Young gun Elizabeth Dekkers (swimming) confirmed her status as one of the sport’s rising young stars when she won gold in the 200m butterfly at her first Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

Dekkers started competitive swimming at 10 at the Newmarket Racers Swimming Club training under father and son Bob and Steve Miller. However, she continued to enjoy a variety of sports, even representing Queensland in water polo at age level. At 12, she took on the 200m butterfly and was never again beaten at Australian age group level.

In 2019, Dekker decided to concentrate on swimming full-time, making the Australian team for the Junior World Championships where she finished 5th in her pet event. She claimed her first Queensland senior title in 2021, then finished second at the Olympic trials, though narrowly missed the selection time for Tokyo which she had swum twice before during the season.

Dekkers, who joined Vince Raleigh at Chandler in early 2022, attended All Hallows’ school in Brisbane along with teammate Bronte Job and is now studying science at the University of Queensland.