Growing up on a dryland cropping and cattle farm near Coolatai, Lucy Coleman didn't spend much time on the water.
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It wasn't until the now World Cup 2 silver medallist began high school at St Hilda's on the Gold Coast that she picked up an oar and began a career in rowing.
"I don't even think I knew what it was or if it really crossed my mind to be honest, not too much water out that way," Coleman said.
"I just went down for the learn to row in year eight and had a crack.
"I thought 'this is pretty different. It is fun we will see how it goes' and I just fell in love with it."
A lover of every sport, she ultimately chose rowing.
And it's proved fruitful for the 24-year-old.
She's worn the green and gold for Australia at World Cup and World Championship events and has won silver against previous Olympians when alongside scull partner Anneka Reardon, she rowed her way to silver Lightweight Women's Double Sculls Final in Poland.
Coleman admitted she was lucky enough to go to a school with the capability of having a rowing program which planted the seed.
She made the First VIII for the school when she was in year 10 and kept her spot for her final three years.
Outside of school, Coleman began single sculling.
Sculling is rowing with two oars and can be done individually or in teams while sweep is one oar to a person and in teams.
At the end of year 12, Coleman's talent was evident and she opted to pursue it.
She jetted off to college in Oklahoma in America for rowing and to study mechanical engineering but it wasn't quite what she wanted.
"I actually loved my degree, I was doing mechanical engineering but I wasn't loving the rowing so much.
"It was a lot of sweeping, a lot in eights.
"I thought 'I love rowing but I wasn't sure if this big boat scene is for me'.
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"So I transferred my degree to the University of Sydney.
"I think that was the turning point where I was like 'I want to take rowing as far as I can. I really want to make the Australian team.'"
"That became a very clear goal at that point."
The other factor was Coleman's size.
She fits into the lightweight rower category which means she has to be 57 kilograms or under for every race.
"After being in the States, it was very big boat focused, massive girls pulling very big scores on the rowing machine that were just never going to be comparable to mine," she said.
"I just thought I think I can find more at home so I moved back to Sydney, had a battler year in the single, learning to row with two oars again because I spent so much time sweeping."
She rowed at the Sydney University rowing club and was then invited to perfect her craft at the Hancock Prospecting Women's National Training Centre on the Nepean River at Penrith.
It's the base for the best of the best.
Around 25 of the country's best rowers are asked to train there every year.
"If you want to be on the Australian team, you have to make the national training centre first," Coleman said.
"It is really what gives our team the edge.
Without many Australian-based competitions Coleman believes the training centre has been integral to Australia's success.
"At the Centre it is kind of like you are training with your competition," she said.
"You have to be your best individual team performer to make the boat but then once you make the boat it becomes the ultimate team sport."
Coleman's parents still run the farm near Coolatai but she doesn't get back as much as she would like thanks to a busy training schedule and overseas competition.
But she's hoping the sacrifices are worth it.
The silver medal in Poland was a breakthrough for Australian rowing.
They hadn't experienced a medal on the international stage in that category since before the 2012 London Olympics.
A highlight in her rowing career so far, Coleman hopes it paves the way for more success and Paris Olympics qualification.
"Next year is qualifying year and it hasn't been done prior to Olympiad," she said.
"To do that would be really, really cool. And then obviously go to the Olympics.
"That is a bigger picture goal.
"Rowing is something you have to put yourself out there a bit for.
"But it is so worth it.
"The community that comes with it is unlike anything else."
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