Liam
Schluter

For Liam Schluter, little compares to the feeling of representing Australia at the Paralympic Games. Now a World Championships medallist, we suspect he will add the feeling of winning a Paralympic medal to that list come August.

As successful in the pool as he is now, Liam only began swimming competitively in 2009 – eight years after first learning to swim. In those eight years, there was every chance he would opt out of Para-swimming and pursue any one of the five other sports – rugby league, football, tennis, golf and indoor cricket – he was playing. But as luck would have it for the Australian Dolphins, the pool was where Liam felt most at home.

He made his Paralympic debut in 2016, contesting two finals, and tasted international podium success for the first time in 2018 – silver at the Commonwealth Games and dual gold at the Pan Pacific Para-swimming Championships.

Liam returned to the international spotlight last September for the 2019 World Para-swimming Championships, and cemented his status as a Paralympic medal contender with bronze in the mixed 4x100m freestyle S14, fourth in the men’s 200m freestyle S14, and fifth in the men’s 200m individual medley SM14.

Now counting down the days until the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, Liam’s downtime is few and far between. But even then you can find him by the water, crabbing and fishing.