Hockeyroo Eddie Bone is still coming to terms with the postponement of Tokyo 2020, an event that was set to see the Orange product compete in her second Olympic Games after debuting at Rio in 2016.
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The 31-year-old is now faced with the challenge of staying on top of her game in the lead-up to next year as the Tokyo spectacle is set to have its Opening Ceremony on August 23, 2021.
What makes this process tough for Bone - and all of her teammates - is not knowing how much of that time will be spent alone after the COVID-19 wave forced her Perth-based training facility to shut down for the foreseeable future.
However, it's not all bad for Bone as she was recently recalled to her job as a personal trainer at Perth's Fibre Active gym after the centre brought her back on board to lead fitness sessions via Zoom.
As well as work and hockey, Bone finds the time to study online through Edith Cowan University where she's chipping away at a Master's degree in teaching as she looks to set herself up for life after sport.
Despite work and uni occupying a large part of her conscience, Bone's still hell bent on staying in peak physical condition as she'll need to be re-picked for the Hockeyroos before next year's Olympics.
"We have to go through another selection process next year," Bone said.
"We were right in the thick of things and starting to get really, really fit before Tokyo was cancelled.
"All of us were performing at a true, international level so to have it pulled out from underneath you is a weird feeling."
Although the Olympic Games looked ominous as soon as the COVID-19 crisis began to hit mainstream media, Bone was still shocked by the cancellation and said it all happened rather suddenly.
"We had a meeting last week and I went to the gym and then went to uni and then I got a text message from one of the girls saying training was cancelled indefinitely," she said.
We were right in the thick of things and starting to get really, really fit before Tokyo was cancelled.
- Eddie Bone
"Not long after that, the Olympics were suspended. A lot of the girls in the team wanted to go home and see their family so it's good they got to do that."
Bone's relatives are split between Orange and the Central Coast but she's been living in Perth for almost a decade and now resides with her fiance.
The pair were set to get married after the 2020 games but the postponement has thrown more than one spanner into the works as Bone was also looking to use the post-Olympics time frame to evaluate her career and take some time for herself.
"I was going to take some time after Tokyo to look at where I was in terms of my play," she said.
"I'm still driven and still have motivation but I'm getting towards that retirement age and that's something that's in the back of my head now."
While she isn't a spring chicken in professional hockey terms, Bone backs her endurance and thinks she's got more than enough ability to mix it with the younger players for at least a few more.
"I'm one of the fittest in the group so for me it's about making some slight adjustments to my game-plan because the speed isn't going to stay with me forever," she said.
Some people are more suited to isolation training than others and luckily for Bone, she hasn't needed fitness buddies to get outdoors and stay in shape for her entire life, and she isn't about to need them now.
"I'm confident in my ability to keep fit. I've got that background of working in a gym and I've got access to all the equipment and past programs, she said.
"I've got a gym set up in my backyard where I'm still coaching all of the members so that keep me refreshed.
"I enjoy getting outdoors, walking the dog, going for runs and just plotting along and staying active. It's what I've done since I was a little kid."
There's no telling when competitive sports - let alone hockey - will resume and with a large chunk of the national competitions for 2020 already cancelled, Bone thinks she's at an advantage to be re-selected for the Hockeyroos next year just because she's already part of this year's squad.
"If you're an up and coming playing and you're not on their radar already then it would be hard to get an opportunity considering lots of the competitions later in the year have already been cancelled.
That's where a lot of the selectors do their scouting," she said.
"Given that I'm on the 2020 squad they'd have to include me in at least the selection process for next year."
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