Spend some time with Henry Allan and it's easy to forget he's only 15-years-old.
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Allan is much taller than the average 15-year-old and, more importantly, speaks and acts in a manner that is well beyond his years.
The Bendigo East Swimming Club member is one of the rising stars of Australian swimming.
At last month's Victorian Age Championships, Allan won the 15-years 100m backstroke in a time of 57.23 seconds.
The sizzling time was 2.5 seconds inside his personal best and the ninth-fastest time ever by an Australian 15-year-old.
A wonderful achievement considering the strength and history of Australian swimming.
While happy with the time in the backstroke and his win in the 100m butterfly final, Allan is keeping his feet firmly planted on the ground.
"I was expecting to swim a PB because I hadn't swam the event for quite a while, but I didn't expect to go as quick as I did,'' Allan said this week.
"It's given me good hope for the nationals coming up in April, it's given me a good pointer to what I can achieve there."
Elite swimming takes discipline and commitment that few sports can match.
Out of the pool, Allan completes three gym sessions a week at his school Girton Grammar.
The Bendigo East pool is his home away from home.
"A full week of training is three mornings on Monday, Tuesday and Thursdays from 6am until 7.15am and then every afternoon Monday to Friday from 5pm until 7pm and a Saturday morning session as well,'' he said.
"Sunday is my day off. At the club I have a few mates there, so it makes it fun to rock up to training.
"I mostly just train backstroke, but every now and again I'll train some butterfly or freestyle.
"When I first started I didn't have a main stroke and I did all of them, but in the last two to three years I started to get a few state medals in backstroke so I put more time into backstroke."
Allan's mother, Amy Bell, said the sacrifices made by Henry, and the family, for him to pursue his swimming career were worth it.
"It's made easy because Henry loves it,'' Bell said.
"He gets up early, gets himself ready and wakes us up to take him to training. We don't make him do any of it.
"Henry has a brother and two sisters, so there's a lot of sacrifices along the way for other people with a lot of time spent with Henry's sport.
"Henry is quite gracious.... in that he doesn't want to train all the time which gives time for us to do other things with the family.
"We have a good balance, I reckon."
It would be easy for Allan to look ahead with starry eyes at major events like the 2028 Olympics, but he'd rather keep his focus on what's in front of him.
This weekend he'll compete in the Victorian Sprint Championships in Melbourne and the following weekend is the Victorian Country Championships in Traralgon.
"I'm taking things slow and I just concentrate on trying to get a PB at each event,'' he said.
"I don't really set long-term goals, but I would like to get to the (2026) world juniors.
"When you're 17 you need to be in the top-two in your event at nationals to qualify for the world juniors."
