Isabella is a wellness and sports specialist with over a decade of national and international competitions under her belt as an athlete.
Her career highlights include earning an AIS scholarship in Canoe Sprint, representing Italy in the 2017 AFL International cup, partaking in the inaugural women's NRLW rugby draft and piloting a Monobob for Australia in the IBSF North American Cup without dying. Most recently she was selected to compete at the 2024 ICF Senior World Championships in Canoe Marathon to be held in Croatia.
Whilst currently on a break from sport, Izzy's ultimate goal is to hit the Olympic stage. When not training she is probably playing with a dog somewhere or on a side quest championing a cause close to her heart.
I hope one day that by becoming the best athlete I can be I can share my full story to help others.
Jack of all trades, master of none, is better than being a master of one.
The awesome people I meet in each sport around the world, not a second of my time has been wasted. Different sports attract different personalities and getting to see the stereotypes of each sport is pretty entertaining. I love each sport I’ve spent time in, it’s a fun journey finding the one (or three) for me.
Not giving up after 10 years. Life will test you but if you’re very sure of your purpose, nothing can sway you from it. The best is yet to come.
I think we all say putting on our country’s uniform for the first time feels pretty good. I have a couple of medal buckets somewhere but I’d say my biggest achievement has been everything I put into it when there’s no-one cheering. Things are easy when you have support, I’m most proud of what I do when no-one’s watching; the thousands of hours I spent training alone in my first sport, especially out on the water, purely focused on getting the job done.
My goal is to focus on one sport and hit my maximum potential in it, I hope that this is to be on the podium at a senior international level (if you’re reading this please pray for me). Within 5 years I’d like to whittle down my sports to 1-3 that are realistic for me to take to the top level with one I can do for life. I like watching the videos of 90+ year olds competing in their sport… in the next 70 years I’d love to do that.
I’ve faced my fair share. Inevitably, setbacks can always happen; equipment could fail, injuries can arise, your favourite person could drop dead on competition day or a destructive parrot might kamikaze into your plane and delay your flight there. I can’t imagine anything external that would surprise me and negatively affect my performance now. I have everything I need to get through any difficulty that arises when it counts. I am grateful as this is one of my strengths, a competitor with no setbacks is going to fall easily at a slight inconvenience.
Try all the sports you can now, so you can find the one to dedicate yourself too before you’re my age. When life is hard, hold hope and trust in God’s plan, something amazing will be right around the corner. Keep going!
I was selected for an AIS scholarship in 2015, the selection process took nearly a year and it was one of the happiest days of my life when I got the news. This opportunity enabled me to be supported with training and competition costs domestically and overseas in the lead up to Tokyo 2020 Olympic selection. I came close, which isn’t bad for 4 years in sport. I will always be grateful to have started my career this way.
Build your own family. Align yourself with good people, whether they’re athletes from other sports, mentors who inspire you or your coaching / medical team, find a good team and stick with them. I am grateful to be part of a women’s sport network where I’ve been partnered up with a very cool mentor for the last year. She is someone I really look up to and helps me look at challenging situations from all angles (thank you Heidi!). Be very prepared for setbacks coming your way and when they do something which has always helped me is to find something I can do, remember anything is better than nothing… even if you’re stuck staring at a brick wall for 2 hours a day using an arm cycle for your only available cardio option. Most importantly remember your purpose, for me and most of my team, we are driving to be the best we can be so hopefully one day our stories can inspire and motivate.
I’m not successful at this yet, sport is my life. My view is that all the greats have given their pursuit 100%, so the ideal situation for me is to be able to earn an income and give it everything too.
I am huge on recovery science, I love reading research. EMS and TENS are proven to aid physiological recovery and I’ve used EMS previously to help maintain my muscle when injured. I recently had a slight issue with my hand, PainPod offered a glove attachment which allowed me to rehab this and recover the feeling back. I knew as soon as I tried it, it would help me a lot with my sports journey especially when the setbacks come. I feel very lucky to have PainPod join my team.
I’m a very big fan of the portability of the devices, it’s epic. It is incredibly easy for me to incorporate into my routine and helps free a bit more time. I take PainPod with me everywhere, I use it on long drives, when sitting for video calls, I’ve even used both my PainPod Lite and PainPod Pro on a flight on the way to and from a sports camp.