Lambert cooking up a storm for Stingers in and out of water

It took just one bite of the wicked concoction Aussie Stingers water polo player Alexie Lambert whipped up from blended butterscotch fingers, melted butter, sweetened condensed milk and dark chocolate to make her an instant squad favourite.                                                                                                                                                                                              

If the caramel slices she shared with her teammates at their first training session the first week of training wasn’t enough, then the aroma of Lambert’s scrumptious lamb dinner wafting down the corridor of the squad’s accommodation during the Stingers pre-world championships camp on the Gold Coast made her the athlete everyone wanted to room with.

Lambert laughs when told her reputation as a master cook, awesome baker, and tough as teak competitor precedes her. However, in the next breath, the 22-year-old confessed her extraordinary cooking and baking prowess is a tried and proven treatment for her to unwind.

“I hadn’t roomed with any of the girls before, so I just started baking,” she said. “I often use cooking and baking to relax and not think about water polo. I made a caramel slice for everyone in the first week we were away.

“And when I’m training with the New South Wales Institute of Sport (NSWIS) squad I like to put on a podcast while I bake a batch of cookies or cupcakes for the girls. 

“A few people have suggested I do it for a career, but I cook and bake things like lemon blondie brownies because I love doing it. It’s something I don’t feel pressured about. It just makes me happy.”

And, despite the frustration of a stubborn shoulder injury that stifled Lambert’s international career, she’s just as enthusiastic when professing her love for water polo. This deep seated passion even motivated her to change schools when she was halfway through Year Eight at Warner’s Bay High School (in Newcastle).

She decided to attend Lambton High because it was within walking distance to the local swimming pool, the place where Lambert finetuned her water polo skills. 

Even at a young age she did it with such purpose the renowned coach, Brett Arnold, a former Australian representative who has dedicated his energies to helping young players from regional NSW to shine, saw a young athlete blessed with the rare combination of heart, talent, and drive.

“Being able to walk to the pool meant I didn’t need anyone to drive me there, and I’d stay for all the training sessions: the men’s session, women’s session, and they’d usually finish when the pool closed at 7:30pm,” she said.

“I loved it; still do. I appreciate the supportive coaches I’ve had, as well as the people water polo has introduced me to. Someone I really care about, Brett Arnold, was one of my first coaches and he put the thought in my head that I could do something and be something if I put the effort in.

“Hearing that meant a lot. It meant someone believed in me. While I still keep in contact with Brett, I left Newcastle after I finished year 10. Mum said I needed to have a school certificate and driver’s license before I moved to Sydney, and I headed off as soon as I got them.”

Lambert (photographed above in 2022) moved south where; after moving in to live with her father, she joined Sydney University’s junior program. In between gruelling training sessions, she made a living by running swimming classes and coaching schoolgirl water polo. 

After becoming a NSWIS scholarship holder Lambert says she was influenced by a succession of great coaches: Mel Rippon, Bec Rippon – now her Stingers Head Coach – current NSWIS program Head Coach Neven Cirkovic and Assistant Coach Jackie Northam. 

“I built a support system at NSWIS,” said Lambert. “The coaches are all different, but they helped push me along. When Bec came into the picture she became a massive supporter [of mine] 

“Bec is something else . . . amazing . . . gives me tingles to think of how she’s helped me. But all the coaches have been very passionate. They’ll do anything for anyone they care about – and they care about all of us so much.” 

Lambert is back in Australia’s battle colours two years after making her debut against the powerhouse USA in Brisbane. As far as she’s aware there’s no vision of the match but admits whenever she replays her memories of that match in her mind’s lens she still shakes with nerves.

“I was definitely very, very nervous to say the least,” she says of her debut. “It was a wild experience, and I definitely wasn’t in the same place I am now. I think I’m much better prepared for this experience.

“That first game was very daunting, very tense. Though, I’d played [in Newcastle] with one of the girls from the USA team, Rachel Fatal, so it was so cool to be able to play against [the two-time Olympic gold medallist]. 

“I vividly recall lining up before the game and hearing everyone’s name read out before singing the national anthem. There’s nothing you can compare it to; I get tingles, goosebumps, thinking about it even now.”

Lambert felt a similar jolt of emotion when she made her long awaited return to the Australian team in a recent World Cup match against China. With China leading 11-10, a Lambert rocket levelled the score before Australia celebrated a 16-14 victory.  

“[After I scored the goal] I was like: ‘Okay. I just scored, now get back to halfway, just get back to halfway. Now, what’s next? Go back and defend and don’t let them score.’ I didn’t really get a chance to think about that goal until after the match and, obviously, I was very, very happy.”

Lambert’s success is hailed by her supporters as just reward for the resilience she displayed in returning from the shoulder injury that cost her time in the water, and numerous opportunities to represent Australia. 

She admitted that, after the battle she waged to return to the Stingers, there aren’t words that can possibly describe how it felt to see her name in the World Aquatics Championships squad. Australia’s campaign kicked with the Stingers stinging host nation Singapore 32-2 in their opening match and then beating Italy 19-15 and New Zealand 15-6 to finish on top of their group.

“Definitely shocked,” she says, still excited. “It was a different feeling to last year when I was told I wasn’t going to play for a while [through injury]. I sat out on the stairs outside NSWIS bawling my eyes out. I called my mum, and she was like: ‘you’ve either got to lock in or quit. And I was like, ‘okay’.

“I’m just so happy I gave it my all. It’s paid off.”

And there’s no doubt her teammates are as well. After all the lioness-hearted Lambert has been through they’d be wanting her to continue enjoying the sweet taste of success . . . in and outside the pool.

  FAST FACTS, ALEXIE LAMBERT

• Lambert enjoyed completing a four month pathology and blood collection course at TAFE.  
• While it’s hard to secure a job in that field due to her training and playing commitments, Lambert likes the idea of making people comfortable in what can be, for some, something they dread – needles! 
• She works for What Ability, a support service in which people with a disability are taken on outings.
• Lambert’s first What Ability session was – perhaps unsurprisingly – at the local pool where the person she was with enjoyed throwing a water polo ball around.
• Lambert played professional water polo for Petra in Greece and was stunned by the fanaticism of the spectators who took flares, flags and drums to matches: “We had the riot police at one match keeping the supporters apart.”