FOR Olympic athletes like Kim Mickle, Saturday night’s 2016 Premier’s Olympic Dinner will be cause for a rare change to their Rio countdown routine.
“I’m always in bed at 8.30pm on a Saturday night but I love waking up in the morning and going to training. The life of Kim is eat, sleep, train,” Mickle recently told communitynews.com.au
“Fortunately Sunday is my rest day so I can have a sleep-in.”
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READ NOWThe start of the Games in Rio de Janeiro is now less than a month away and Saturday’s event at Perth Convention Exhibition Centre is the official farewell for WA-based athletes and officials.
WA Olympic Council executive officer Lisa Lilleyman said nearly 100 Olympians, including more than 60 bound for Brazil, would join a big crowd of 950 attendees at the function.
Mickle will be among them, even though she remains no certainty to make it to Rio as she battles the clock to be fit after a shoulder reconstruction.
She is increasingly confident, however, having been given until a day before flying out to prove her fitness.
“The fact they’ve pushed back that timeframe for me makes the world of difference,” Mickle said.
“It’s looking better and better and better and every day that I can get is a bonus.”
Channel 7’s Basil Zempilas and Joanna Griggs will compare Saturday’s event that will feature interviews with some of our most promising medal chances and both Brazilian dance and Australian pride inspired entertainment.
Australia’s chef de mission Kitty Chiller will also speak before introducing each WA member of the Rio-bound team on stage.
Guests have paid between $250 and $1000 to attend the dinner, which is the last big hurrah to raise $800,000 to help get WA’s athletes to Rio.
“We’ve had fantastic support from the WA corporate community for the benefit of the 2016 WA Olympians,” Ms Lilleyman said.
She hoped there would be plenty of bidding interest on the night in 120 silent and live auction items and said people who are not attending could still make a donation to help our Olympians.
Click here to make a donation to help our Olympians get to Rio.