What steered Fitz from running stardom to surfing fame

Sally Fitzgibbons remembers throwing her bag on the school bus and trying to beat it on foot, or bouncing out of the surf to tackle gruelling hill sessions.

The golden girl from the laidback town of Gerroa on the south coast of NSW is famous for what she's achieved in the surf, but for a time in her childhood she was starring on the athletics track.

As a kid, Fitzgibbons surfed, ran, did Nippers, and played football, touch football and hockey.

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She trained in a running squad with another sports-mad south coast kid, Bulli's Ryan Gregson, who would go on to become an Olympic 1500m finalist and a national 1500m record holder.

In Sydney in 2007, Fitzgibbons won gold medals in the 800m and 1500m at the Australian Youth Olympic Festival.

As she recalls more than a decade on, one factor was key in her making a career out of surfing.

"At that moment surfing was a bit ahead of the curve in female sport where it actually had a pathway," Fitzgibbons tells Wide World of Sports.

"From the ages of 14-15, you were already coming into your funding for a campaign on the global level.

"You look at running and football and a lot of the sports I was invested in — they didn't have that viable pathway. You would have to work a couple of jobs.

"This was that guarantee that I could go and play sport at the highest level and be supported and have a livelihood. I'm just thankful for surfing and action sports and the brands that believed in me. You're able to build your own team in surfing to provide that funding and it was a sport that I loved. It took my heart."

At the age of 14, Fitzgibbons became the youngest surfer in history to win a junior event run by the Association of Surfing Professionals, now known as the World Surf League.

At the age of 19, she made her Championship Tour debut. She's since spent time as world No.1 and won three world tour level contests.

Fitzgibbons and five other Australian surfers — Tyler Wright, Molly Picklum, Ethan Ewing, Jack Robinson and Morgan Cibilic — are set to contest the World Surfing Games in Puerto Rico, where they'll hit the water on Saturday night (AEDT).

Fitzgibbons, 33, will be competing as a wildcard as she tries to qualify for her second Olympic campaign via a left-field avenue, having missed out on Paris 2024 qualification through the world rankings.

Casting her mind back to when she juggled surfing, running and many other sports, Fitzgibbons remembers the phenomenal impact of the Sydney 2000 Olympics.

"I feel like there was this explosion after the 2000 Olympics. You were set on your way off what's possible and all of your skillsets were intertwining. It's a pretty common story among my mates who are still at the high level of their sports now; they remember weekend to weekend bouncing from surfing to Nippers to football to touch football. You're just going everywhere.

"For me it was quite organic, [specialising in surfing]. Surfing is a part of my life. The first thing I picked up was a boogie board when I was three years old. I was getting pushed on waves and there's something really sentimental about it. It feels like home. Being there at Gerroa and you've got no worries or responsibilities and your life is just being free in the ocean — if that's your introduction to sport and movement, I feel like that was never going to leave me."

In the same interview with Wide World of Sports, fond memories of her running days come flooding back.

"Running for me, coming from a country area, it's just the best way to get places," Fitzgibbons says with her renowned broad, sparkling smile.

"I could get places by foot and I could run to school. It was about five [kilometres]. I'd throw my bag on the bus and try to race the bus home.

"I just had this wicked imagination for movement and going places and I just loved that feeling."