You could be forgiven for thinking Sydney Brown spent so much time in the swimming pool that she didn’t have time to study.
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But the 14-year-old has successfully managed to juggle her swimming commitments with her passion for English and maths.
The Shellharbour Anglican College student led the Illawarra charge at the recent Australian All Schools championships, winning eight medals, including six gold.
Brown looks up to Australian star, and keen scientist, Cameron McEvoy and while she doesn’t share his passion for physics, she hopes to follow his lead in studying higher education while achieving results in the pool.
“My favourite swimmer is Cameron McEvoy because he’s a really good swimmer, but he also focuses a lot on his studies,” Brown said. “I think that’s a good thing to look up to.”
Brown was not the only Illawarra athlete to fire at the championships in Hobart, with Jarrod Dyer claiming two gold medals and two bronze medals, Tilly Fikkers two gold, one silver and two bronze medals, Chelsea Jones a silver and a bronze and Zara Sharman a bronze medal.
Brown swept the freestyle sprint events, claiming the 50-100-200 metre triple, along with a bronze in the 100m butterfly and three gold medals and a silver in the four relay events.
Brown also equalled her 14-years NSW 100m freestyle record and set a new state 50m freestyle record.
The latter was a record she set as the lead-off swimmer in NSW’s 4x50m freestyle relay victory and it took a while for Brown to register that she had eclipsed the previous record.
“It was a big surprise. I didn’t think I’d do it going into the race, just because it wasn’t the same as a final race. I was really surprised when I saw it on the board.”
Brown’s mother Anne said the recent success is the result of countless hours of hard work both in and out of the pool.
“She’s been training really well,” Anne said.
“She’s a fairly tenacious racer and she’s developed as she’s got older.”