By Dominique Tassell
Born-and-bred Stanthorpe boy Ben Armbruster may not have made the Olympic team for Tokyo but he didn’t come home to Queensland from trials in Adelaide empty-handed, making an impressive splash.
Ben earned himself the title of fastest 19-year-old in Australia for 100 fly at trials, winning the B final in 100 fly and coming in at 9th fastest in the open men’s race.
When we last spoke to Ben, he said his main focus was on bettering his achievements. He did that and then some at Olympic trials in Adelaide, accomplishing “a couple personal bests”.
Ben says he is “pretty happy” with his results, and says he went into the process not expecting anything.
Ben says it was inspiring to be around other athletes of such a high calibre, and he’s excited to be in that environment again when he trials for the Commonwealth Games next year.
After the intense period that was the 6-day-long Olympic trials, Ben is taking a small break before he gets back into his usual training routine.
The 19-year-old says he’s ready to get back into his degree at University of the Sunshine Coast (USC) next semester, where he swims for the USC Spartans.
He says he’s also excited to sleep in a little later than 5am for a while, the time he normally gets up every morning to train.
Ben says “it’s a hard routine but you do get used to it, thankfully”.
Ben previously won four medals out of five swims when he competed in the 2021 Australian Swimming Championships, and achieved two personal bests. With a record like that of achievement and improvement, we’re sure to see more of Ben on a national level.
While he won’t be appearing at the Tokyo Olympics this year, Ben’s future still looks bright.
After his well-deserved break, Ben will get back to training for the Commonwealth Games held in Birmingham next year and of course, there’s always Paris 2024.
