William Yang

After facing many setbacks in his career to date, William Yang's experience is one that would have forced many other swimmers to hang up their goggles.

After experiencing a major health scare, Will returned to training with a renewed passion for the sport and sense of calmness.

The Sydney swimmer was diagnosed with a tumour on his spine that left him virtually unable to walk. And after surgery and more than four months out of the pool rehabilitating, he suffered a serious tear in his shoulder that kept him out of action for another two months.

Luckily, the tumour was benign and after his twin health scares, Will bounced back to become one of Australia’s fastest freestyle sprinters.

Will was born in Sydney to Chinese parents and the family moved back to Guangzhou for him to complete his primary schooling. He then returned to Sydney to attend Knox Grammar, where he began to excel in sports, especially Swimming.

Initially, he focused on backstroke and butterfly before switching to freestyle, claiming gold in the 50m butterfly at the 2019 World University Games in Naples.

After missing selection for the Tokyo Olympics, he took some time away from the sport in Hong Kong and thought about giving swimming away, but when he returned to full-time training early in 2022, things started to fall into place.

Teaming up with Kyle Chalmers, Will won gold and silver medals in relays at the World Aquatics Championships in Budapest then two gold medals at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. He also reached the final of the 100m freestyle in Birmingham.

Everything was on track to make the team for the Paris Olympics – and then he noticed a sharp pain in his back that just kept getting worse.

The surgery and injury dramas that followed meant William didn’t really start serious training again until January 2023, but in March he notched a confidence-boosting win over Kyle, the Olympic and world champion, in the 100m freestyle final at the 2024 NSW State Championships. He also won gold in the 100m backstroke.

In April 2024 he won silver in the 100m freestyle at the Australian Championships on the Gold Coast, finishing a close second to ‘King Kyle’ in a career-best time of 48.20 seconds. That time would have got Will into the 100m freestyle semi-finals at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

At the Australian Swimming Trials in Brisbane, Will finished second behind Kyle Chalmers in the 100m freestyle final.

He admitted that since his health scares he approaches his swimming career from a completely different perspective.

“It made me tougher mentally,” he said. “I just view it as a very positive experience. My perspective just changed a lot after what I went through. 

“I don’t think too much about my times or my performance. I’m just happy to be here.”

Will went on to make his Olympic debut in Paris when he competed in both the men's 100m freestyle and the 4x100m freestyle relay.

In the 4x100m freestyle relay Will was a heat swimmer in the team that won silver. In the 100m freestyle, he advanced through his heat before finishing 15th overall in the semi-finals.