Women In Sport: Nicole Cronin's love of sport helps her through the tough days

NICOLE Cronin works as admin and lab tech for Ward and Burke Water. She played a huge amount of sports her entire life with soccer and rugby being the main two. Nicole played underage soccer with Ireland and also played soccer with a college in Kansas.

When did you start playing your sport?
I was about 7/8 years old, went down around the corner to Richmond and never looked back.

Did you as a child have any sports women that you looked up to?
Growing up I watched a lot of sports and tbh Sonia O’Sullivan was a huge favourite in our house! Just pure class - and to be honest the more I got into rugby, the Fiona Coghlans and Niamh Briggs of the world were sports people I looked up too.

What does your game day routine look like?
Ah, to be fair, it’s very basic and normal I think. Haha - we normally get up, have mobility and weigh ins, have a bite of brekkie. We then usually go for a team walk through just to keep the minds fresh, a lot of down time depending on KO time, shower and then a pre match meal
Onto the bus and get the music and playlist flowing - I’m a lil bit superstitious so it has to be done in order.

What has been your most memorable moment in your sport?
Ah this is always a hard one because I’ve been fairly lucky that there’s been a lot of memorable moments with great people but I suppose it has to be a tie between getting my first international cap at a home World Cup and winning the interpros with Munster! Two very special days!

What is the best advice a coach has given you?
I’ve been around the block a fairly long time now so I’ve had a lot of advice from a lot of coaches but probably the one that sticks out at me is “of course there will be tough days and in those tough days you have to dig deep and remember why you started playing in the first place - because you love it!”

Where would you like to see women in sports in 10 years time?
This question gets floated around a lot and to be honest in 10 years I hope women in sport are so far on the map and on even playing fields that we don’t have to ask this question any more!

What advice would you offer to any females looking to start sports?
Just do it, give it a go and more often than not it will be the best decision of your life. It was for me.