Far left: Pearcedale swimmer Nathan Cobbe has made huge strides in the sport since accepting an academic/sports scholarship at Queensland private school St Peters Lutheran College last year.By Marc McGowan
LIFE in the pool can’t get much better for Nathan Cobbe.
The Pearcedale-raised teenager trains alongside Olympic gold medallist and world record-holder Stephanie Rice in Queensland and enjoyed a triumphant homecoming last week.
Cobbe, 16, won the 100, 200 and 400 metres freestyle – all by significant margins – at the Victorian Age Championships to show just how far he had come.
“I moved up to Queensland for training, but I wanted to come down and show I hadn’t quit the sport,” he said. “The step-up in training has been massive. It’s so much more intense and professional than where I used to swim (Kings Swimming Club) – and training with Steph Rice is pretty cool.”
Cobbe’s swimming career was at the crossroads as recently as last April. He was disillusioned with the sport after he produced what he felt was an underwhelming performance at the Australian Age Championships.
But Cobbe’s Kings mentor Rob Moon organised for Rice’s coach at St Peters Western Swimming Club, Michael Bohl, to watch him at the national meeting, and the rest is history.
Cobbe accepted an academic/sports scholarship at Queensland private school St Peters Lutheran College midway through last year and began training with Bohl’s squad.
Beijing Olympians Kenrick Monk, Meagen Nay and Nicholas Sprenger are also among Bohl’s star pupils.
“When I got up there a mate’s dad told me that three weeks in I was going to be hurting and it would be killing me,” Cobbe said. “He said if I could get through that, and stay and pick it up, I would benefit, but if I went home and quit I would get nothing from it.
“In that third week it just hurt – it killed – but I trusted him because his son’s (Ned McKendry) a top swimmer. I just pushed through it.”
And the results of the hard work were on show at last month’s Queensland Age Championships.
Cobbe dramatically lowered his personal bests across the board to announce himself as one of the country’s most exciting talents.
“I was setting six-second PBs over 200 metres, which no one really does at 16,” he said. “You do that when you’re like 13, so I was pretty stoked.”
Cobbe returns home every school holidays to see his family – father Graham, mother Karen and siblings Ella, 14, Olivia, 12, and Hayden, 9. He also spent Christmas with New Zealand pop-rock band Evermore, whose three members happen to be brothers – and his cousins. “My mates reckon that it’s pretty sweet. They reckon it’s cooler than I do,” Cobbe said.
Cobbe is no different from any other rising swimming star in that he dreams of competing at the Olympics. But his ability to revel in his nine weekly sessions in the pool may be what sets him apart.
“People look at it and ask me, ‘why do you swim, why do you bother?’,” he said. “But I love it. Even when it’s absolutely killing me, I enjoy it.”
