Chris Ciriello will make his second Olympic appearance at Rio, hoping to add a gold medal to his London bronze.
Known by his teammates as the ‘Big Dog’ or ‘Italian Stallion’, Ciriello picked up his first hockey stick at just four-years-old having been born into a hockey family.
Hockey is clearly in Chris Ciriello’s genes, both his father and grandfather played, and Chris himself started to learn from the age of four. He’s played over 180 caps for Australia as part of the Kookaburras and he is one of the world’s best drag flickers; able to hit a ball at up to 120km an hour. And in the name of winning, Chris isn’t afraid of putting his body on the line. In fact he’s broken his nose four times, tore his quad, and broken his wrist (to name just a few of his injuries!).
His Road to Rio
Having started so early as a hockey player, Chris doesn’t remember a time when he didn’t have a hockey stick in his hand. As a child, he’d wait until his mother left the house, then clear the furniture and using his dad’s stick (which was far too big) start practicing… and breaking windows, glass tables, lamps.
The practice paid off. When Chris was 16 he made it into the Australian Under 18’s team, and shortly afterwards, as part of the senior Australian team, he played the Five Nations men’s hockey tournament in South Africa. Growing steadily in reputation, 2010 saw Chris help his team win both the Commonwealth Games and the Champions Trophy.
The two wins were the beginning of a phenomenal winning streak that would see the Kookaburras ranked in the top three in the world consistently for the next five or so years. And Chris has been a major reason for those rankings.
In 2014 alone he managed to score a hat trick in the World Cup and the Commonwealth Games – where he was also the highest goal scorer. Last time he was at the Olympic Games in London, Chris and his teammates walked away with bronze. This time around, they have their eyes firmly set on gold.
Why you’ll love him
Despite his love of hockey, Chris also had to do some serious soul searching when he was 18, when he was told to lose weight if he wanted to be fit enough to play for Australia. He jumped right in and through intense training and healthy eating was able to lose 35kg!
He admits he is inspired by Steve Waugh (as well as John Eales and Steve Moneghetti), who he spent time with during the London Olympic Games.
When he’s not drag flicking goals, you’ll find Chis coaching his clients as a qualified personal trainer. In his spare time, he even helps out at a drug rehab clinic where his father-in-law is CEO. But frankly, apart from all of that, the fact that Chris’s nicknames include the Big Dog and The Italian Stallion rates him highly enough with us.
Our favorite Chris quotes
On his performance: “A good saying that I try and live by is, ‘Do as if someone is watching all the time’. We use that on the Australian team as well, because if someone’s watching you, you have to attend to all those important little details. So that’s what I try to focus on.”
On his first international match: “I heard the national anthem playing and I got chills running up and down my spine and I thought, ‘This is the moment that I actually become a Kookaburra, an Australian hockey player!’ “
With his powerful drag flick, Ciriello has been an ever-present force on the Australian team since his international debut in 2008 and has never finished lower than third place during his eight years on the team. The Melbournian has won gold medals at two Commonwealth Games, two Championships Trophies and one World Cup during his career including a hat trick in the final in 2014. Chris Ciriello has 114 goals for Australia in 188 Games.
Ciriello sealed Australia a gold medal over the home-town Dutch favourites at the 2015 World League semi-final, scoring the only goal of the final, seconds before the buzzer. Ciriello also recently helped the green and gold side to claim their 14th Champions Trophy.
Outside of hockey, Ciriello enjoys time with wife, Heidi and has a passion for personal training. He has developed his own business designing programs for clients outside of his hockey commitments and shares his passion with his siblings who are also all PTs.