Shawn Mackay Medalist Henry Paterson is ready to make up for past Olympic setbacks as the men's side prepares to take the field in Paris.
Paterson is one of few athletes making their Olympic debut despite being named in multiple Olympic squads.
The 27-year-old bolted into contention for Tokyo after impressing for the Oceania Barbarians in a warm-up tournament, selected for the squad only for injury to rule him out in the final days before leaving for Japan.
Further injury complications threatened to derail his dream further as Paterson was forced to deal with the physical and mental toil of potentially missing another Olympics.
“I had a few injury battles earlier this year and missed a few tourneys and Sevens is a pretty unrelenting game, your game speed waits for no one, it takes a lot to come back from an injury," he reflected to Rugby.com.au
“It’s been an up and down year missing those first three tournaments and then some back troubles in Singapore so credit to the medical stage here at Sevens to get me back on the field.
"I think everything is heightened in an Olympic year, you can always hear that drumbeat in the background and the clock is ticking but I guess that’s the skill of grounding yourself and finding what works for you. Especially early in the year, it was key just to remember how much time you have and you do have a lot of footy to play even between the end of the world series and Paris."
With his selection confirmed, Paterson reflected on the journey to the Olympic squad for a second time.
"It’s been a whirlwind this campaign," he explained.
"It’s been great to compare how different they are in Tokyo being affected (by COVID) and being around for the full qualification process for Paris. It’s just really special.
“I was able to sit down and celebrate this with my family last night and celebrate this with the people that helped me get here whereas Tokyo was so COVID-affected and wasn’t able to fully experience that with the team of people that are my support network, which has been nice.”
Paterson and the Australian side know they're better than their seventh-place finish in Madrid, which ironically is their best finish at an Olympics.
“I think the good thing was that was the first time where we had that high pressure, winners takes all tournament and from a results perspective, we didn’t win it and it’s a bad tournament but we took a lot from that," he added.
“We played some good footy against some good teams and we feel like we’ve got the blueprint to beat any team we come up against but we just sometimes stray away
“The takeaway from Madrid was to believe in the process that we’ve built a team to beat anyone and play to our strengths.”
