SHE knows the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo will be a bridge too far, so that's why Port Macquarie's Mathilda King has her sights firmly set on Paris in 2024.
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King has been selected to attend a three-day training camp at the Australian Institute of Sport next weekend after a successful 12 months of results that covered school nationals, club country, club state and short course swimming events.
The teenager attended the School Sport Australia swimming championships in July where her positive year results-wise was capped off with a silver medal.
She was an agonising six one-hundredths of a second off claiming gold before she backed it up and won another silver in the under-14 individual medley relay.
While most of her success has come in breaststroke, the St Columba Anglican School student is now focused on improving her freestyle.
"I'm not bored of breaststroke, I just want to do a bit more," she said.
"Having two strong strokes that I'm strong at will help me a bit more in being selected for higher levels than just the one stroke."
But it hasn't just been about the medals King has won over the last year.
Her times have been coming down and while she admitted medals were satisfying, it was the quicker times that selectors noticed as swimmers progressed through the ranks.
"Everyone loves a medal, but the times are the major thing that lets you qualify for higher competitions," King said.
"I've been medalling and the times have been pretty good lately, but that's been in short course."
King was invited down to the AIS training camp last year, but a family holiday meant she couldn't attend.
"I didn't really think about it but then I saw posts on social media from other girls saying they had a great time," she said.
"I didn't know it was as big of a deal as a camp, but now I do."
King's success in the pool is not overly surprising when you consider her dad Gary once swam the 35-kilometre English Channel - just for something to do.
The 14-year-old was looking forward to the experience in Canberra and said rather than be guided by the coaches, she would inform them what she wanted to improve on.
"I'll tell them I want to work on freestyle because it's a good change," she said.
"It's coming along at the moment so I'm trying to build it up maybe not quite to my breaststroke ability, but just under so I can have a wider range to be selected in.
"We'll do six training sessions and then there will be a bunch of talks and stretching and group work activities."
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