Se-Bom Lee

Se-Bom Lee arrived with a bang at the Australian Olympic selection trials in Adelaide in 2021, confirming that the promise he had shown as a junior had carried over into the senior ranks.

Of Korean heritage, Se-Bom grew up in Sydney. After starting swimming at the age of six, he quickly rose through the ranks in Sydney, collecting medals and catching the eye of the selectors who included him in the Australian team for the 2018 Junior Pan Pacs in Fiji.

Five medals at the Australian age titles, three of them gold – in the two medleys and the 200m backstroke in the 17 years division – earned him selection in the Australian team for the FINA world junior titles in Budapest. There he swam a PB to place fifth in the 200m IM event.

At the Olympic trials, he just missed selection in the 200m individual medley, placing third behind qualifiers Mitch Larkin and Brendon, Smith but he came to the fore in the 400m IM. There he unleashed an excellent 4.14.16 swim to take the silver behind Smith and in doing so booked his place for Tokyo.

In his heat swim in Japan he clocked 4.15.76 for 16th place, which would normally be good enough to advance to the semis but, unfortunately, not in races over 200m in distance.

He was given another taste of how tough international competition can be when he finished 13th in the heats of the 400m individual medley at the world titles in Budapest in 2022 but qualified for the semis in the 200m event. He eventually was placed 14th, but his 2.00.11 swim represented an improvement on his bronze medal-winning mark at the Tokyo trials.

Se-Bom achieved his best international result at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games where he placed fifth in the 400m IM (4.16.68) and sixth in the 200m final (1.59.86).

Coming into the Olympic year, Se-Bom switched up his training in a bid to ensure he won a place on the team for Paris.

He made the final of the 200m backstroke at the 2024 Australian championships on the Gold Coast in April and won bronze in the 200m medley.

And he booked his ticket to his second Olympics by finishing second in the 200m backstroke at the trials in Brisbane in June, in a time of 1:57.02. He also finished third in the 200m medley.

“I have chopped and changed to different events,” says Se-Bom, “but I’ve had a lot of support at home and from my performance support staff who got me through, so to get on my second Olympic team is awesome – a dream come true.”

Away from the pool, Se-Bom is studying for a bachelor of medical science at the University of Technology, Sydney.