Student makes a splash in and out of the pool

August 7, 2015. This is the day that arts student Hayley Baker has been dreaming about all her life. This is the day that hours and hours of effort has led to. This is the day when Hayley Baker will represent Australia in the 200m Backstroke at the FINA World Swimming Championships in Kazan, Russia.
A second year arts student and an Elite Athlete Program High Performance scholar at the University of Melbourne, Hayley had the swim of her life in early April to qualify for her first senior Australian swimming team.
Having previously placed fourth in the 50m Backstroke and third in the 100m event, she had come agonisingly close to earning national selection: the first two place-getters who swim predetermined qualifying times get the nod to wear the green and gold.
Understandably, the nerves rattled as she slid into the water for the start of the 200m Backstroke and waited for the starter’s instructions.
“I’d swam well in both the 50 and 100, swimming new personal bests, and just wanted to bust out another,” Hayley says.
Two hundred metres, and just over two minutes and eight seconds later, and after a fierce battle with Queenslanders Emily Seebohm and Madison Wilson (the gold and silver medalists in both the two shorter distance events who had both already qualified for Kazan) and Hayley had swum her way on to the national team – with another personal best!
“I was absolutely stunned,” she says, as she recalls looking up at the Sydney Olympic Park scoreboard and realising she had qualified for the World Championships (her second place and time of 2.08.21 minutes having easily bettered the qualifying time of 2.09.84 minutes).
“I didn’t really expect that to happen. I was shocked, and very excited.”
Having completed Year 12 at Caulfield Grammar, the Victorian Institute of Sport scholar was well aware of the University of Melbourne’s world-class ranking and wanted to ensure she was well qualified to embark on a career once her time in the pool had ended.
“The University is the best place for me to be when it comes to earning a degree that will set me up for life after swimming. I’m planning to major in politics at this stage, so we’ll see where that takes me”.
Though her eyes are on a bigger prize, Hayley represented the University at 2014’s Australian University Games. She swam in a remarkable six events and won an incredible six gold medals, and also broke the Games’ records for the 50m, 100m and 200m Backstroke events along the way. In her first year at the University, she was named its Female Athlete of the Year.
“Representing the University was great,” Hayley says of her University Games experiences. “The event was pretty relaxed, and I made a lot of new friends on the team.”
Juggling hours of weekly training and the rigors of studies is no easy feat. It takes a well organised and focused individual to plan for success in both an elite sporting and academic environment. How does she do it?
“It’s good to have two things (swimming and study) to take your mind off one or the other when you’re getting a bit stressed. And having the University’s help to balance both has been really important,” she says.
“Being part of the Elite Athlete Program allows for some assignment deadlines to be pushed back, and I can manage my class attendance (where training or competitions have clashed).”
The FINA World Championships begin on 25 July. Hayley Baker’s dream becomes a reality some 13 days later when she makes her first representative splash for the Australian Dolphins.
Pretty sure it won’t be her last.
www.sport.unimelb.edu.au