Swimming Victoria is pleased to announce the 2024 Junior Talent Squad. 44 athletes aged 12-13 from 21 clubs have been selected, based on performances at the Victorian Age Long Course Championships in December.
Congratulations to the following athletes:
|
Athlete |
Club |
|
Madison Brown |
Nunawading Swimming Club |
|
William Cao |
MLC Aquatic |
|
Arjun Chahal |
Nunawading Swimming Club |
|
Audreanna David |
Western Melbourne Propulsion |
|
Lev Dyshliuk |
MLC Aquatic |
|
Xavier Eagle |
St Leonard's College Swimming |
|
Arika Erdenko |
Surrey Park Swimming Club |
|
Zoe Gant |
Surrey Park Swimming Club |
|
Byron Geng |
Boronia Amateur Swimming & Lifesaving Club |
|
Maisy Graves |
Surrey Park Swimming Club |
|
Sophie Hall |
MLC Aquatic |
|
Alfred Han |
MLC Aquatic |
|
Maddeleine Harvey |
Cheltenham Amateur Swimming Club |
|
Ishaaq Ismail |
Surrey Park Swimming Club |
|
Zara Jeffrey |
Melbourne Swimming Club |
|
Ciara Jeffs |
Yarra Plenty Waves |
|
Arabella Johnson |
Geelong Swimming Club |
|
Megan Lee |
Essendon District Aquatic |
|
Christopher Li |
Surrey Park Swimming Club |
|
Lucy Ma |
St Leonard's College Swimming |
|
Oscar Magalotti |
Nunawading Swimming Club |
|
Octavia Mahoney |
St Leonard's College Swimming |
|
Harry McGraw |
Melbourne Swimming Club |
|
Ariana Mejak |
Melbourne Swimming Club |
|
Abbey Mescher |
Caulfield Aquatics |
|
Tiffany Miet |
Melbourne Vicentre Swimming Club |
|
Taylor Miller |
Melton Swimming Club |
|
Mia Mitchell |
Ivanhoe Aqua Power Swimming Club |
|
Imogen Murray |
Bayside Swimming Club |
|
Zahra Olowoniyi |
Nunawading Swimming Club |
|
Liam Paulsen |
Camberwell Grammar Aquatic |
|
Aiden Ramos |
Nunawading Swimming Club |
|
Lucy Reed |
MLC Aquatic |
|
Madelaine Regalado-Jones |
Surrey Park Swimming Club |
|
Quinn Richards |
Camberwell Grammar Aquatic |
|
Adelaide Ripper |
Traralgon Swimming Club |
|
Keppler Snijders |
Geelong Swimming Club |
|
Leon Vidal |
Ivanhoe Swim |
|
Hantang Wang |
Nunawading Swimming Club |
|
Elsa Wang |
Melbourne Swimming Club |
|
Ya Ruolan Wang |
Essendon District Aquatic |
|
Aston Wilson |
Surrey Park Swimming Club |
|
Gabriel Wong |
Laverton Wyndham Aquatics |
|
Alan Zhang |
South East Swimming Club |
The major focus of the Junior Talent Squad is to develop the athletes skills, and in particular encourage athletes to train all strokes and progress as Individual Medley swimmers. Athletes and their coaches are invited to a number of training sessions throughout the season.
The first of which was held on Saturday 23 March, with 38 members of the squad gathering at Caulfield Grammar School for an inspiring day of learning both in an out of the pool.
First up, the athletes received their Victorian diaries and t-shirts and had some time to reflect on what they wanted to achieve from the session and to write down some short term and long term goals. They also discussed what they could control on race day and in the home training environment.
The athletes were then joined by Olympian Matt Welsh OAM who shared some stories about his swimming journey and brought along one of his Olympic Silver Medals for the swimmers to look at and even wear.
The swimmers then moved onto pool deck for a skills session, which focused on Backstroke and Freestyle drill progressions. Thank you to our coaches, Brian Miller, Matt Welsh, Gus Barnes, Sarah Cooper and Tom Rayner for helping out on the day.
The athletes came together again on Wednesday 27 March for an online session with VIS Nutritionist, Louise Cato on “fuelling for competition”. This gave the athletes some great information in the lead up to Nationals on which foods are best for optimal performance.
The next session will take place on 25 May at Caulfield Grammar where the swimmers will focus on their crossover turns.
