Those were the words which changed the business trajectory for Tokyo 2020 Olympic diver and environmental entrepreneur Sam Fricker as he sat in class at Sydney’s Trinity Grammar school back in 2020.

Not yet having achieved his childhood Olympic dream with the Games postponed, nor completed his year 12 High School certificate examinations, the young entrepreneur had reached out to one of Australia’s most innovative businessmen for advice on his sustainable drinking straw business.

Much to the 19-year-old’s surprise, the record-breaking aviator and philanthropist responded and gave him a call.

“It was surreal. I remember answering the call and saying, “Oh, hi Dick, I’m in class at school, is it OK if I give you a call back at lunchtime?,” Sam said, who has cemented himself not only as an athlete but as a rising environmental entrepreneur.

“During the first lockdown I’d written Dick a letter, I had to YouTube how to write a letter, I’d never sent a letter in my life! But I did it. I sent it to the post office in the area I knew he lived, addressed it: Dick Smith, Terrey Hills Post Office.

“I couldn’t believe he received the letter, let alone took the time to call me.

“As a kid, Dick Smith always made an impression on me; he’d always had a crack – and I wanted to talk to him. This is something I’ve learned from sport, you always need to surround yourself with the right people and just have a crack.”

The meet up that followed their phone call has helped Sam to evolve and develop the wheat straw business he had started at age 17, creating an eco-friendly solution to single use plastics.

Fearless on the 10m platform, but equally courageous in advocating for the environment, Sam was adamant something needed to be done after witnessing a video of a sea turtle with a plastic straw stuck in its nose.

“I have been fortunate enough to travel and compete all over the world for diving,” he said.

“Through my travels I have seen that plastic pollution is not just a problem here in Australia but a global emergency.

“From my local beach in the Shire of Sydney to the cityscape of Kiev, Ukraine, the beaches of Doha, Qatar and the streets of Berlin, Germany there was clear evidence of plastic pollution all over the globe. I wanted to do something about it.”

His business, then called Tsarian, started out small, in fact his initial prototype was a metal straw, but he changed the design to wheat to address the issues faced by food retail businesses that needed a one-use product for their customers.

Sam designed the straw and worked with manufacturers in China to produce it, before bringing the product to Sydney for distribution.

The hope is to be able to produce the straws here in Australia with locally-grown wheat. He now sells and ships internationally with the eco-friendly straw, a favourite with local Sydney cafes among a throng of customers from Australia to the USA looking for a sustainable solution.

Sam's goal is to supply the world’s leading hospitality brands and venues.

After his meeting with Dick Smith, Sam rebranded his company to Sam’s Straws, following the advice of his mentor to put his name and face to the business he believes so passionately in.

“We booked in a half hour meeting but we sat there for two and half hours just talking about his life,” Sam said of his meeting with Smith.

“He told me what he’d done and how most of the things he’d done he just had a crack and put some enthusiasm in it – and just gave it a go.”

“He is an incredible man. I’d never thought to whack my face on a product to try and sell it, that’s what he’d done, he told me to do the same, so I did it.”

Sam has since released a sustainable men’s swimwear range, Sam’s Suits, which are made from 80 per cent recycled plastic bottles. The range, which is in partnership with Sydney artist Timothy Johnston and Delfinasport, will extend to women and casual beachwear in 2022.

To many, business success under-pinned by a bigger purpose, at such a young age may come as a surprise. However, those who know Sam from his younger years have long-been aware of his ability to seize an opportunity and hustle.

He and primary school mate “Raff” had the teachers at the Hunter Performing Arts School smiling as they formally chastised the duo for a “black-market lolly bag business” which undercut the school canteen on price back in his younger years growing up in Newcastle.

His first diving coach at the NSW Institute of Sport, two-time Olympian Vyninka Arlow, recognised his understanding of the importance of sustainability when as a 13-year-old she’d direct him to use just one, not two, plastic bags when icing his injuries.

His present coach Thomas Rickards backs the tenacity of Sam’s “just have a crack” attitude in international competition and has worked together with the diver to anchor this with a mantra of “get the small stuff right."

Trinity Grammar school business studies teacher, Katherine Hronopoulos, relished the fact one of her students looked beyond the classroom and textbooks for learning.

She applauded when Sam reached out to the nation’s most successful entrepreneurs for advice and was there to support when he came back nervously for help preparing the questions to ask.

“I’ve been really fortunate to have a number of good people guide me along the way,” Sam said, who paid tribute to his mum Toni for her unwavering support whether it is in sport or business.

“If you work with great people, you can do great things. That’s something I learned from diving, if you want to achieve your dreams you have to work with people and you need a whole team to do something bigger than yourself.”

“I try and keep good values with everything I do. I always say: ‘The right thing to do is the right thing to do.'

“This is what guides me both as an athlete and in business. I’ve found when you’ve got morals and values, it’s much easier to navigate and makes decision making much easier.”

In 2020, Sam won the Mark Bouris Lexus Grant; a scholarship for his wheat straw innovation which allowed him to financially pursue his Olympic and business aspirations in tandem.

The grant also gave the talented young diver the confidence to believe he didn’t have to define himself just as an athlete, or just as an entrepreneur.

On the back of his rising sporting and business profile, Sam has also built one of the nation’s most enviable followings on TikTok, with more than 1.2 million followers.

His content during the Tokyo Olympics, which included everything from a uniform parade to quarantine packing tips, notched 325 million views. His videos on the platform have had more than half a billion views in total.

Brands regularly seek out the diver to develop content and promote their products whether that be by doing a back flip on a beach with banana in hand or modelling his own recyclable swimsuit line.

Social media exploits have provided Sam, who specialised in drama at the performing arts school before moving to Sydney, with a creative outlet and an always-welcome cash flow to finance his sporting pursuits.

He has also invested in his environmental advocacy, taking on an ambassador role for Clean Up Australia; the charity founded by Ian Kiernan that has enabled Australians to dedicate more than 33 million hours to removing rubbish from our communities.

“First and foremost, I am a diver,” he said.

“Everything I do at the moment; the backbone is diving.

“My social media is based around diving and with my business, I wouldn’t have seen the impact of plastics if I hadn’t been travelling with diving.

“I’m different to different people. The guys I do business with think I’m a businessperson; the divers think I’m a diver.

“To me, I’m a diver – and now I’m an Olympian too.”

Sam started diving at age 11 in Newcastle to impress a girl he had a crush on at the time.

While his schoolboy romance didn’t eventuate into anything serious, he did fall in love with the sport that would make him an Olympian.

With a background in gymnastics and trampolining he proved to be a natural, winning regional and national schoolboy crowns within years of taking up the sport.

In 2015 Sam was awarded a New South Wales Institute of Sport scholarship and his mum and three siblings relocated to Sydney so he could train under coach Arlow.

He won a hat-trick of medals at the 2015 National Age Champions in the 1m springboard, 10m platform and 3m synchronised springboard 12-13 age category events, as well as silver in the 3m springboard, and was named Diver of the Year (12-13 years) by the national association.

Sam went on to compete domestically and internationally with great success, including winning a bronze at the 2018 FINA World Junior Championships in the mixed team event.

In 2019, he became the first Australian ever to win the Dresden Youth International Diving meet on the boys platform – winning by nearly 50 points.

Sam competed at his first international open event in 2019, taking out silver at the Oceania Diving Championships in the 10m platform and missing out on the gold by just 0.15 points.

“Moving to Sydney was a complete life change,” he said.

“I went from hanging out with my friends every day, just hopping on the bus in Newcastle for school, which was super chilled, to a private school which was intense and training 23-24 hours a week.

“It was a culture shock, but elite diving gave me a purpose.

“I’ve learned all the things I live by from diving: not to give up and you have to work with a team — so many life lessons.”

The postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Games due to the COVID-19 pandemic provided an extra year of experience, albeit without international competition, for the platform specialist who secured a spot on the team for Tokyo after finishing in second place at the Olympic selection event.

At his first Olympics, with a disrupted preparation due to the pandemic, Sam finished in 27th position on the men’s 10m platform, something he plans to improve on in the years to come.

“Even now, to think I am an Olympian is insane,” Sam said of his experience in Tokyo.

“I never knew what I wanted do when I was younger, I was always in trouble in primary school, but I always had a dream to go to the Olympics.

“I didn’t know how I was going to get there but I was competitive, and I always wanted to be the best at what I did.

“I took so much away from Tokyo. The Olympics was huge. I was just grateful to be there and it was a dream come true. Just being able to walk down the streets with the flags, going to the pool, training with people I watched on TV, it was awesome. I just loved it.

"I hadn’t done an international competition since 2019 – the only thing we had done was compete in virtual events."

Three-time Olympian (1976, 1980, 1984) and Diving Australia's reigning general manager of high performance and pathways, Steve Foley, said the young diver is an outstanding role model who embraces the Olympic ethos in all he does.

“Sam is one of those athletes who when he sets his mind to something, there is no stopping him in his journey to success,” he said.

“No matter what he always has a smile on his face, if that’s in the middle of a tough training session, or halfway across the globe competing against the world’s best.

“That kind of enthusiasm is contagious, it reminds us why as administrators, coaches, and support staff we put in the hard yards.

“All of us at diving couldn’t be prouder of the young man he has become and look forward to supporting his journey in any way we can.”

While a childhood dream continues to inspire his diving, Sam believes his business and social media exploits will ensure his longevity in international sport.

Every day he juggles his elite diving and business dealings with social media and environmental initiatives. He said the thrills he gets from being involved with new projects is equal to that of ripping his favourite inward three and a half somersault dive.

“There are so many things now I never thought as a kid I would be doing,” Sam said.

“I feel very lucky that I have the opportunities and I’d encourage others to do the same. Even the smallest opportunities you can think of can lead to big things; just stay in line with your morals and values.”

Catriona Dixon

Everyday Sam Fricker, Tracey Freeman and Taniele Gofers live by the motto: Faster, Higher, Stronger - together. They are building their profiles beyond the sporting arena into some of the most impactful pursuits on the planet.

They are three Olympians with three very different life trajectories, but one thing links them together, the Olympic spirit.

As athletes they inspired many by wearing the green and gold on the biggest stage on Earth, the Olympic Games, and now they are taking others on the journey with them as they continue to lead intelligence and passion.

First and foremost they are athletes, they are Olympians, but much like their athletics achievements they continue to strive to do better - to achieve beyond what most think is possible.