WHAT MADI WILSON HAD TO SAY AT THE OPENING OF THE 2023 SOUTH AUSTRALIAN COUNTRY SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

The 28-year-old, that now calls South Australia home, was born and raised in Roma, a rural Queensland town but even Madi has to admit she is not necessarily the most famous export of the town – that honour is closely contested by Gold Logie winner Ray Meagher, who has played the beloved Home & Away character Alf Stewart for decades. Madi sits alongside the Aussie acting icon in the town’s Hall of Fame.

Given where her swimming career started – Madi was astonished by the Wulanda facility that Mount Gambier and other regionally based swimmers in the Limestone Coast and South West Victoria can now use as their home base as they develop their skills.

“It’s crazy for me to be here to see this facility – it is absolutely incredible,” Madi said. “You are so lucky to be able to swim in a facility like this – it is definitely closing the gap between country and city. “I did a lot of training in a 25m pool and then travelling around to get the competition I needed. I am forever grateful to my parents for everything they sacrificed for me.”

And Madi knows her story resonates with not just the swimmers at last weekend’s country championships but with swimmers at elite level as she described the make up of the most recent Australian swim team. “Only two athletes were from the city – the rest were from regional Australia.”

Madi can’t remember a time she wasn’t in the pool. Her grandparents ran a swim school and she hit the water as a six month old but perhaps the first light bulb moment was when six year old Madi beat her older sister in a 25m race.

“I continued through junior squads until I was 11 years old and my parents then presented me with a choice – retire or keep swimming,” Madi said. “I chose to keep swimming but it wasn’t until I finished high school that I really committed to making swimming my career. I wanted to be able to inspire people and travel the world with my friends.”

And so, on the back of a lot of hard work – that’s exactly what Madi has done.

“I took the risk that this was going to be my job and after that everything changed for me,” she said. In her favour was the fact she genuinely loves swimming.

“Whether I am in a backyard pool or training – swimming has always been fun for me,” Madi said. “I love the feeling of moving fast – that’s what keeps me motivated. I like setting goals and achieving them. Every time you get in the pool you are working towards something.”

Funnily enough, despite all the elite coaching Madi has been able to access over her career, the childhood mantra of ‘bubble, bubble, breathe’ still remains her own mantra as she looks to compete with the world’s best.

“That’s going to be there for life,” she said.

Madi is also a study in perseverance.

“I was never winning all the gold medals and setting all the records,” she said. “I was just making my own way through. People knew I had talent but looking back I don’t think they would have through I would achieve what I have been able to achieve.”

And being part of the Dolphins (the Australian swim team) since 2014 has been an experience that Madi wouldn’t change or swap for anything.

“They are like my family,” she said. “I would protect them to the ends of the earth. Everyone is striving for one goal. I have been on the team with some of these swimmers for 10 years. There have been so many incredible highs and some devastating lows as well but you go through that rollercoaster with them.”

Madi did advise the young swimmers the sooner you settle on the strokes that are your best and focus on those events the better, especially in teams of what can sometimes be fully loaded programs for some talented juniors at the raft of events at which they compete.

Stephanie Rice was the swimmer who inspired Madi as she was moving through the regional and State ranks as a young swimmers.

“Watching Stephanie at the Olympics winning and breaking records that was the moment I knew that was what I wanted,” she said.

And speaking of Olympics, Madi is looking to push through and hopefully attend Paris 2024. “It is really enticing because it’s just a three year gap,” she said.

Madi does realise, though, that at 28, she is closer to the end of her career than the start and is studying social work and has an activewear clothing label Dally & Co. that are part of her preparations for life after the pool.