Kyle Lee

Western Australia’s Kyle Lee claimed his place among a golden wave of young open water swimmers with a Midas touch.

A day after sitting an accountancy exam in his hotel, Kyle touched the wall just a fingernail in front to give Australia victory in the mixed 4x1500m relay at the World Championships in Doha in February 2024.

Moesha Johnson and Chelsea Gubecka got Australia into fourth position at the halfway point, before Nicholas Sloman took the lead in the third leg and Kyle hung on to win by 0.20 over Italy’s Domenico Acerenza.

Earlier at the championships – where Australia nailed down four open water spots for the Paris Olympics – Kyle claimed his place by finishing in the top 10 in the 10km race. He finished ninth after executing his race plan to perfection, holding his position in the lead group by owning the space in front of him to work his way through the field.

“I just can’t believe it, I stuck to our plan and I guess it worked,” he said.

Born in Zimbabwe, Kyle migrated to Australia with his family at the age of six and grew up in the small community of Australind, 170km south of Perth in Western Australia.

Moving to Perth to start university, he began training with coach Ian Mills at North Coast Swimming Club.
In 2020, aged just 17, he finished third in the 19.7km Rottnest Channel Swim in a time of 4hrs 25mins 30secs.

He was third again in 2021 and returned in 2022 to win the Rottnest swim, shaving more than 20 minutes off his 2020 time. In 2023, he was second, but finished in under four hours.

At the 2022 World Aquatics Championships in Hungary, Kyle finished eighth in the 5km race and an impressive fifth in the 25km event – just 27 seconds behind the gold medallist, Dario Verani of Italy. He also claimed two silver medals in the Marathon Swim World Series.

In 2023, he won the 5km event at the Australian Open Water Championships, with a time of 55:20.90, and also competed at the Australian Swimming Trials, finishing fifth in the 800m.

Kyle is studying for a bachelor of commerce at the University of Western Australia and swims up to 70km a week in training.