SWIMMING
By BLAKE METCALF-HOLT
AS part of the Australia Day honours, Traralgon Paralympian Emily Beecroft was recognised with an OAM for her performance at the 2024 Paris Games.
The swimmer took home a gold medal as a member of the 34 Points Mixed 4x100m Medley Relay team, and bronze in the S9 100m Butterfly.
The buzz of the following months since her winningest year had her forgetting she’d be an OAM recipient.
Every gold medallist across the Olympics, Paralympics and Commonwealth Games receives the honour following the respective year of competition.
“It was never really in my mind because I never really thought I would be able to achieve something like that and I suppose I didn’t think of it until I got notified a couple of weeks ago,” Beecroft told the Express.
“It’s just really, really special and I don’t think it’s really sunk in yet, I don’t think it ever will. I don’t think I’ll ever really remember that my name (now) is Emily Beecroft OAM, it’s not something you really ever think about.
“(It) just goes to show all of the hard work not only I’ve put into my career but everyone around me (has) and I’m blessed to have the best support team in the world and I hope that my support team realises that this recognition is not just for me but for them as well.”
Competing in the mixed relay final, Beecroft swam third of the four Australians on the night, finishing with the fastest 50m split up until teammate Alexa Leary took it home, coming back from seven seconds off pace.
Beecroft and Leary were joined by Jesse Aungles and Timothy Hodge, with Keira Stephens and Callum Simpson supporting in prior rounds.
“It was such an amazing team to be a part of and I feel so honoured that I got the opportunity to be in that relay and to be in such a phenomenal team and be with such world class athletes,” Beecroft said.
“It was such a surreal feeling, it’s definitely a core memory in my brain from now on.
“I always think about getting out of the pool after my butterfly leg and watching Alexa finish the last 25 (metres) and actually realising that we could get the gold medal is just an insane feeling and something I never expected.”
Paris was Beecroft’s third Paralympic venture, meaning she had quite the experience beforehand, which had already seen success with a silver medal in the 34 Points 4x100m Freestyle Relay and bronze in the 34 Points 4x100m Medley Relay at the 2020 Tokyo Games (played in 2021 due to COVID-19).
Reflecting on her elevated performance post-Paris, Beecroft felt a distinct difference before and after which coincided with a change of scenery.
Three years ago, she packed her bags and moved from little ol’ Traralgon to the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, both for study purposes and to better herself in competition.
“Even though it was my third games, I feel like I’ve almost had two separate parts of my career,” Beecroft said.
“The first two Paralympics were almost like… getting used to the whole international racing and just trying to feel comfortable where I was with my career and then after the Tokyo Games I moved interstate and started training with the high-performance program here at the Sunshine Coast.
“I feel like my international career’s been taken to a whole new level, I think it’s a really exciting feeling… even though I’ve been swimming for a long time now, I feel like I’m only just getting started which is something really exciting and motivating to keep me going.”
Beecroft credits her coaches and support staff at the High Performance Student Athlete program at the University of the Sunshine Coast for getting her to this point, and strengthening her knowledge as an elite athlete.
“Coming to a high performance program has really shown me how much a support team really matters and how all the different fields of my sport need to be focussed on such as strength, conditioning, diet, biomechanics, physio,” she said.
“All those sorts of different fields really impact your career when you’re at such an elite level and I think that has just really shown in my progress over the past couple of years.”
Beecroft also thanked her family back home in Traralgon as well as those at Traralgon Swimming Club for their support in helping her flourish as a young, aspiring athlete.
Beecroft is now ramping up for the 2025 World Para Swimming Championships in September as her first steps towards the 2028 Paralympic Games in Los Angeles.
“I’m looking forward to (competing), it’s the first competition in the next cycle leading up to the LA 2028 Paralympics and hopefully I’ll be able to do really well over there, but it’s a bit of a quiet year (2025),” she said.
