Scotch College

Matt hits the target – Olympic selection for Beijing

Champion swimmer Matt Targett (’03) has been selected in the Australian swim team for the Beijing Olympic Games in August.

Matt, who is an imposing 198cm tall and weighs in at 88kg, will swim in the 100m freestyle at Beijing. Speaking to The Sunday Age, Matt said he had wanted to swim in the Olympics ever since he had watched Australia win the 4 x 100m relay and Grant Hackett the 1500m at the Sydney Olympic Games.

‘That was the first time I decided I wanted to be an Olympian,’ Matt told the paper. ‘I had never experienced emotion like that. I couldn’t understand what it was all about until I went to the Olympics. That’s what motivates me; the idea of helping Australia get back to that point.’

The Sunday Age quoted Matt’s mother, Vera recalling that coaches at Scotch said ‘he would coast along in first place until he sensed someone closing in, then burn them away with a burst of speed’.

Best wishes to Matt in Beijing, as he tries to ‘burn them away’ in the 100m freestyle.