17-year-old Isaac Cooper reflects on the swim that sent him to the Tokyo Olympics

We speak to former Toowoomba Grammar swimmer Isaac Cooper on his incredible rise to feature at the Tokyo Olympic Games.

SWIMMING: It’s fair to say Isaac Cooper is still on cloud nine.

The former Toowoomba Grammar School student is coming to grips with the swim meet of his life that saw him book a ticket to the Tokyo Olympics.

“I haven’t processed it. Everything feels so surreal. I still feel like normal Isaac, I don’t feel like I’m going to the Olympics,” Cooper said.

“The reason it’s so surreal is because I wasn’t expecting it. It came out of the blue.

“I was just going to the meet for some experience, and I shocked myself with the PBs that I did.”

Cooper will swim the backstroke leg of the 4x100m relay after producing the swim of his life in the 100m backstroke final.

It was there he finished second, 0.09 seconds behind Mitch Larkin in a time he thought he could only imagine.

“Leading up to the competition, I’d been really focusing on that 100 back, and I knew if had any chance at all (of qualifying) it would be in that event,” he said.

“I planned for a 53.8, which was still 0.4 outside of qualifying. After doing my heat swim, it felt easy. I turned to my coach in shock.

“In the final I was one of the last ones to be announced, and I thought I’d be nervous and break, but I felt great behind the blocks and I knew I was in my element.”

While narrowly missing out on qualifying, Cooper would endure a number of sleepless nights as he faced an anxious wait to see if he would make the team.

“I was not sleeping after the swim,” he said.

“I couldn’t sleep because kicking I was myself. I took an extra stoke at the end that if I didn’t take, I probably would’ve won.

“The I found out they were still thinking of taking me for the team. When I made the team I couldn’t sleep (from the excitement).”

Cooper will continue training in Brisbane for the next fortnight, before the team travels to Cairns in preparation for the trip to Tokyo.

He said he’s been buoyed by messages of support from around the state, including Toowoomba.

“I’ve had messages from old teammates, old coaches and teachers from Grammar. I really appreciate all of it,” he said.

“It’s not a one person job and I couldn’t be here without the support of friends and families.

“When I was at Grammar, Covid hit and threw things around with training. It taught me how to be a better athlete and how to find things to work on when you think you can’t do anything.”