The 20-year-old has to juggle a law degree with his sport but is a real chance of winning medals over three distances at the 2024 Games
ustralian swimmer Sam Short will go for Olympic gold in the men’s 400m, 800m and 1,500m freestyle later this month with a very real chance of standing on the podium for all three events. That potential feat is all the more remarkable given just three years ago, the 20-year-old came close to quitting the sport.Australia’s trials for the Tokyo Olympics, midway through the pandemic, and Short was a rising talent in the middle-distance program.
Despite Short’s strong performances at last year’s world championships, he enters the Paris Olympics as an underdog after illness impacted his performances at the recent trials in Brisbane. Short qualified second in the 400m and 800m events, behind Winnington on both occasions, before withdrawing from the 1,500m race – though he will still be able to contest the event in Paris.
Short grew up in Maroochydore on the Sunshine Coast with his family, everyone from his grandparents down, heavily involved in the local surf club. But Short was told he could only be part of the club if he did swim lessons. “That’s the reason I started training,” he says. The professional swimmer remains actively involved in the surf club; he will participate in the world surf lifesaving championships later this year.
While Short ultimately elected to remain with swimming after the disappointments of 2021, he has also gone on to study law at university. Balancing the two pursuits is now always easy – he was recently required to complete a constitutional law exam while at the training camp in France. “Incredibly difficult,” Short laughs. “But a good distraction as well.”Even with the exam out of the way, Short has a busy time ahead – with three events on his Olympic program. “It’s a lot of swimming,” he says.
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