Flop hit hard as Graham thrives
GOLD Coast swimmer Alex Graham has opened up about the result that helped him realise his potential in the sport.
Graham won a spot on his first senior Australian team in 2013 at just 18 but swam well outside his best at the 2013 world championships, sending him into a downward spiral.
A relay lead-off leg two seconds outside his best was a “massive blow” for Graham, left embarrassed at his maiden international effort.
“I felt like I let the whole team down and it did take its toll,” said Graham, who is again on the Australian team and in Cairns preparing for the Pan Pacific Championships in Tokyo next month.
“When I came back from worlds, I was like, maybe swimming isn’t the sport for me.”
After missing the Australian team the following year, Graham moved to the Gold Coast to take up the inaugural Georgina Hope Rinehart Swimming Excellence Scholarship at Bond University.
And while he missed the team in both 2015 and 2016, seeing boyhood mate Mack Horton win gold at the Rio Olympics was a turning point in his career.
“Going into 2016, I thought I’d put in the hard yards and I thought I was ready to go but looking back on it now that I’ve had this awesome training season, I can probably say that I didn’t give it a fair crack and I didn’t make enough sacrifices to make that Olympic team – the sacrifices you need to make to get on an Olympic team,” Graham said.
“My first team with Mack Horton was the 2012 Junior Pan Pacific team and we became good mates there, we were both Melbourne boys and seeing him win that 400m freestyle on the first night (in Rio) was something super special for me.
“Not just because he’s a mate but because I’ve grown up with him in the sport, I’ve raced him and sometimes I was beating him when I was an age grouper.
“And it just made me think that I can get to this level, I can be an Olympian and that was a turning point for me.”
While he was already a student at Bond, Graham joined Richard Scarce’s elite training squad based at the university and made his comeback to the Australian team last year after finishing third in the 200m freestyle.