Jacob Templeton (swimming) will make his Commonwealth Games debut in Birmingham where he will contest the men’s 50m freestyle S13. Jacob first caught the attention of Australian selectors when he won gold in both the 50m and 100m freestyle multi-class at the 2013 Australian Short Course Championships, just missing the S13 world record in both events. He made his debut for Australia at the Para Pan Pacs the following year and the 2015 World Para Swimming Championships. When Templeton was selected to represent Australia in five events at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio, he became the first Tasmanian swimmer to qualify for the Olympics or Paralympics since 2004. Jacob was born with the degenerative eye disease retinitis pigmentosa and was classified as legally blind in 2013. He originally played basketball and Australian football at primary school in Tasmania, but switched to swimming when he was eight, competing against able-bodied athletes until he took up Para-swimming when he was 18. Jacob, a massive basketball fan, lists Kobe Bryant as his sporting hero.