How a mountain changed Wales' mindset as they seek Euro highs
It took Rhian Wilkinson the length of a game to climb Yr Wyddfa on Thursday morning.Leaving at 06:00 BST – texting Football Association of Wales (FAW) staff to let them know she would not be joining them on the train to Wales' highest peak – she took some time for herself at the top 90 minutes later.It was the sixth time she had scaled the 3,500-foot mountain since being named Wales head coach little more than a year ago, but her attachment to the spectacular summit stretches a lot further.Her parents – dad Keith and Welsh mother Shan - took their honeymoon in the Eryri national park. When the family returned from Canada for a year when Wilkinson was a schoolgirl, they would regularly holiday in an area they loved to explore.When her father died, six months before she took the Wales job, it felt the fitting place tor the family to hold a ceremony to remember him."It feels quite full circle," Wilkinson said, back on the mountain as she named her Wales squad for a summer where they will attempt to scale new heights in their first appearance at a major finals.It also felt fitting.
Whether fate or coincidence, the FAW had no idea of Wilkinson's bond with the breathtaking landscape when they decided there was no better spot to show how their side – not even officially recognised until 1993 – now deserves to be high on a platform of its own for everyone to see.But the 43-year-old former Canada international had also used the mountain, also known as Snowden, to help change a mindset."This place is what we based our journey on," said defender Rhiannon Roberts, who could not resist a trip to the summit for the announcement, having seen images of it throughout the qualifiers. "From the start of the campaign, we'd have our badge and all the fixtures going up the mountain and then our goal, our summit, at the top."Each game, we'd climb up the mountain, ticking them off one by one. And here we are."As well as the PowerPoint to start international weeks, posters were dotted around the team's breakfast and meeting rooms."We got on board with every camp as we moved up and onto the next fixture," said goalkeeper Olivia Clark. "And then we reached the top with qualifying, but we're going again because we're at the tournament with a new mountain."One that perhaps represents a bigger challenge, hence the inclusion of the influential and experienced Sophie Ingle in the 23-player squad for Switzerland - where Wales face the Netherlands, France and England - represented such a timely boost after nine months out.Ingle, 33 and having won 141 caps, has been on this journey longer than most, one that Wilkinson admitted some players and staff openly wondered if they would ever accomplish given the number of near misses to qualifying.She suspected a mental block, so brought in a mental performance coach to try and place past baggage behind them, and returned to the mountain."It was used as a theme because it was always going to be an uphill battle, with setbacks," Wilkinson said. "The challenge of steeper parts, the flattening off, all these parallels."And as we move towards the Euros, we've started talking about the Everest part of it, that something is impossible until it isn't. And we're there."Getting 'there' is new for Wales, but not for Wilkinson. She won two bronze medals from three Olympics and appeared at four World Cups during her 181-cap career with Canada, being inducted into their hall of fame and recognised as one of their greatest players."They were huge moments for me, realising a dream to be an Olympian, but helping this team create a moment for themselves is very special," she said.The aim is for more moments."We will surprise people," promised Wilkinson, who added that she also expects some of the lower-profile players in the squad, beyond the likes of Ingle and the iconic Jess Fishlock, to catch the eye now the platform is theirs.As she put it: "These names should be known."They might well be if the lowest-ranked side at the Euros do cause the surprise she predicts.Talk of the fixtures against three of the European game's heavyweights - holders, past winners, and former semi-finalists - was put into suitable climbing context, with the audience told things would be taken step by step in the two and a half weeks before the opener against the Dutch in Lucerne.The obvious questions on England came, but were not the focus. No-one thought to ask whether the Wyddfa legend of a slain giant being entombed at the summit was another metaphor Wilkinson was about to lean on.Instead, a Portugal training camp is next for the squad – plus three as-yet unnamed training players – and a hectic schedule before the first game on 5 July.All to come, but a longer-term future was also on Wilkinson's mind as she took her walk up the mountain.Following the interviews and photos at the summit, where only the haze of the sunshine prevented the view reaching Pembrokeshire 96 miles to the south, Wilkinson joined the media and officials on the train for the trip back down the mountain and a reminder that the impact of this side has stretched just as far.An historic trip, even for a railtrack in operation for 129 years, as a local team welcomed Wilkinson in front of a giant Wales shirt – dubbed Ein Crys Cymru/Our Wales shirt - about to set off on a tour of the country to engage with the next generation. Participation figures are thought to be close to a 2026 target of 20,000 girls, if not already passed ahead of the summer.As some of those numbers smiled for one last photo, Yr Wyddfa stared back at Wilkinson, the mountain that has motivated her team and the 23 heading to Switzerland.And so a new journey – and a new summit – awaits.
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