Tasmanian young gun Max Giuliani almost quit swimming as a 17-year-old to become a tradie but now he is being mentioned in the same sentence as Ian Thorpe.

“All my mates kind of ended up doing that (getting a trade),” Giuliani said.

“I moved up to the Gold Coast (in 2022) to give it one last final crack.”

Despite obvious talent and years of training, Max had never made a senior Australian team, finishing last in the final of his favoured 200m freestyle event at the Australian Trials in Melbourne in 2022, in a time of 1:48.05.

A keen water polo player and surf lifesaver, who grew up in the beachside town of Carlton, east of Hobart, he did work experience as a plumber while he was at school and thought about getting an apprenticeship.

“I was very, very close to throwing it all in and going down that trade route,” he said.

“Another bad result and I probably wouldn’t be here today.

“I moved up to the Gold Coast to give it one last final crack, so I wouldn’t look back in a couple of years and think I could have been doing this. I’m pretty happy I did.”

When he moved to the Gold Coast in 2022 and joined the Miami Swim Club, things began to change.

Max didn’t make the team for the World Swimming Championships in Fukuoka, Japan, in July 2023. But in December of that year, one race turned him from a no-namer to an exciting freestyle prospect.

Leading off the Miami Swim Club’s 4x200m freestyle relay at the Queensland Championships, Giuliani stopped the clock at one minute, 44.79 seconds. A quick check confirmed it was the second-fastest time in Australian history.

The oldest Australian long-course swimming record is Thorpe’s mark of 1:44.06 in the 200m freestyle, set at the 2001 world championships.

Max’s effort was a remarkable swim, considering he hadn’t cracked the 1:50 barrier until late 2022 – the time would have seen him finish fourth at Fukuoka.

Breaking Thorpe’s record was “absolutely a goal of mine”, he said.

After missing the Fukuoka team, Max competed on the US circuit and at World Cup events in Europe in 2023.

At the Berlin stop of the 2023 World Aquatics Swimming World Cup, he landed on his first international podium, clocking a time of 1:46.18 in the 200m freestyle.

He took that down to a new PB of 1:45.42 at the Budapest stop on the tour before throwing down the swim of his life at the Queensland championships.

“The goal is to absolutely win a medal [in Paris],” Max said.

“It would be even better if it was gold. It’ll have to be a fast swim but I’m confident my coach (Richard Scarce) and I are doing everything in our power to put together a good swim.”

Max finished fifth in the 200m freestyle at the Australian championships on the Gold Coast in April and was part of the team that won bronze in the 4x100m freestyle relay.

And at the Australian Selection Trials in Brisbane in June he booked his place in Paris with victory in the 200m freestyle, edging out Tommy Neill by 0.19 seconds.

POD POP UP STAT: After winning the 200m at the Australian Selection Trials, Max – who works two or three shifts a week in the fishing section of an outdoors store – had to phone his boss to get some time off work for his debut Olympics.