Nicholas Sloman

Sunshine Coast open water swimmer Nicholas Sloman has a bag of international medals to his name, but his favourite swimming memory is something a little more modest.

“My favourite memory is winning bronze in the 25m butterfly (for) six-seven-year-old boys at my first swimming carnival,” Nicholas said.

Shortly after that early triumph, Nicholas began competing in surf lifesaving at Noosa.

He made his first foray into international competition at the 2018 Pan-Pacific Championships in Tokyo, where he secured a bronze medal in the 10km open water event.

He has since established himself as a formidable competitor in open water swimming, evidenced by his numerous accolades at the FINA Marathon Swim World Series, including a gold and silver medal in 2019, and two silver and one bronze medal in 2022.

At the Australian Open Water Championships in 2023, Nicholas finished second in the 5km event, less than one-tenth of a second behind Kyle Lee.

A couple of months later he competed at the Australian Swimming Championships on the Gold Coast, winning bronze in the 1500m freestyle and finishing in ninth in the 400m freestyle.

Nicholas booked his place at the Paris Olympics with a top-10 finish in the 10km race at the 2024 World Championships in Doha. Finishing fifth, he record a time of 1:48:29.60.

The Australian team capped off an extremely successful championships with a dramatic victory in the mixed 4x1500m relay. Moesha Johnson and Chelsea Gubecka got Australia into fourth position at the halfway point, before Nicholas took the lead in the third leg and Kyle Lee hung on to win by a fingertip.

“As a team we really wanted this,” Nicholas said. “We spoke about it last night and personally when I hit the water just wanted to make the most of the effort that Moe and Chelsea had put in – I just didn’t want to let them down.”

Nicholas went on to make his Olympic debut in Paris in the men's 10km marathon. Finishing 11th overall, he clocked a time of 1:56:24.4.