Moesha Johnson

After originally making her mark in the pool, Moesha Johnson has emerged as part of a new wave of Australian open water stars heading to the Paris Olympics.

On the opening day of the 2024 World Aquatics Championships in Doha, the Gold Coast swimmer survived a sometimes brutal battle in the 10km race to nail down her place in Paris. Claiming fourth made sure Moesha would make Olympic debut in Paris alongside fellow Queenslander Chelsea Gubecka.

Moesha surge into the lead in the final kilometre of the race before a group including Dutch superstar Sharon van Rouwendaal swamped her in the last few metres. But fourth was enough for Moesha to claim an Olympic berth.

For the first time since open water’s inclusion in the Olympics in 2008, Australia fielded two female competitors on the River Seine.

“It just hasn’t sunk in,” Moesha said afterwards. “That was such a hectic race, I was getting bashed out there ... people on top of me and people under me, I just had to hold on towards the end.”

The Australian team capped an extremely successful championships – where they nailed down four open water spots for Paris – with a dramatic victory in the mixed 4x1500m relay also at the 2024 World Championships.

With the race decided in a photo finish, the quartet of Moesha, Chelsea, Nick Sloman and Kyle Lee had a nervous wait on the pontoon before it was confirmed they had just won Australia’s first open water relay world title.

The fingertip victory was built on a cracking first leg by Moesha, positioning Australia fourth, which Chelsea held on to, allowing Nick to take the lead in the third leg before Kyle gutsed his way to the finish. He finished just 0.2 seconds ahead of Italy’s Domenico Acerenza.

“I am just so proud of this team,” Moesha said. “We won a bronze medal as the underdogs last year. And, you know, I think that just has driven us all just to strive to get better."

Moesha also added an indoor event to her Paris program when she finished second to Lani Pallister in the 1500m final at the Australian Olympic trails in Brisbane in June, clocking a qualifying time of 15:57.85.

A relative newcomer to open water swimming, Moesha said before the Paris Olympics that she has become addicted to the challenge.

“I’m excited to see where all the skills I’m learning and all the areas that I’m racing in and the different situations and seeing how I can pull together the understanding I’ve got of open water swimming,” she said.

“I would not call myself a seasoned open water swimmer yet, but I’m starting to feel more comfortable with playing around with tactics and different things when I’m out on the courses now.

“Open water is a beautiful community, made up of pure work and pure toughness and with that comes a lot of respect and brings a lot of camaraderie and they are all quite humble achievers in a way.

“It is a great team to be part of.”

In a thrilling Olympic open water race on the River Seine Moesha clinched the silver medal in the women’s 10km marathon swim.

Moesha completed the gruelling course in a time of 2:03:39.7, achieving Australia’s best result in Marathon Swimming at the Olympics, and becoming only the second Australian to win a medal in this event.

Finishing just 5.5 seconds behind her training partner and gold medallist Sharon van Rouwendaal of the Netherlands, Moesha was elated with her performance. She joins Kareena Lee (bronze, Tokyo 2020) as the first Australians to win a medal in Marathon Swimming at the Olympics.

Later in the pool for the women's 1500m freestyle, Moesha finished sixth in 16:02.70.