The Club will be supporting all members of the Australian team in Rio, but we’ll be keeping a particularly close eye on the Crows fans heading to Brazil.
Basketballers Patty Mills and Laura Hodges, cycling stars Jack Bobridge, Annette and Alex Edmondson and Patrick Constable, BMX champion Sam Willoughby and Hockeyroo Georgie Parker are among the known Adelaide supporters taking part in the Games.
Mills, 27, has been selected to represent his country at the Games for the third time. The San Antonio Spurs guard had the highest scoring average in London four years ago, putting up 21.2 points a match and scoring 39 against host nation Great Britain.
Hodges (formerly Summerton) is off to her fourth Games. A Bronze Medallist, and two-time Silver Medallist, the South Australian will be hoping to help guide the Opals to an elusive gold medal in Rio.
Two-time BMX World Champion Willoughby, who has been selected in the Aussie team for the second time, also has gold in his sights.
Willoughby, 24, claimed silver in London beaten out by Latvian Maris Strombergs in the final. The Crows Ambassador will become one of only three Australian BMX athletes to compete at two Games.
Bobridge was just 19 when he represented Australia in the Team Pursuit in Beijing. Alongside Brad McGee, Mark Jamieson and Luke Roberts, the Aussies qualified third fastest before New Zealand edged them in the bronze medal final.
The track and road star teamed up with Glenn O’Shea, Rohan Dennis and Michael Hepburn in the Team Pursuit in London four years later. The quartet qualified second fastest and progressed to the gold medal race with Great Britain, claiming the silver medal.
Annette and Alex Edmondson are one of eight sets of siblings on the Australian team for Rio.
Annette, 24, will compete at her second Games having proven herself as one of the world’s best riders since London. The multiple world champion won bronze in the Omnium in London, and finished a narrow fourth as a member of the Team Pursuit. In 2015, she lined up alongside Ashlee Ankudinoff, Amy Cure and Melissa Hoskins to break the Team Pursuit world record by almost three seconds. She will compete in the Team Pursuit and Omnium again in Rio.
Alex, 22, will team up with fellow South Aussie Bobridge in the 4,000m Men’s Team Pursuit. Edmondson was selected in the Aussie team for the London, did not get a ride due to the depth in the men’s pursuit team who went on to claim silver.
Not long after London, Edmondson started to become a regular in the Team Pursuit team. The emerging star was part of the 2013 and 2014 World Championship winning teams. After finishing with bronze in the team pursuit in 2015, he was not a part of the 2016 team that claimed the title back for Australia to focus on his professional road team.
Constable has been selected for three events, Keirin Men, Sprint Men and Team Sprint Men in his Games debut. The 20-year-old only secured an AIS scholarship in late 2015 and began making rapid improvements that put him in the frame for Rio selection.
Lining up with Rio teammates Matt Glaetzer and Jai Angsuthasawit for South Australia, he won his first senior national title in the team sprint. Constable showed he could match it with the world’s best when he won his first World Cup gold medal to start the Olympic year.
At his first senior World Championships, just months out from Rio, he combined with Glaetzer again and also Nathan Hart in the team sprint. The trio went within 0.001 seconds of racing off for bronze but instead finished in fifth.
From Berri in country South Australia, Parker will debut in Rio as a member of the Hockeyroos.
In 2013, the forward won gold in the World League Semi-Final in England, and silver at the World League Final in Argentina. The following year she won gold at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and silver in the Hockey World Cup in the Netherlands.
