Cool, calm and collected: Knight's Olympic dream is one swim closer

Arriving in Brisbane on Monday, Knight is one of hundreds of swimmers vying for a spot on the Australian team for the 2024 Olympics.

But while he prepares to face the country's top swimmers at Brisbane Aquatic Centre, Knight is excited to see how his career has progressed.

"It's been my goal for as long as I can remember, since I started swimming as a little kid it's always been what I wanted to do and everyone thought I'd grow out of it," Knight said.

"They thought it'd fade away but it's always stayed the same, the same goal, to get as far as I can and hopefully one day make it [to the Olympics].

"So being here now is a good progression of that, I'm on track, so that's pretty cool."

A member of the Wagga Swim Club, the Tumut local has been working with coach Gennadiy Labara since 2017.

Working through national and world competitions, Knight said he feels exceptionally calm ahead of his first swim on Wednesday.

Impressed with his performance at the 2024 nationals, his swims there have set him up well for the Olympic trials.

Taking a week off in April after nationals, he's hit plenty of personal best times this season and feels good in the pool.

"The mentality of it is a big thing, if I can just be chilled out a bit and not as nervous, which I think I am," he said.

"I'm not as nervous as I normally am for nationals, I think because it's a bigger event, there's a bit less pressure, it's that high level event so there's not as much expectation.

"I think nerve wise, as of right now, I'm okay, but that might change come Wednesday when I start racing, but for now, I feel good."

Competing in the 200m butterfly and both the 200m and 400m individual medley, Knight's biggest competitor pool is 55 swimmers.

With just one event each day of competition, he feels the schedule has worked out in the best way possible for him.

Typically butterfly is run later in a competition, but he was pleased to see his preferred event first on his roster.

He'll be in the pool on Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday.

"That 200m fly is normally one of my last events of a carnival, so to have it first up, I'm quite excited about it," he said.

"Then one per day, that'll give me the time to recover and be ready for the next race and that extra day of rest before the 400m IM could come in handy I think."

As he's gotten more experience at top-level competitions, Knight said each time it gets slightly easier.

Marshalled alongside his idols, over the years he has learnt how to keep his cool.

"The first state open I did was about three years ago, it was the first meet that I'd been to with all the big swimmers," he said.

"I was walking around starstruck the whole time but now I've been marshalling with them for three years and I can put that aside and focus on my own race, work on being starstruck later."

He isn't the only Wagga Swim Club athlete in Brisbane this week, with Ashley Van Rijswijk also arriving in Queensland.

The Tumut swimmer debuted at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics and will be swimming with hopes of qualifying in the 100m multi class breaststroke and backstroke, and 200m multi class individual medley.

Knight said having another athlete form home at the event.

"It's nice to not be completely on my own because I've never been to Brisbane pool, and I'm not going to have a clue what's going on there but I'm sure we'll figure it out," he said.

Australia can select 26 men and 26 women for its Olympic team, with intentions to take the top two swimmers from each final.

Swimming is Australia's best Olympic sport, with the Dolphins accounting for 71 of the country's 167 Olympic gold medals.

Australia won nine gold medals for swimming at Tokyo 2020.