Off the back of his performances at the recent Australian Championships, Nick Layton has been selected to represent Australia at the World Deaf Swimming Championships in Argentina. The event will be held in August this year, and Nick will be travelling with a team of 5 other Australian swimmers. It will be Nick's first international event, and he has been working hard towards this goal for a number of years. Focussing on finishing year 12, and COVID interruptions, both impacted and postponed his participation at this level. It made Nick more hungry, determined and committed to his training in preparation for selection for such a big international competition. His performances at the recent National championships achieved the requisite qualifying times to be selected for this elite team.
In addition, in case you didn't know, in 2020, Nick broke the World Deaf Swimming record in the 50m Butterfly (short course) during the Australian Short Course Championships in Melbourne. He is continuing his training towards greater results and most importantly enjoying the process of getting there.
Nick is very thankful to everyone at Propulsion for their support, both in and out the pool. He is a proud member of Propulsion and is grateful to all club members and coaches in supporting him.
The club is also extremely proud of Nick, and we will be cheering for him in Argentina!
Here is a personal reflection from Nick and his family.
Nick's other passion is Art. Last month, Nick won an Art competition organised by Deaf Children Australia. The theme was Heroes and Leaders (in my life). I'm sure you can spot a familiar face in the montage!
Nick's interpretation:
The Parts of Me depicts the theme Heroes and Leaders through self-portraits of the people I consider to be my greatest influencers. The roles they each play have helped me grow as a person. To me, they're not just family or friends, they are my heroes and leaders.
A majority of the self-portraits are images of my close family members (sister, mother, father, grandmother and grandfather). The rest include my swimming coach, who I believe has made a huge positive impact, not only in the pool, but in my life. At the bottom-middle of the page there are some students of Mentone Grammar (the school that I went to) carrying the Drinan house flag depicting the house mascot, a dragon.
The dragonfly (top left corner) represents those that have passed and indirectly would've had an impact on my character. The 3 butterflies (middle right) represent the Deaf community, since butterflies are deaf insects.
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