Voice it - Anna McVann (Hawker)

In this episode I had the absolute pleasure of interviewing a former Olympian who calls the Clare Valley her home.

Anna McVann is the youngest of 6 kids who grew up in the Adelaide suburbs - but she wasn’t just any kid.  

At the age of 15 she represented Australia at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.

There she made 4 finals, an amazing result which put this teenage girl in the spotlight as a up and coming Australian swimmer to watch. 

In this episode, you’ll hear about the gruelling training regimes, the diet, the international swimming comps, the Olympic experience, the Australian Institute of Sport, Crystal Palace and being a physio for the Olympic Diving Team. This woman has done so much, I’m bursting at the seams to share it with you! 

I’ve never met anyone with such discipline and dogged determination, who else would rock up to swimming training in a wheelchair, with a leg in plaster and still want to train!! This is just one of the many stories you’ll hear in this episode.

After the dizzying heights of swimming stardom and international travel, Anna saw her life to be in Paris, London, and New York however on a trip back to Australia she was swept off her feet by Clare Valley farmer – Tom Hawker. She settled down, had 4 children and set up her own successful physiotherapy business.

Strap in, this is Anna’s story.