Jake's Story
Jake Packard made his first Olympic team after winning the 100m breaststroke at the 2016 Nationals in a time of 59.57seconds, just 0.08 under the Australian qualifying time.
In Rio he combined with David Morgan, Mitch Larkin and Kyle Chalmers to take home bronze in the 4x100m medley relay. The USA grabbed the gold in 3:27.95 while Great Britain took silver in 3:29.24.
In his individual event, he finished fourth in his semi-final of the 100m breaststroke.
The Queenslander grew up in Noosa and started swimming at the aquatic centre when he was 11. He trialled for the London Olympics when he was 17 but didn’t make a semi-final. At the time he thought four years wouldn’t be enough time to prepare for Rio so he began focusing on the Tokyo 2020 Games.
A year later he was thinking about retiring from swimming but instead moved to train with coach Chris Mooney, who was working at Indooroopilly at the time. It was a risk which paid off for Packard, who went on to finish fifth at the 2015 World Championships in the 100m breaststroke. He also won silver in the 4x100m medley relay.
