Making gold out of water

DAPTO Swimming Club male captain and Smiths Hill High School Y12 student Ryan Hanson starts each day with 90 minutes of training, followed by 6 hours of study, then another two hours of training, before hitting the books again six days a week, which is probably why his room is bulging at the seams with bronze, silver and gold swimming medals, plus the odd trophy or two.

After trying his hand at various sports, Ryan settled on competitive swimming at the age of 11. Amongst his many recent achievements are a silver in the 16y/o boys 400m Freestyle and a bronze in the 200m at the State Age Championships last month; a bronze in the 16y/o boys 1500m Freestyle in the Long Distance State Age Championships; and two golds and two bronze in the State Open Water Championships also held in January. Ryan picked up the golds for the 5km and 10km Open Water Swims for 16 y/o boys and the two bronze for the 5km and 10km Open Mens Division.

On Australia Day, Ryan competed in the Australia Day Aquathon in Wollongong Harbour finishing first in the age category for the 400m swim/3km run Short Course and third in the Short Course Open Mens Division.

Next on Ryans busy competition calendar are NSW Open State Championships at Homebush on Feb 16-18 followed by the Country Championships in early March, before heading off to Perth in April for his fourth National Age Championships in April.

A member of the Illawarra Academy of Sport, Ryan says his goal is to swim for Australia in the Olympics.

Theres a lot I have to do to get there, said Ryan.

More training, getting into the finals of all my events, qualifying for the Open Nationals are all steps along the way.

The Lake Times suggests that we may well be hearing the name Ryan Hanson in swimming circles more and more frequently in the future.