He played five games for Carlton, spent some time at Collingwood and in his time with Golden Square was widely-regarded as one of the BFL's premier midfielders.

His fearless attack on the footy left him with a painstaking hip injury post-career.

As a result, he was advised by medicos to take up swimming.

When he made the trip to the pool to swim laps, quite often his young daughter Jenna would tag along.

As a result, Jenna caught the swimming bug.

The best part of 15 years later, Jenna makes her Olympic debut on Wednesday night when she swims in the heats of the 200m breaststroke.

Some kids have natural talent, but not the work ethic.

Others have a strong work ethic, but maybe not the talent.

When a junior comes along that has both, it's a dream for any coach.

When Jenna was a junior swimmer at Bendigo East Swimming Club she had both.

Chris Geyer was one of Jenna's junior coaches at Bendigo East.

"Jenna was just driven for success,'' Geyer said.

"She was always hungry to improve and she had goals. She was so disciplined even at the age of 10 and 11.

"She knew what she wanted to do and she set about doing it.

"She had talent and we knew she wouldn't stay in Bendigo for long.

"Jenna and her family made sacrifices for her to move to Melbourne, then she went to the Gold Coast and now she's an Olympian.

"It's a pretty amazing story."

From a young age, Jenna's commitment to her sport and eagerness to improve meant she would do anything to develop her technique.

"It's a progressive thing to work on the technical side of breaststroke,'' Geyer said.

"You need to make sure they have efficiency, but also power.

"It's such a technical stroke to learn. A lot of kids gravitate to freestyle or backstroke, but Jenna was determined to improve her breaststroke."

In 2011, Jenna moved from Bendigo East to the Melbourne Vicentre squad based at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre under the guidance of Australian Olympic coach Ian Pope.

12 months later she was living in Melbourne to further her swimming career.

The final step in her swimming progression was relocating to the Gold Coast six years ago to swim with the powerful Bond University club.

Jenna will swim from lane two in heat four of the 200m breaststroke at 8.49pm (AEST).

The best 16 times from the four heats will advance to Thursday's semi-finals.

Geyer said it will be a proud moment to watch Jenna take to the blocks on Wednesday night.

"You look at the percentages of how many swimmers make the Olympics each four years and it's only very small,'' Geyer said.

"To have an Olympian start at our club is a great achievement for the club.

"The club has been very successful and this tops it off.

"We'll be watching (on Wednesday night). You get those nervy feelings for the swimmers.

"Knowing Jenna, I don't think the moment will get the better of her.

"I'm pretty sure she'll produce the best she possibly can.

"She'll make us all proud with the effort she puts in."

Read more: Bendigo East excited about Strauch's Olympic prospects

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