Swimming Australia Launches Next Wave Camp With Eye On 2032

Courtesy: Swimming Australia

As part of the green and gold runway to Brisbane 2032, Swimming Australia has resurrected the blueprint that launched the likes of Dolphin legends Cate and Bronte Campbell, and Emily Seebohm.

The Trans-Tasman Series, a feature of the early 2000s, has been revised as the Next Wave Invitational Competition Camp and will be held in Canberra from July 6-12.

Selected following the recent Australian Age Championships, 64 promising age athletes – males and females born 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and females born 2012 – will compete at Next Wave and gain team and racing experiences at the Australian Institute of Sport.

Swimmers selected for the recently announced Australian Junior Team were deemed ineligible for selection, with Next Wave concentrating on developing the next tier of emerging athletes.

The invited athletes will compete as two teams, the Kangaroos and Emus, and 14 coaches, five managers and performance staff will also be selected as part of Swimming Australia’s strategic development towards 2032.

Former Australian head coach and National Team Support Coach Leigh Nugent said: “Next Wave will provide meaningful experiences to our athletes and coaches prior to international exposure. It’s something that’s been missing for the past 10 years or so and it’s great to have it back on the national roster.”

“Similar to the Trans-Tasman series, Next Wave is set up to help prepare emerging athletes as well as developing coaches (and those within the high performance system) for when they make their benchmark Australian team by facilitating intensive competition environment.

“With consistent back-to-back racing, athletes will race multiple times to learn how to handle fatigue, maintain consistency in their performance and quickly improve on their learnings from one meet to the next.”

In all, 15 national records were set at the Australian Age Championships, including three by Toowoomba’s 14-year-old backstroke prodigy Bryce Krause and two by Somerset’s Koa Stotz, also 14.

Their efforts at Nationals reflect the calibre of athletes invited to Next Wave and the next wave of potential future Dolphins ahead of Brisbane 2032.

Nugent said: “I’m most excited for the future of Australian swimming. It’s rare to see so many national age records broken at the one meet so that’s telling us that we’ve got peak performers across a number of ages, clubs and events.”

“To get several standouts at nationals, like Lincoln Wearing (pictured) who broke Mack’s (Horton) 800m freestyle record and his twin brother Isaac who was consistently right there beside him, is most encouraging.”

Darwin’s Macey Sheridan cleaned up at nationals with three golds and one bronze to earn her invitation. Sheridan, 15, was named the Northern Territory’s Junior Sportsperson of the Year in 2024 and made history in 2025 by becoming the youngest recipient of the NT Sportsperson of the Year Award.

“It’s those athletes in the mid-teenage years that perform exceptionally well at nationals who tend to be, as our history shows, the ones to become our podium placers,” said Nugent.

“Next Wave will provide the tools that these future Dolphins need to stand on those Olympic, Commonwealth and World Championships podiums.”

Coaches for the Next Wave Invitational Competition Camp are yet to be announced.

*Below table reflects current clubs