Jenna Strauch

Bendigo’s Jenna Strauch became a world-class breaststroker, fulfilling the promise she showed right from her earliest years in the pool.

After taking up swimming at the age of 12, primarily as a way of having fun with her friends, the daughter of former Carlton AFL player Dean Strauch and the rest of her family made sacrifices for Jenna to chase her dreams.

“In 2012, my family made an incredible sacrifice for me to pursue my swimming dreams. My mum, Jane, and my brothers, Ryan and Tom, left our home in Bendigo to move to Melbourne so I could train with Melbourne Vicentre and attend Korowa Anglican Girls’ School,” Strauch said.

“My dad stayed behind to work and travelled on weekends to be with us. Their unwavering support and selflessness gave me the opportunity to chase my goals, and I will always be grateful for the sacrifices they made.”

It took only three years to find herself competing in the world junior championships. But she then became ill from parasites and was forced to take close to a year out of the pool.

Recovering in 2015, Jenna made the move to train on the Gold Coast under Richard Scarce at Miami and under his guidance she forced her way into the Dolphins side for the world short course titles in China in 2018.

A year later she secured her first national title in the 200m breaststroke with a time of 2min.24.88sec and was selected for the Gwangju World Championships, where she made it through to the semi-finals. At the Olympic trials in Adelaide she swam “tough”, holding herself together after placing third in the 100m breaststroke, to dominate the 200m breaststroke, recording a personal best time of 2.23.18. In her Olympic debut in Tokyo, she qualified as 10th-fastest in the world.

With each outing, Jenna was learning her craft, with the major breakthrough coming at the Budapest World Championships in 2022, when she collected the first individual medal of her career, a silver in the 200m breaststroke. She also claimed a silver for her role in the 4x100m medley relay.

A few weeks later, she again featured on the podium, winning silver in the 200m breaststroke at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in 2.23.65 behind reigning Olympic champion Tatjana Schoenmaker of South Africa. She also reached the finals of the 50m and 100m events.

She then rounded off a highly successful year by claiming gold and silver in the 4x50m medley and 4x100m medley relays at the world short course titles in Melbourne.

Jenna was forced to withdraw from the 2023 world championships in Fukuoka, Japan, with a knee injury.

However, on her return to the pool she picked up a slew of medals at World Cup meets before dominating breaststroke events in Australia. At the Queensland championships in December 2023, Jenna won gold in the 100m and 200m breaststroke. She repeated the performance at the NSW titles in March 2024. Then at the Australian Championships in April 2024, she collected a full set of gold medals in the 50m breaststroke, 100m breaststroke and 200m breaststroke.

At the Australian Swimming Trials in Brisbane a couple of months later in June, Jenna won the 100m breaststroke and finished second in the 200m breaststroke to make the Australian Olympic Team.

In Paris, Strauch became a dual Olympian and won her first Olympic medal as part of the women's 4x100m medley relay which placed second.

For Jenna it was the perfect culmination to celebrate the end of her international career.

“I didn’t know it at the time, but that moment was a perfect end to my career,” Jenna said.

“It was a moment of pure joy and to be with some of my best friends … after winning a silver medal that I never dreamed of, well that was a perfect sign-off.”

In her individual Olympic events Jenna qualified tenth overall in the women's 200m breaststroke and 22nd overall in the 100m backstroke.