Student swimming to Beijing

    “I don’t have to do butterfly, which sucks, because I actually like butterfly,” he says.
    Cameron flew to England in the mid-semester break to compete in the qualifying competition, where he managed to cut six seconds off his personal best to qualify for
the games.
    “I wasn’t expecting to make the team. I had to do a personal best to qualify,” says Cameron.
    Because he qualified for one event he can enter others and Cameron plans to take full advantage of this by racing in five
different events.
    He has entered the 50m freestyle, 200m freestyle, 50m backstroke 50m butterfly and the medley.
    Paralympics sponsor Mitsubishi is paying for the trip to Beijing but training costs are high. “You only get it once you get to the top. Getting there is the hard part. They pay for the trip but there’s all the training costs like club fees
and food.”
    Cameron got into swimming at the age of 10 when lessons came up at his local pool.
    He received a lot of support and sponsorship from local businesses like Fulton Hogan and Three Guys in Whangarei to help him get to this level.
    He has been training at the West Auckland Aquatic Centre since coming to Auckland from Whangarei for university, where he is a first year communications student hoping to become a journalist.
    Cameron is also into wheelchair rugby, and plays for the Auckland team, even making the New Zealand development team.
    Since it was his first year playing, the coach of his wheelchair rugby team, Grant Sharman, suggested he concentrate on swimming this year which has paid off, but the wheel chair rugby Paralympics squad may be a possibility in coming years.