Open water swimmer Chelsea Gubecka was the first Australian Olympic Team member selected for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games by the Australian Olympic Committee.

Gubecka will contest the 10km marathon swim in Paris 2024 in the iconic River Seine, 124 years after Olympic swimming was held in the river at the Paris 1900 Olympics.

The Brisbane local is a 2023 World Championships silver and bronze medallist, World Cup gold medallist and six-time national 10km champion.

Gubecka returns for her second Australian Olympic Team after making her Olympic debut at Rio 2016, only the second Australian woman with Melissa Gorman (2008, 2012) to contest the marathon swimming at two Games.

Gubecka was just five months old when she started learn to swim classes.

Having grown up on the Sunshine Coast, she has always been around the water.

Chelsea made her international debut as a 14-year-old at the 2013 World Championships, after she beat Gorman in the 10km Open Water Event at the Australian Championships that year.

She finished 29th in her Dolphins debut in the 10km and 13th in the women’s 1500m Freestyle.

Three years later, Gubecka made her Olympic debut at the Rio 2016 Games in the 10km Open Water.

In the rough and tumble of the marathon, the Queenslander fought hard in the waters of Copacabana, finishing 15th. Chelsea was Australia’s only entrant in the event and tried to stay in touch when the pace went up a gear during the last 2.5km, but couldn’t hold on when the leaders took off.

She booked her Olympic debut at the last Olympic qualifier in Setabul, Portugal, beating fellow Australian Kareena Lee and finishing fourth overall. The teenager narrowly missed the automatic quota spot at the 2015 World Championships where she finished 13th, as the top 10 took home Rio qualification.

In her next three World Championships appearances in the 10km event she would go on to finish 9th (2017), 29th (2019) and 13th (2022).

Chelsea had a strong end to the 2022 FINA Marathon Swim World Series, winning a gold and silver medal in Eilat, Israel.

The gold medal, her first in the FINA Marathon World Series, came in the women’s 10km race with a time of 1:56:19.80 – which relegated the Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion, Ana Marcela Cunha from Brazil, to second place (1:56:23.60). The silver medal she won the day before with the Australian 4x1500m Mixed Relay Team.

Primarily an open water swimmer, over the course of her career Chelsea has also routinely competed in the pool in various distances and disciplines; such as the 1500m freestyle, 800m freestyle and the 400m individual medley.

At the 2023 Australian Championships she came third in the women’s 1500m Freestyle.

Chelsea then wasted no chances in qualifying for the Paris 2024 Olympics, taking the first opportunity available at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka.

She started the 10km race in the lead pack and stayed there for all six laps in Japan to claim her maiden World Championships medal. It was a breakthrough silver moment for the 24-year-old at her sixth World Championships, with the top three finishers qualifying for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

“It’s a long time coming, but I’m just sort of starting to get into my group now. I feel like I’m a little bit older and getting wiser by the second,” Chelsea said post-race.

“I think over the years, I have learned to embrace the challenge of racing and also how to relax, to keep the heart rate down and stay very calm.”

Five days later she took to the open water again at the World Championships with the Australian 4x1500m Mixed Relay Team and won bronze with Moesha Johnson, Nicholas Sloman and Kyle Lee.

This would be converted to gold for the same relay quartet at the 2024 World Championships in Doha.

POD POP UP STAT: The women’s marathon swimming event will take place on 8 August 24 in the River Seine – this will see swimming return to the river for Olympic competition for the first time in 124 years.