Local swimmer has goggles firmly set on the Olympics

Community Grant Program recipient, Erik Cunningham, a 14-year-old from Walkerville, is swimming for gold, with big dreams of representing Australia at the 2032 Olympics.

Erik has been travelling extensively these past few years, attending swimming competitions, racing meets and representing Walkerville nationally.

In July, Erik competed at the Winter Waves swimming carnival at the SA Aquatic & Leisure Centre, where he achieved the highest point score in the 14-year-old boys category. He is currently No. 1 in the State for the 200m backstroke, 400m medley and 200m fly.

Erik developed a passion for swimming from a young age, starting as young as 12 months of age – quite the water baby! However, his passion for swimming eventually stretched to a passion for competing.

“I had no idea about the sport of swimming and the pathways to participation, but eventually discovered competitive swimming at the age of ten,” said Erik.

“In Year 4 (nine-years-old), I was age champion at an interschool championship. From there, I was encouraged to join club swimming and trialled a few teams until settling with Henley and Grange (based at Thebarton).”

At the club, he has developed his skills and enjoyed the coaching and peer group swimming. In his first year, he entered every race he could in the Short Course State Championships, where he became the highest scoring 13-year-old in the State.

Erik has achieved national times in four of his events, including 200m fly, 200m medley, 100m fly and 400m medley.

His swimming success resulted in an invitation to compete against other swimmers across Australia at the 2025 Australian National Swimming Championships in Brisbane in April.

For this competition, Erik received a Minor Community Grant from Council to assist in purchasing high-performance swimwear. Erik explained that swimming results can be decided by hundredths of a second, and swimmers look for every advantage they can, especially in swimwear.

He had a highly successful race, reaching a personal best in all four of his events. Erik also dropped 12 seconds across the four events he competed in.

The competitions don’t stop there, as Erik has only recently returned from a second trip to Brisbane, as a member of the South Australian Schools National Swim Team.

Erik said, “My goal is to continue improving times and working on technical aspects of each of the four strokes (back, breast, free and fly) with the aim of ongoing involvement in national swimming titles each year.”

However, his sights are also firmly set on the future, where Erik hopes he will be in the water, among the pool lanes, clad in yellow and gold, in Brisbane for the 2032 Olympics.