CommBank Matildas midfielder Kyra Cooney-Cross spoke to the media after being named in the 18-player squad for Paris 2024™.
Paris will be the 22-year-old’s second Olympic Games.
“Hopefully, in France, they pack out the stadiums as they do here,” she expressed. “I’m pretty excited for it.”
The youngster was a fresh-faced teenager in Tokyo and said that she would be better prepared this time around.
“When I was in Tokyo, I only just got into the team, I was pretty fresh,” she remembered. “I’ve been part of the team for a few years now.”
As part of that Tokyo squad, the memory of coming so close to a medal and finishing in fourth place is fresh in her mind. She, and the rest of the team, will use that as motivation in their quest to finish on the podium in Paris.
“We came fourth at the World Cup, and in Tokyo as well,” she recalled. “We’re just like – we’re so close to winning a medal. And now, it gets frustrating. We just want a medal, we are that close.
“So yeah, when we get to Paris, we’re just going to work as hard as we can. We’ve got a really tough group but we’re going to give our best and we’re going to get that medal.”
Cooney-Cross has built a formidable midfield partnership with good friend and current West Ham player Katrina Gorry. While Gorry has been selected for Paris 2024™, she has been out of the side since acquiring an injury in late March, forcing Cooney-Cross to adapt to playing with different profiles of player alongside her.
The Arsenal midfielder said that while she enjoyed playing alongside her mate, a period in the team without her may have been a blessing in disguise in terms of being forced to adapt to different circumstances.
“I love playing with Mini [Katrina Gorry],” Cooney-Cross expressed. “She’s been so good for me, but also so good for this team.”
“We’ve definitely missed her a lot, but we’ve had to adapt to that. She’s a good person and player. We really need her in this team and hopefully she’s all good for Paris.
“At the World Cup, she was so important to us and to me, but I think I need to adapt that [Gorry being out]. I needed to step up, to help the team by myself without Mini. In a way, it was good for me.”