goldcoastfc.com.au sat down with Women Of The SUNS (WOTS) Ambassador and three-times Nutri-Grain Ironwoman, Courtney Hancock to talk all things true to 'Courtz'.
Tell us about Courtney Hancock and how you came to be a professional Ironwoman?
Well I grew up in Sortel, which is in Northern New South Wales, and my family house was on the beach so it became natural for me to get down to the beach every day.
Growing up, I absolutely loved the surf and from when I was five I joined Nippers at our local surf club which was literally 100 metres away from our house. Mum and dad really wanted my sisters and I to learn all the surf skills.
From there I sort of gained a competitive edge - I remember that I always just wanted to beat the boys *laughs*!
Then as soon as I found out about the Nutri-Grain Ironwoman Series, I fell in love with it and I thought I want to be an elite athlete one day and I think this is going to be the sport that I’d love to do because your office is the beach.
From there I finished school at Coffs Harbour and moved up to the Gold Coast, all on my own, and lived with my coach.
He (coach) was a little intense and it’s actually funny as he reminds me a little about Rocket (SUNS Senior Coach, Rodney Eade). But it was good as he really helped me out with my first year on the Coast.
And now here I am in my tenth year as a professional athlete.
What does your current training regime look like?
Our sport is pretty intense. Being an Iron Woman we have a few disciplines which includes surf, ski, board, swim and running on the sand in between.
So my week is quite full on. Four days a week I do three sessions a day which is basically a swim every morning with Denis Cotterell in the pool.
There is a team of us which includes some Olympian swimmers and Olympians from the triathlons and surf squad and we swim up to 6km’s.
Twice a week I also train at the SUNS facilities at Metricon, which is fantastic as doing my session with all the boys in the gym around me really motivates me. It’s also my sneaky workout that I do where no-one knows where or who I am which I really like.
Then in the afternoons I’ll go to the surf or river for some board and ski training
On Saturday’s I also do a three and a half hour session of doing a continuous Iron – so we’ll go up and down the coast for that also.
At the moment there's a lot of early nights, lots of food and just no social life (laughs) as I’m currently getting ready for the Coolangatta Gold - so training is very intense.
Courtney with her sister India and parents Richard and Julia. Source Instagram.
Tell us about your three sisters and what it was like growing up in your household?
Yes I do have three sisters. There’s Georgia, myself, Bonnie and India and we’re all pretty close in age, around two years apart. We’re a very tight family.
Unfortunately no boy popped into our family which would’ve been nice for dad but all us girls have been pretty heavily involved in sports so he’s been kind of lucky there.
Plus when we were younger, when he could, he dragged us along to as many AFL games as he could, which we loved.
Our household growing up was pretty full-on. The worst thing about having a house full of girls were the stealing of clothes! A lot of my friends thought it was cool that I had three other sisters as I could share clothes but it wasn’t like that at all, it was more like stealing them (laughs).
But I love all my sisters so much. I’m very lucky. Plus we all really appreciate each other, especially now in our twenties because we’ve become best friends.
What do you like doing outside of training / competing?
When I can I try to pop down to Coffs Harbour (in NSW) as much as I can to see my grandparents, friends and aunties and uncles. I also like going to Sydney and seeing my friends there.
I really enjoy going out and catching up with people. I love food so being able to check out the new cafes and restaurants on the Coast is an awesome way to wind down. Some days I find myself going out for breakfast, lunch and dinner!
I’ve also got a bit of a love for designing swimwear in my time off so hopefully one day I can get a bit more into that.
Source: Instagram
Tell us something our WOTS members wouldn’t know about Courtney Hancock?
I’m actually a qualified make-up artist and beauty therapist.
I studied my Diploma of Beauty Therapy and Make-Up when I first moved up to the Gold Coast, when I was 18.
It was a very hectic year back then as I was actually working, studying and training but I’ve always liked to have a bit of a balance with my sports.
After I completed my diploma, I worked in a salon for about six months but then my sporting career started to take off - I started to get up the ranks and started getting enough sponsors to be a professional athlete full-time.
Another one, which is quite funny is that I can’t reverse parallel park!
I have a camera in my car with the lines that direct you but for the life of me I just can’t do it *laughs*!
The other week, I was looking for a park on the main strip of Broadbeach with my dad and this guy was trying to get me to take his park and I was like no it's okay, I’ll go up a bit but he was so persistent, so I had to get my dad to do it!
I was so embarrassed and the worst part is that my name is on my car so I knew people were watching!
Courtney modelling the 'Be You' campaign for The Upside active wear line. Source: Instagram
