Two significant differences should guarantee Jacob Templeton’s maiden Commonwealth Games is a major contrast to his extensive previous international experiences.
In a departure from his hectic program at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, the visually-impaired Tasmanian swimmer has just one event available in his classification in Birmingham.
However, he is getting to share the bill with the best able-bodied athletes as opposed to being a separate event after they’ve gone home.
Templeton is content with the trade-off.
“At the Commonwealth Games, we compete with the able-bodied athletes, so it is inclusive and it’s something I’m really looking forward to,” he said.
“I have not been to a Commonwealth Games yet so don’t know what to expect but I’m excited to be part of it. When you go to the Paralympics, you get to sit and watch the Olympic Games before going, so being able to watch the able-bodied guys will be really cool and also cool for them to see us.”
The Queensland-based 27-year-old is equally positive about the S13 (visually impaired) classification being limited to just one race - the 50-metre freestyle - having contested five races in Rio, making finals in the 400m freestyle and 200m individual medley.
“The Paralympics are a 10-day program and in that there are 14 different classifications with male and female so more than 100 individual races. In the S13 at the Commonwealth Games, the only possible race was the 50m free.
“It’s good that it's a race I’ve always done, but it’s not exactly my pet event so I’ve had to train more for it.
“I guess it’s a bit less complicated, especially being the 50 free where there’s no questions asked, just a lot of splash and not heaps of endurance. But there is a bit of apprehension that you’ve got to get everything right otherwise it’s all over.”
Templeton is well aware that being such a short event means minimal margin for error.
“It’s going to be competitive. From what I gather, there are four or five of us within a couple of tenths of a second of each other who will all be knocking on the door. All of us Australians (Oscar Stubbs, of NSW, and Queenslander Braedan Jason) are within 0.3 of a second of each other, around 24.4.”
Templeton will be competing at Sandwell Aquatics Centre on Saturday, July 30. No heats were required in the event which means he has qualified directly into the final scheduled for 7.51pm.
With three of the five finalists, Australia is guaranteed a medal barring disqualifications.
Templeton's qualification time of 24.48 is fractionally second fastest to compatriot Jason (24.47) with all qualifiers separated by just 0.66 seconds.
A former Nixon Street Primary School and St Brendan Shaw College student, who was born with the degenerative eye disease retinitis pigmentosa, Templeton began swimming with Devonport Aquatic Club before moving to Queensland. He completed a Bachelor of Sport and Exercise Science at the University of the Sunshine Coast where he represents the USC Spartans and works as a personal trainer and swimming coach.
In 2016, he became the first Tasmanian swimmer to qualify for the Paralympic Games in more than a decade.
Having burst onto the scene at the 2013 Australian Short-Course Championships, Templeton set three freestyle world records at the 2020 event and has also contested Para World and Pan Pacific Championships but narrowly missed selection for the Tokyo Paralympics having achieved the qualification criteria.
“There was a quota of how many we could take and I was one of two out of 30 to miss out. That was pretty heartbreaking,” he said. “I’d previously narrowly missed a team once before so it was hard, but it gave me the motivation to get to where I am this year.”