Three-time Paralympic gold medallist, Cameron Leslie is preparing for the pool.
The World Para Swimming Championships are taking place from 21-27th of September in Singapore.
It’ll be the eighth World Championships he’s competed in, the athlete having won a staggering 14 medals in the competitions.
He caught up with Piney for a chat about what he’s been up to and his preparations for September, as well as for the LA Olympics.
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Vine
from News Talks EDB.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Chat with one of our greatest Paralympians, world record holder,
three time Paralympic gold medalist and the men's individual medley
one fifty meter SM four Cam Leslie.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Leslie and Suzuki No forging ahead, very strong, indeed, keep
an eye on the clock yet thirty seven or two
for Leslie.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Honey has taken it in the heat thirty six point
seven five Cameron Leslie has taken a.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
World record in the heat. Son. If that doesn't send
the message to the rest of the field, I.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Don't know what does. Cam Lesley is off to his
eighth World Power Swimming Championships in September, looking to add
to his fourteen World Championship medals. Camp. Thanks for joining us.
We spoke around Easter when you were about to head
to Japan to train with one of your greatest rivals,
take Yuki, Suzuki. So how did it go over there?
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Yeah, no, it was good. He does seems quite different
with me, a very traditional approach to how they do things.
And yeah, I guess it's kind of good because we're
going down the Avenue of sort of trying to be
quite different with our training style. So it was quite
refreshing just to sort of see that they are still
doing quite a traditional approach. But yeah, awesome, Like, man,
I felt young again for a week. I went hard
(01:24):
on all the trainings and then and then I blew
up towards the end. I was like, man, I'm shit.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
So did you bring back some lessons? Are you going
to revert back to a more traditional type of training
as you work towards events or were you just sort
of pick and choose some of the things you're picked
up over there?
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Nice? So we sort of leaned into a bit of
their technology and a little bit of their analysis side of
things that really gave us the takeaways from it. Fifty
minute pool worth like not a centimeter of uncovered by
a camera footage, so we had that every Tringle saying
every single training session, so sixteen seventeen trainings worth camera
footage review. We really got to nail down on technique
(02:05):
stuff that we're they're lacking or have done better previously,
or because I don't race Tucker in fifty meters backstroke,
he was his coach was more than happy to give
me his insights into my backstroke style and technique and
things like that. So we came home with probably a
good maybe six or seven like points in terms of
just to sort of clarify what we're doing in certain races.
(02:25):
You know, we tried different starts and things like that,
and we're getting half a second improvement just off a dive.
So those are quite like massive things when you're talking
the focus of a fifty three style fifty backstroke.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Absolutely so, did any of its surprise you can when
you saw the footage, did you think, oh, man, I
didn't know I was doing that or not doing that.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
I not necessarily surprised me in terms we didn't know
I was doing it. I knew I was doing it,
but I didn't know the the I guess. So a
good example of doing backstroke and a flume. So flume,
you know, rotating water, you're swimming on the spot, You've
got camera anglers left right center. So we set it
to the world record pace and we went, you know,
we were cranking through it. And the one body movement
(03:04):
I do with my legs in terms of a kick,
what that did in terms of offsetting my body position
in the water was quite drastic. So when you I kicked,
we thought it was a good thing because you're moving water,
you're creating or for pulption. However, what it did in
terms of the negative of changing body position, we didn't
realize it was quite that extreme. So that was really
That's probably a really good example in terms of we
(03:25):
had absolute awareness, but in terms of the severity of
that change, we didn't have that.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
How difficult or not is it to change habits that
you know, change techniques that you've perhaps been doing for
quite some time. How challenging is it to change those
those or even make those small tweaks.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
So I've learned this throughout my career that to me,
I say easy because I'm engaged with my brain. I'm
very body aware. I know, I'm very aware of where
my body is in space. So easy ish for me,
but for others very hard to break a long standing
sort of technique that's been ingrained into your right. But
for me it's been really easy. We've been very conscious.
(04:03):
It sort of helped me have better body position and
how to macore up a bit, you know, like I'm
very aware of what I'm doing in the water, So
for me, not very different not very difficult, but it
is usually quite a hard thing to do.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
So a couple of months out from the World Champs
in September, how do you reckon your tracking? How are
you feeling good?
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Yeah, well, a little bit sick at the moment, but yeah,
that's all just yeah, it's gone and gone on a
floody in a good gym session or a good swim
right now. Yeah, really good tracking, really, and I see
we've had some good race results this year pre going
to Japan and then post Japan racing out and ZEEM Championships.
So yeah, some really good results, looking really good in
(04:40):
terms of where we're tracking towards it. So excited to race,
excited to sort of I guess get even a little
bit really right now I'm sitting world number one and
number world number one until my races, so like looking
good versus the competitors. However, that's not the that's not
the clinical for the year. So yeah, things they're looking good.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Just clarify which events you're racing in Singapore.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Fifty three style, one hundred freestyle in fifty minutes backstroke.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
All right, so you're fourth in the men's fifty three
and men's fifty back in Paris, narrowly missing a metal
in both. I remember you said to me you didn't
want to finish your Olympic career with a couple of fourths.
How are you tracking for LA? Do you feel like
you're on target? I know it's a long way away,
but I know you plan things metronomically. How are you
tracking towards LA?
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Yeah? Good? I mean this year because of the soil
loser last year, I come back and then we're really
sort of shaken things up and we're doing things now
very purposely for LA. So changes that we're making in
terms of us at home, you know, moving house, moving
off farm and stuff like that to allow that to happen.
But also what we've been looking into is the sports
(05:46):
science stuff this year through New Zealand, at high performance
sport in New Zealand, through nutrition, and it's all to
feed a bigger picture towards LA. So I say, tracking
really good. We haven't made massive changes this year in
some spaces, but we're gathering data insights to track versus
performance in Singapore and then look to make changes post
Singapore or looking forward to Europeans next year in Worlds
(06:08):
year out, looking forward to our.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Essentially outstanding Well, I've got you your day job disability
and pair of swimming participation manager for Swimming New Zealand.
What takes up most of your time in that role.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
Trying to find the next version of me and Dan Pasco?
Speaker 2 (06:23):
And yeah, how's that going? How's that going? Are they
coming from? They are?
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Yeah? I mean that's the thing. I've been doing this
row sixt or seven years now, and when I started,
we couldn't have told you who was our sort of
prospects for the next two games. Where is now I
can pretty comfortably tell you who's looking good for twenty
eight and twenty twenty thirty two games in terms of
who are I doing and seeing coming through, which is
amazing really to have that far forward in the future.
(06:48):
And I mean that's what my job's all about, is
trying to establish those pathways for them and work with
the club coaches feed not only like that's the only
the like the competitive piece. There's a whole heap of
participasion project which are really cool that we've got going
on that is a little bit more just around like
the therapeutic side of being in the water and creating
relationships people with compeiment and being in the water, and
(07:11):
I guess finding a space or a sport or a
sensory experience that is for them.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
How can you tell so far out whether a swimmer
has what it takes to be a successful twenty thirty
two Olympian or even a twenty twenty eight Olympian. I mean,
obviously you can look at their technique in the way
that they move through the water, but how can you
tell you know, from a mental point of view that
someone has what it takes.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
You've got your dirty old statistical tracking stuff that says
they're in a really good position now versus what the
world standards are, so that like that's a dirty or
performance marker, right. But then there's uncoachables. You know, are
they driven? Do they turn up? Are they always seeking more?
You know, does their age plan to it? What are
their performance behaviors? Are they with good clubs like that
(07:59):
sort of stuff. The uncoachables. Do they have a desire?
Is it actually what they want to achieve? Because there's
so many people who have the of going to Olympics
or parallemic Games. And I mean to put a blunt there,
it's just words. You've got to have action buy in it.
So probably what I'm trying to say is that these
people actually do have a bit of action to them
at these early stages and are tracking nicely on a
performance marker as well.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Do you often do you see a little bit of
your younger self and some of these younger swims totally.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
I see my parents and a lot of the parents
I work with as well. You know, they used to
have to put in the fight, and that's sort of
what my job's there for is to remove that fight
for them and show that it's a you know, it's
a sport pathway and a program, a space that is
actually welcoming of impairment, and if you've got an issue,
you just take it out the same way you would
with any other club swimmer. It's not you don't have
to yell and scream about it. And you know, my
(08:46):
kid never gets this chance to absolutely get the chance
of swimming, So it's I can definitely see young me
and young young my parents, and I mean some of
the ones who acquire injuries as well. There's others who
have come through in a power of pathway that are
at the same time as me, and you see them
in those swimmers as well. It's really cool. It's real
close to my real passion, passionate role for me. We've
(09:09):
made such great progress in it that it's really cool
to start seeing some of the people who I've worked
with in terms of young athletes coming through and being
our national teams with me. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
No, your passion so obvious, mate, the valuable perspective, your
brain must be incredibly valuable to our next next wave
of swimmers. And for you made off to the World
champs in Singapore, so all the best over there look
forward to catching up when you get back.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Cheers, thank you very much, No, thank.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
You for joining us. Caam cam Leslie are one of
our great paralympians off to another World Championship in Singapore
in September.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
For more from Weekend Sport with Jason Fine, listen live
to News Talk d BE weekends from midday, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Vine
from News Talks EDB.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Chat with one of our greatest Paralympians, world record holder,
three time Paralympic gold medalist and the men's individual medley
one fifty meter SM four Cam Leslie.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Leslie and Suzuki No forging ahead, very strong, indeed, keep
an eye on the clock yet thirty seven or two
for Leslie.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Honey has taken it in the heat thirty six point
seven five Cameron Leslie has taken a.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
World record in the heat. Son. If that doesn't send
the message to the rest of the field, I.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Don't know what does. Cam Lesley is off to his
eighth World Power Swimming Championships in September, looking to add
to his fourteen World Championship medals. Camp. Thanks for joining us.
We spoke around Easter when you were about to head
to Japan to train with one of your greatest rivals,
take Yuki, Suzuki. So how did it go over there?
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Yeah, no, it was good. He does seems quite different
with me, a very traditional approach to how they do things.
And yeah, I guess it's kind of good because we're
going down the Avenue of sort of trying to be
quite different with our training style. So it was quite
refreshing just to sort of see that they are still
doing quite a traditional approach. But yeah, awesome, Like, man,
I felt young again for a week. I went hard
(01:24):
on all the trainings and then and then I blew
up towards the end. I was like, man, I'm shit.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
So did you bring back some lessons? Are you going
to revert back to a more traditional type of training
as you work towards events or were you just sort
of pick and choose some of the things you're picked
up over there?
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Nice? So we sort of leaned into a bit of
their technology and a little bit of their analysis side of
things that really gave us the takeaways from it. Fifty
minute pool worth like not a centimeter of uncovered by
a camera footage, so we had that every Tringle saying
every single training session, so sixteen seventeen trainings worth camera
footage review. We really got to nail down on technique
(02:05):
stuff that we're they're lacking or have done better previously,
or because I don't race Tucker in fifty meters backstroke,
he was his coach was more than happy to give
me his insights into my backstroke style and technique and
things like that. So we came home with probably a
good maybe six or seven like points in terms of
just to sort of clarify what we're doing in certain races.
(02:25):
You know, we tried different starts and things like that,
and we're getting half a second improvement just off a dive.
So those are quite like massive things when you're talking
the focus of a fifty three style fifty backstroke.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Absolutely so, did any of its surprise you can when
you saw the footage, did you think, oh, man, I
didn't know I was doing that or not doing that.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
I not necessarily surprised me in terms we didn't know
I was doing it. I knew I was doing it,
but I didn't know the the I guess. So a
good example of doing backstroke and a flume. So flume,
you know, rotating water, you're swimming on the spot, You've
got camera anglers left right center. So we set it
to the world record pace and we went, you know,
we were cranking through it. And the one body movement
(03:04):
I do with my legs in terms of a kick,
what that did in terms of offsetting my body position
in the water was quite drastic. So when you I kicked,
we thought it was a good thing because you're moving water,
you're creating or for pulption. However, what it did in
terms of the negative of changing body position, we didn't
realize it was quite that extreme. So that was really
That's probably a really good example in terms of we
(03:25):
had absolute awareness, but in terms of the severity of
that change, we didn't have that.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
How difficult or not is it to change habits that
you know, change techniques that you've perhaps been doing for
quite some time. How challenging is it to change those
those or even make those small tweaks.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
So I've learned this throughout my career that to me,
I say easy because I'm engaged with my brain. I'm
very body aware. I know, I'm very aware of where
my body is in space. So easy ish for me,
but for others very hard to break a long standing
sort of technique that's been ingrained into your right. But
for me it's been really easy. We've been very conscious.
(04:03):
It sort of helped me have better body position and
how to macore up a bit, you know, like I'm
very aware of what I'm doing in the water, So
for me, not very different not very difficult, but it
is usually quite a hard thing to do.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
So a couple of months out from the World Champs
in September, how do you reckon your tracking? How are
you feeling good?
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Yeah, well, a little bit sick at the moment, but yeah,
that's all just yeah, it's gone and gone on a
floody in a good gym session or a good swim
right now. Yeah, really good tracking, really, and I see
we've had some good race results this year pre going
to Japan and then post Japan racing out and ZEEM Championships.
So yeah, some really good results, looking really good in
(04:40):
terms of where we're tracking towards it. So excited to race,
excited to sort of I guess get even a little
bit really right now I'm sitting world number one and
number world number one until my races, so like looking
good versus the competitors. However, that's not the that's not
the clinical for the year. So yeah, things they're looking good.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Just clarify which events you're racing in Singapore.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Fifty three style, one hundred freestyle in fifty minutes backstroke.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
All right, so you're fourth in the men's fifty three
and men's fifty back in Paris, narrowly missing a metal
in both. I remember you said to me you didn't
want to finish your Olympic career with a couple of fourths.
How are you tracking for LA? Do you feel like
you're on target? I know it's a long way away,
but I know you plan things metronomically. How are you
tracking towards LA?
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Yeah? Good? I mean this year because of the soil
loser last year, I come back and then we're really
sort of shaken things up and we're doing things now
very purposely for LA. So changes that we're making in
terms of us at home, you know, moving house, moving
off farm and stuff like that to allow that to happen.
But also what we've been looking into is the sports
(05:46):
science stuff this year through New Zealand, at high performance
sport in New Zealand, through nutrition, and it's all to
feed a bigger picture towards LA. So I say, tracking
really good. We haven't made massive changes this year in
some spaces, but we're gathering data insights to track versus
performance in Singapore and then look to make changes post
Singapore or looking forward to Europeans next year in Worlds
(06:08):
year out, looking forward to our.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Essentially outstanding Well, I've got you your day job disability
and pair of swimming participation manager for Swimming New Zealand.
What takes up most of your time in that role.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
Trying to find the next version of me and Dan Pasco?
Speaker 2 (06:23):
And yeah, how's that going? How's that going? Are they
coming from? They are?
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Yeah? I mean that's the thing. I've been doing this
row sixt or seven years now, and when I started,
we couldn't have told you who was our sort of
prospects for the next two games. Where is now I
can pretty comfortably tell you who's looking good for twenty
eight and twenty twenty thirty two games in terms of
who are I doing and seeing coming through, which is
amazing really to have that far forward in the future.
(06:48):
And I mean that's what my job's all about, is
trying to establish those pathways for them and work with
the club coaches feed not only like that's the only
the like the competitive piece. There's a whole heap of
participasion project which are really cool that we've got going
on that is a little bit more just around like
the therapeutic side of being in the water and creating
relationships people with compeiment and being in the water, and
(07:11):
I guess finding a space or a sport or a
sensory experience that is for them.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
How can you tell so far out whether a swimmer
has what it takes to be a successful twenty thirty
two Olympian or even a twenty twenty eight Olympian. I mean,
obviously you can look at their technique in the way
that they move through the water, but how can you
tell you know, from a mental point of view that
someone has what it takes.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
You've got your dirty old statistical tracking stuff that says
they're in a really good position now versus what the
world standards are, so that like that's a dirty or
performance marker, right. But then there's uncoachables. You know, are
they driven? Do they turn up? Are they always seeking more?
You know, does their age plan to it? What are
their performance behaviors? Are they with good clubs like that
(07:59):
sort of stuff. The uncoachables. Do they have a desire?
Is it actually what they want to achieve? Because there's
so many people who have the of going to Olympics
or parallemic Games. And I mean to put a blunt there,
it's just words. You've got to have action buy in it.
So probably what I'm trying to say is that these
people actually do have a bit of action to them
at these early stages and are tracking nicely on a
performance marker as well.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Do you often do you see a little bit of
your younger self and some of these younger swims totally.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
I see my parents and a lot of the parents
I work with as well. You know, they used to
have to put in the fight, and that's sort of
what my job's there for is to remove that fight
for them and show that it's a you know, it's
a sport pathway and a program, a space that is
actually welcoming of impairment, and if you've got an issue,
you just take it out the same way you would
with any other club swimmer. It's not you don't have
to yell and scream about it. And you know, my
(08:46):
kid never gets this chance to absolutely get the chance
of swimming, So it's I can definitely see young me
and young young my parents, and I mean some of
the ones who acquire injuries as well. There's others who
have come through in a power of pathway that are
at the same time as me, and you see them
in those swimmers as well. It's really cool. It's real
close to my real passion, passionate role for me. We've
(09:09):
made such great progress in it that it's really cool
to start seeing some of the people who I've worked
with in terms of young athletes coming through and being
our national teams with me. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
No, your passion so obvious, mate, the valuable perspective, your
brain must be incredibly valuable to our next next wave
of swimmers. And for you made off to the World
champs in Singapore, so all the best over there look
forward to catching up when you get back.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Cheers, thank you very much, No, thank.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
You for joining us. Caam cam Leslie are one of
our great paralympians off to another World Championship in Singapore
in September.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
For more from Weekend Sport with Jason Fine, listen live
to News Talk d BE weekends from midday, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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