Shock health scare has swimming champion Williams Yang eyeing Paris Olympics with new vigour

Australian swimmer William Yang is chasing his Olympic dream after overcoming a life-threatening tumor. Read his story of resilience here.

William Yang won his first senior national title in 2022. Picture: Julian Andrews

Like anyone who has survived a major health scare, rising Australian swim star William Yang has come away with a different view of what he wants to achieve in his chosen sport.

One of Australia’s fastest freestyle sprinters, Yang is still busting his gut, training as hard as he can in the hope he can make his first Olympic team for Paris later this year.

But the 25-year-old Sydney University student is now approaching everything with a fresh sense of purpose and calmness after his world was tipped upside down last year when doctors discovered a tumour on his spine.

Luckily, it was benign, but still required a major operation to have the lump removed.

“I got really lucky,” Yang said. “After the scan, immediately I was calling every surgeon in New South Wales and then I quickly found one, at Westmead Private Hospital. His name is doctor Jun Kim and he’s a fabulous surgeon.

“He was like ‘your case seems very urgent so, let’s move you to next week.’

“The time between me finding this out to getting the surgery was less than ten days so there wasn’t much time to process it in my head.

“But then everything went really well. It was a long recovery but things went very well.”

William Yang won two gold medals as part of the Australian relay teams at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham

The lengthy rehabilitation period meant Yang, who was born in Sydney to Chinese parents, had to put his swimming ambitions on hold just when things were starting to happen for him.

In 2022, he won his first senior national title in 100m freestyle then secured a place in the Australian team that was heading to Europe.

Teaming up with Kyle Chalmers, Yang won gold and silver medals in relays at the world aquatics championships in Budapest then two golds at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

He started to turn his attention towards preparing himself to try and make the Olympic team for Paris when things took a sudden and ominous turn in 2023 when he began to feel a sharp pain in his back that quickly got worse.

“There was a tumour in my spinal canal and then that grows on the nerve,” he said.

“In the end, I couldn’t really walk so I knew I had to get surgery done and I’m very glad that I got it done.”

William Yang underwent surgery in 2023 after scans showed he had a benign tumour on his spine

While the procedure went well, Yang’s hopes of making a quick return to the pool quickly sunk when he suffered a second, unexpected setback.

Unable to exercise for almost five months, his body wasn’t used to the demands of elite training so when he first got back in the water, things went awry.

“My shoulder couldn’t take the load so there was a labrum tear or a slap tear,” he said.

“I’d just got back but I had to give that about one and a half to two months and then I got really lucky, it kind of just healed itself.”

With just over a month to go before the Australian Olympic trials for Paris, things are looking up for Yang.

He’s back racing and firing on all cylinders as one of the headline acts at the three-day Sydney Open, starting at the Olympic Aquatic Centre on Thursday.

In April, he managed to get his hands on the wall first to beat Chalmers to win the NSW State title, then a month later he finished a close second behind ‘King Kyle’ at the Australian championships, posting a career-best time of 48.20 seconds.

One of Australia’s fastest freestyle sprinters, William Yang is eyeing a place at the Paris Olympics

That time would have got Yang into the 100m freestyle semi-finals at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and in the three years since, only three Aussies, Chalmers, Flynn Southam and Jack Cartwright, have gone quicker.

With the top six finishers from next month’s trials likely to be picked for Paris, Yang’s dream of making the Olympic team for Paris is closer than ever but he says his experiences in the past year have taught him not to take anything for granted but to also try and take every opportunity when it comes.

“It would mean a lot, that would just mean I didn’t let a surgery or any setbacks define who I am or my career,” he said.

“I think I’m tougher than that. I can come back from any setback. It made me tougher mentally. I just view it as a very positive experience.

“My perspective just changed a lot after what I went through last year.

“I don’t think too much about my times or my performance. I’m just happy to be here.”

The content summaries were created with the assistance of AI technology then edited and approved for publication by an editor.