St Mary’s student Joel Mundie eyes Commonwealth Games 2022

He might only be 17, but this FNQ swimmer is already pegged to represent Australia as one of the best swimmers in the nation.

There doesn’t appear to be any pool Joel Mundie cannot conquer.

The 17-year-old St Mary’s Catholic College student has coated his early swimming career gold, as he sits on the verge of a trip to the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

Mundie has had transverse myelitis since he was six months old.

The neurological disorder results in an inflamed spinal cord causing him to require a wheelchair.

Grade 12 St Mary's student Joel Mundie is in the Australian Para-Swimming Development Squad. Picture: Brendan Radke

It was during pool treatment for his condition that Mundie realised he could still be a more than capable swimmer.

“I did a bit of swimming for my condition and learnt to swim in that,” he said.

“Then I went ‘aw, I’m not too shabby at this’ so then I did some training and it all came to here.”

Mundie’s latest conquest came at the Queensland State Swimming Championships in which he raked in six golds from all six events he raced in.

“I trained up to it for quite a while, I came home with six golds from 18s and opens, it was a pretty good performance,” the Year 12 student said.

“There’s some good competition in Queensland especially so it was pretty nice to succeed in that way.”

In the six years Mundie has been competing, the teen has netted gold medal finishes at a state, and even national level, in most.

He said his preferred strokes were 50m butterfly, as well as 250m supported international medley and freestyle.

Entering his final year of high school, Mundie earned his international classification for Commonwealth Games selection – a crucial step in his journey to get to Birmingham in July.

“It is in the reticle … the next event at aged nationals (in Adelaide) I will be able to swim for times for the Commonwealth Games,” Mundie said.

“It was one of my first goals when I started so it’s finally good to get near it.”

Grade 12 St Mary's student Joel Mundie won six gold medals at the Queensland State Swimming championships in December. Picture: Brendan Radke

Another string to Mundie’s bow has been his work with the Para Swimming National Development Squad.

The program has him working under specialised tutelage from notable Far North swimming coach Andrew Howard to finetune Mundie’s form.

While the swimming sensation is not ready to count his Commonwealth chickens before they hatch, Mundie said he was excited about what the future has in store for his already sterling career.

“I haven’t put too much thought into it but it’d be nice to do for a living,” he said.

“I’m just going to put my head down and if I perform well down there, there’s a good chance.”

Originally published as St Mary’s student Joel Mundie eyes Commonwealth Games 2022