Sam Short’s small leap to ocean swimming and the prospect of extra Australian success in 2032

Sam Short is already certainly one of Australia’s most versatile swimmers.

A world championship medallist at distances starting from the 4×200 metres relay as much as 1,500m within the pool, the 22-year-old Queenslander has determined to take an ever larger plunge in 2026.

Short is ready to step into the ocean on the Australian Open Water Swimming championships, which get underway at Koombana Bay in Bunbury, Western Australia, this week.

He can be racing the 10-kilometre, 5km and 3km knockout occasions, the latter of which can function on the championships for the primary time this yr.

It’s a part of a plan that would result in much more swimming success in Brisbane 2032.

Short isn’t any stranger to open water swimming.

Like so many different coastal Australians, Short grew up within the surf, his dad Danny and his uncles all competing for the Maroochy Surf Club on the Sunshine Coast and he himself being concerned since he was a green-cap nipper.

His loping model is considerably synonymous with somebody who has grown up swimming within the surf, and lately, he put that talent to good use, profitable the well-known Lorne Pier to Pub race in Victoria alongside one other Surf Lifesaver-turned-Dolphin, Lani Pallister, who received her seventh-straight crown.

Nevertheless, the battle of open water swimming remains to be an enormous change from the pool, not least needing to feed mid-race.

“I’ve actually never done feeding before in a race,” Short tells ABC Sport.

“I did a little bit of practise yesterday, actually, to get my head around it.”

There are different adjustments as properly.

“You’ve got to be able to swim with the ocean,” Short says.

“And you’ve got to be able to see where you’re swimming, otherwise you end up swimming hundreds of metres more by accident just by swimming off course. You save a lot of time by swimming as straight as possible.

“Obviously, as a result of there isn’t any lane ropes out of the pool, so no-one’s going to cease anybody from swimming excessive of you, getting proper up in your private area.

“I do love watching open water, I’ve been watching it for a couple of years, so I’m aware of the tactics and stuff a lot of people use and I’ve got a bit of experience in surf races as well through Nippers, so that aspect’s not too far for me. 

“But over a span of two hours, that is undoubtedly new.

“And at the end of the day, the ocean is wavy, there’s tides, you know, there’s going be some chop. In the pool, it’s just dead flat. So you have got to be able to tolerate all those sorts of conditions.”

Changing the sport

Short is doing an enormous program in what’s his maiden open water championships, swimming the gruelling 10km, plus the 5km and, in an occasion that may seem for the primary time on the Australian championships, the 3km knockout.

The 3km knockout did function on the 2025 World Championships in Singapore, however its origins are just a little nearer to house.

The occasion is the brainchild of Australia’s open water coach Fernando Possenti, who helped Brazilian legend Ana Marcela Cunha to the highest of open water swimming in his native Brazil earlier than switching to teaching in Australia in 2024.

The premise is to combine issues up.

Swimmers all set off with a 1,500m swim, after which the slowest swimmers are eradicated. Those that survive swim a 1,000m with the slowest swimmers once more eradicated, with the final remaining swimmers finishing a 500m dash for victory.

“You can’t be too tentative at the start or you’ll be eliminated and you don’t want to be too strong at the start otherwise you won’t have as much energy as someone else that was a bit more tactical towards the end,” Short explains.

“It’s definitely very tactical and, I think, pretty exciting. 

“I cherished watching it at Worlds in Singapore this yr. I used to be watching on the telly. So I’m very eager to offer it a crack myself.”

The occasion took place to fill a niche in TV programming for an occasion known as the Rei e Rainha do Mar, or King and Queen of the Sea, on Rio de Janeiro’s well-known Copacabana Beach.

With limited time to fill and with a brief to cater specifically for television audiences, Possenti came up with an elimination format — and the audience loved it.

So much so that World Aquatics listened when Possenti told them open water swimming needed a shake-up. 

“I mentioned we want quicker races, we want pace, we want adrenaline … we began within the junior perspective and it was an enormous success as a result of you’ve got extra nations collaborating,” Possenti tells ABC Sport.

“I just like the 25k, in fact, as a result of it is an enormous psychological toughness that it is necessary for greater than 5 hours swimming, there’s quite a lot of technique.

“But again, there’s no excitement for the public. So if you’re not someone involved in the sport, you don’t want to sit and watch for five hours.

“My level is, if we need to proceed having or seeing the assist, we have to get the general public excited and that is what the knockout is all about.

“It’s a very tactical, strategic and different competition … you need to develop both components, endurance and speed.

“And I do consider that that is the longer term. That’s why we have to begin it now.”

Looking to 2032

Before long, Australia’s brightest talents will not only be dreaming of competing in a home Olympics at Brisbane 2032, they’ll be preparing for it.

And Possenti believes Australia has a secret weapon in another new event, the 4×1,500m relay, which is being explored by Swimming Australia as an option for inclusion in the 2032 Games.

With shorter distances, that opens up yet another avenue for Australia’s distance swimmers to claim a medal.

“How many athletes, very profitable athletes in Australia, what number of of them have a surf lifesaving background?” asks Possenti.

“Like Lani [Pallister], like Sam Short, Nick Sloman, all of them. They have the surf lifesaving background to convey that type of expertise and data to open water. 

“I think we already have a very good and strong team, but adding some pool swimmers, which is exactly what Europeans are doing. 

“If you look to the relay groups like Germany, Italy, Hungary, what they do is that they’re mixing open water, skilled swimmers plus pool swimmers to ship that pace and ship that technique of their relays.

“If we do the same, I’m pretty sure that we’re going have a lot of success. And yeah, I’m pretty excited to put it into practise.”

That is what appeals to Short too.

“We have such a rich history in 1,500m, 400m, all those sort of distances,” Short says. 

“We’ve got so much dominance over the years in those events, so I think with those events introduced [to the Olympics], I think it’ll be more incentive for young athletes to chase those targets. 

“Definitely, that is what I’m aiming for. It’s so much higher than 10K,” he adds with a laugh. 

“That’s like an equal to a marathon, as you mentioned, in order that’s very full on.

“But 100 per cent, I think Australia would do pretty well in it as well.

“We’ve clearly obtained Moesha [Johnson], world champion from final yr and Lani’s completely killing within the pool and I’ll hopefully be swimming it by then as properly. 

“It’ll be great. And if that’s on the 2032 program, it’s definitely a gold medal contender.”