on Fallon on her life, her career and her glamorous image.
``I have to really focus a lot now on the mental aspects of the sport that I never really did before," she said.
``It's not just a physical thing anymore. It's also about time management and taking care of my life off the court so that I can be fully focused on the game."
The Sydney Olympics will be a huge test of those time-management skills.
While her mother was the only family member present to watch her play in Atlanta, a large contingent of family and friends will be sharing next year's Olympic medal push.
``It's going to be a major distraction, because I'll want to see everyone but I won't have any time because we play the entire two weeks and we'll be training in between and what little time we do have, we'll be expected to rest," Fallon said.
``But I'm sure they'll understand."
An intense, full-time training schedule will also isolate her from her partner and her 21-month-old daughter Tashia, who toddles out for the national anthem at most of the Flames' home games.
But she's used to that from her stints in Italy, where she led Familia Schio to the Coppa Italia title, and a brief, unhappy experience with the WNBA's Minnesota Lynx (she's now been traded to Phoenix).
And the Olympics, after all, are the Olympics.
``It's always in the back of my mind," she admitted.
But will it mean more photos in the buff?
Fallon hesitated, laughed, but finally said she didn't think so.
``After all, I'm a mum now."
© 1999 Sydney Morning Herald