‘I have the potential to win’: Swim star Flynn Southam is ready for the Paris Olympics
Ahead of his debut at this week’s Paris Games, rising Australian swim star Flynn Southam reveals why he FINALLY feels ready to fulfil his Olympic dream.
Stellar
Don't miss out on the headlines from Stellar. Followed categories will be added to My News.
One of Flynn Southam’s earliest memories is of a career day at his primary school in Tweed Heads in the Northern Rivers region of NSW, when students were asked to come dressed as what they wanted to be when they were older. Southam was surrounded by a sea of astronauts, veterinarians and footy players.
He, on the other hand, had turned up wearing his swimmers, a cap and a pair of goggles.
“I remember the teachers asking me, ‘Why do you want to be a swimmer?’”
Southam tells Stellar. “And I told them, because it’s fun – and I’m kinda good at it. I guess I’ve never looked back from there. Swimming is what I’ve always wanted to do. It’s pretty surreal that I’m doing it now, and living out my childhood dream.”
At the Australian swim team trials in June, the 19-year-old self-confessed nerd of the sport (who was the youngest member of the 2022 Commonwealth Games swim team) qualified for his first Olympics.
At the Paris Games, which kick off this week, Southam will swim in the 4 x 100m freestyle relay alongside Kyle Chalmers, a teammate who has, at times, also been a fierce competitor.
Immediately after Southam broke Chalmers’ 15-year-olds age group national record in the 100m freestyle in 2020 – which Chalmers set in 2014 – he was dubbed one of the rising stars of the sport. (He bested another of Chalmers’ national records swimming that same stroke in the 16-year-olds age group two years later.)
Naturally, many assumed a berth at the Tokyo Olympics was a given. Not quite. As Southam tells Stellar, the sport he has been obsessed with since he was a boy would go on to nearly break him.
“After I broke Chalmers’ record, I started listening to the build-up and hype and started thinking that I could go to the Olympics in Tokyo, and that put a lot of pressure on me. I started consuming swimming in an unhealthy amount.
It was everything – and I had nothing else in my life,” Southam says, explaining that when he wasn’t in the pool training or thinking about swimming, he’d be at home watching YouTube videos of … swimmers.
“I didn’t go to the Olympic trials because I was so mentally burnt out from putting that pressure on myself. I got really sick of swimming. I just didn’t want to have anything to
do with it. My entire life was just swimming. I didn’t have a hobby. I didn’t have an identity outside of that.”
Taking time out from competing forced Southam to change his approach to the sport. He took a break from the pool and started trialling hobbies such as basketball and fishing. He also started up his own mentorship program.
As as result, he says, “I started getting back into my events with a healthier mind and a better point of view, and thought it was my responsibility to pass this information on, so I kind of made it into a little business.”
Southam, who is now studying psychology at Bond University on the Gold Coast, aimed to reach out to as many young people as he could.
“I’ve made a pretty good impact in the community so far. It’s a spiritual sort of thing.”
If Southam seems wise beyond his years, he points out that when you break a record set by Chalmers, “it forces you to grow up a bit quicker. I can’t be a normal teenager who goes to parties every weekend. I had to be mentally prepared to put in the work. I’ve learnt the moment when I’m at the pool it’s about being at the pool – being the best swimmer and best athlete I can. Then, when I’m at home, or hanging out with my girlfriend or my friends, [I’m] having a life outside of the pool.”
He credits his work ethic to his mother, Fiona Southam. “There’s no magic fairy dust,” he tells Stellar. “That is how I’ve been brought up. If you want to achieve Olympic gold or get your university degree, you’ve got to put in the hard work. That’s what I got from Mum.”
Southam has found mentors in other competitors, including Chalmers himself, who has taught him to be comfortable with discomfort.
“If you have something going on, whether it’s trouble with the media or injuries, you’ve got to be able to channel those emotions and turn that into a positive,” he explains.
Southam has also received advice from some of the powerhouse female athletes in Australia. “When I was a rookie at the Commonwealth Games, I knew pretty much no-one on the team. One thing I really appreciated was that Ariarne Titmus took time out of her lunch, and we sat down and spoke for nearly two hours.
“She’s someone who I won’t compete with in a relay. So we don’t have much to do with each other. But it was really good to get an insight from her about how she goes about her business.”
Now he’s set to take all that learning and maturity to the Paris Games. “The Olympics are like nothing else,” he says. “I want to represent Australia the best I can. And I think I have the potential to win medals for Australia.
“My goal is obviously to go in there and win. I don’t really set time goals for myself. I’d like to just do the best I can, and wherever that takes me, it takes me. But I think it’s got podium potential, for sure.”
But perhaps the biggest win of all has been Southam’s ability to remain in love with his chosen sport, despite the rollercoaster of emotions it has elicited from him over the years.
“I don’t view anything as a sacrifice,” he says.
“I wouldn’t change the past 12 months – or the past 12 years.
“I’ve been asked before, ‘What would you do if you weren’t a professional swimmer?’”
And his response? “I said, ‘I’d be an amateur.’”
See the full shoot with Flynn Southam inside Stellar. For more from Stellar, click here.
Originally published as ‘I have the potential to win’: Swim star Flynn Southam is ready for the Paris Olympics
Why Sienna Miller ‘doesn’t want to be a movie star’
As one of Hollywood’s most stylish celebrities, Sienna Miller is used to the spotlight. But in recent years, the 42-year-old British actor confesses, she is much less interested in fame.
Read more
‘I couldn’t breathe’: Mollie O reveals anxiety attack before gold medal
Mollie O’Callaghan has sometimes struggled in the spotlight as an Australian swimming superstar. Now, she has revealed what really happened at the Paris Olympics – and the anxiety that overwhelmed her.
Read more