Kai's Story
Fast Facts
Sport: Open Water Swimming
Olympic History: Tokyo 2020
Highlights: Competing at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games
Club: TSS Aquatics
Year Born: 1998
State Born: QLD
About Kai
Kai Edwards grew up on the Gold Coast in Queensland. He attended Southport State High School and is now studying a Bachelor of Sport Development at Griffith University.
Edwards' is a TSS Aquatics athlete and his youth has been spent predominantly around sport, but it wasn’t until 2016 when his talent and determination broke him into the championship arena.
His break came at the FINA World Junior Open Water Championships in the Netherlands, where in the event Edwards placed 6th in the 18-19 years 10km swim.
2018 saw Edwards placing 12th in the men’s 10km open at the Hong Kong FINA Water World Cup, as well as 10th place for the men’s 10km open at the FINA Marathon Swim World Series in Chun An, China.
For Edwards 2019 resulted in some of his best feats to date. At the FINA’s Marathon World Series, in the men’s 10km open category, he placed 5th in Doha, and 6th in Seychelles.
The World Championships that year tested athletes through near monsoon like conditions, especially in the 25km race event. However, Edwards was able to finish in 14th place for the men’s 10km and placed an extremely impressive 5th in the men’s 25km.
After missing his first attempts at qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics, Edwards' Olympic hopes were reliant on one last event and he had to finish in the top nine and beat fellow Aussie, Nicholas Sloman. Managing to do both, he finished with a time of 2:02:17.30, which landed him in 5th place, only nine seconds behind race winner Hector Pardoe.
Edwards made his Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020 competing in the 10km open water swim. He placed 12th in a time of 1:53:04.
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