Sam Short

With a ready smile and an impressive work ethic, Sam Short has muscled his way into the Australian swimming team in the past two years, establishing himself as one of Australia's best middle and long-distance prospects.

Sam, 21, was the breakout star of the World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan, in July 2023, becoming the first Australian since Grant Hackett in 2005 to win medals in 400m, 800m and 1500m freestyle at the same world titles.

He surged to gold in the 400m in a time of 3:40.68, coming within six tenths of a second of breaking Ian Thorpe’s Australian record, which has stood for 21 years.

It was the fourth-fastest time in history and enough to beat Tunisia’s Tokyo Olympic champion Ahmed Hafnaoui (3:40.70), with German Lukas Martens taking bronze.

Three days later Sam won silver in the 800m and finished off the meet with a bronze in the 1500m, leapfrogging Kieren Perkins and Mack Horton onto second place in the Australian rankings for the longest event in the pool.

After narrowly missing out on a place in the national team for the Tokyo Olympics, Sam announced himself when he helped Australia’s 4x200m freestyle relay team to a silver medal at the World Championships in Budapest in 2022.

He raised the bar at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham that year, winning gold in the 1500m freestyle and silver in the 400m.

The 1500m came something of a procession after Sam took the lead from Northern Ireland’s Daniel Wiffen at the 900m mark and surged clear to win in a slick time of 14:48.54.

Sam is studying for a science and law degree and is an ambassador for Melanoma Institute Australia after having a skin cancer cut out of his back in 2022.

He is also a talented surf swimmer, following in the footsteps of his father Danny and uncle Stephen at the Maroochydore Surf Club.

Sam’s coach Damien Jones puts his young charge’s success down to his voracious appetite for training.
“Everything I threw at him, he just ate it up,” Jones said. “He’d look at me and smile, as if to say, is that all you’ve got? There’s nothing that I’ve thrown at him that he hasn’t been able to succeed at.”

Jones is confident Sam has it in him to break German Paul Biedermann’s 400m freestyle world record of 3:40.07, which is one hundredth of a second faster than Thorpe’s mark.

“There’s no limitation on this kid,” he said. “We’re just letting him go and just enjoying the ride.”

In 2024, Sam and Tokyo Olympian Elijah Winnington went head-to-head in the final of 400m freestyle at the Australian championships on the Gold Coast, with Elijah winning in a time of 3:41.41, ahead of Sam in 3:41.64. Sam won gold in the 1500m in a time of 15:03.25, but went down narrowly to Elijah in the 800m.

Sam and Elijah both booked their places on the Olympic team after a ding-dong battle in the final of the 400m freestyle at the Australian trials in Brisbane. After the lead changed three times, it was Elijah who won the eight-lap duel – stopping the clock at 3:43.26, with Sam recording 3:43.90.

Sam would face off against fellow Australian Elijah again, but this time on the world stage. Making his Olympic debut in Paris, Sam raced in the men's 400m freestyle where he finished fourth (3:42.64), narrowly missing out on the podium by 0.15 seconds. 

Elijah, who won silver in the same race, supported Sam before he competed in his other events.

"He's still so young - he's younger than what I was in Tokyo and he has so many years ahead of him." he said.

In his other events, the men's 800m freestyle and 1500m freestyle, Sam finished ninth and 13th respectively.