By Hollie Harris
This weekend, the Noosa Summer Swim Festival celebrates its fifth birthday with seven ocean swims over two days at Noosa Main Beach.
The scenes on the start line tell the story – it isn’t lined with typical ‘athletes’. In the 1.0km short course event, there are often three generations swimming together – kids, parents and grandparents, that’s rare in any sport.
This Summer there will be two generations of one family that may be familiar – the Klim’s.
Michael Klim is one of Australia’s most successful swimmers of all time. He is a world champion, a world record holder and a three-time Olympian with medals from all three Olympic Games, including two gold medals. In 2018, the Klim kids, Rocco, Frankie and Stellar, will be on the start line alongside their Dad.
“The kids have seen my photos from Noosa each year and asked when they get to come along!”
“We’ll finally all get to swim together at Noosa this weekend – I can’t wait!” says Michael.
It’s also becoming a tradition for past Olympic swimmers like Libby Trickett or Michael Klim to line up themselves for a swim, then present a current a batch of Olympians with the annual trophies, like Chelsea Gubecka, Jess Ashwood, or Jarrod Poort.
“That’s an honour that most ocean swim participants don’t get to experience” says World Series Swims Director, John Guise
“In 2017 we had three generations of Olympic swimmers involved with local Noosa resident and 1963 Rome Gold Medalist John Konrads presenting awards to our junior winners”
The two-day program at Noosa Main Beach kicks off on Saturday February 3rd with junior events plus short and long courses (1km, 2km, 3km) – these ones are for the masses and all ages. On Sunday, seasoned swimmers get to push their limits in the 5km Noosa Grand Prix, a marathon distance swim which also attracts some international talent with an eye on the prize money.
