Swimmer Blake Cochrane will become the first Australian para-athlete to compete at four Commonwealth Games when he dives into the pool in Birmingham later this month.
He will also become the third Australian swimmer to compete at four games, along with Adam Pine and Ashley Callus.
Cochrane says the excitement of representing his country does not wear off.
"It may be number four, but for me that excitement and that passion is like it's still number one," he said.
"It's sort of one of those pieces of history that you don't really think about — I'm just here to be an athlete and I really love what I do."
The Sunshine Coast athlete has won four medals – two gold and two silver – across three different strokes at the Commonwealth Games since debuting as a 19-year-old at Delhi 2010.
"For me, I've always enjoyed the big meets and the big competitions and that's where I've been able to put my best foot forward and been able to put up my best performances," he said.
"I've got two Australians ahead of me, so I'm going in ranked third … but here's hoping on competition day, we can go a little bit quicker."
Cochrane was born with a limb deficiency that affected his hands and feet.
"My swimming career started when I was too big for doing laps in the bathtub," he said.
Since starting his para career as a 16-year-old, Cochrane said appreciation for the competition had grown.
"Particularly in my lifetime there's been a lot of changes before me and the stories that I've heard from athletes that have gone to games before 2000," he said.
"[Para-athletics] are no longer being recognised as a participation event."
Excitement builds
Birmingham 2022 is set to have the largest female and para-sport programs in history.
Wheelchair racer Angela Ballard will also make history this games when she competes at her fourth games later in the competition schedule.
"Athletes are actually being celebrated for being athletes and the time and effort and energy that we put into doing what we do," she said.
"We're all humans, just like anybody else, and so for us, we don't want to be necessarily told we can't do something and, for a lot of us, it just motivates us to want to do better."
More than 20 Sunshine Coast athletes and coaches are preparing to represent the country at the Games.
"At last year's Tokyo Paralympics we saw 14 medals captured by UniSC para sports athletes, so Birmingham really is a chance to consolidate on that," UniSC high performance sport director Brendan Burkett said.
"The Commonwealth Games are an event that athletes circle on their calendar years in advance and the effort and sacrifices to be selected are immense alone.
The swim team is due to fly to France for a training camp ahead of the games.
"It's starting to get a little bit more exciting now we're in that final stretch of leading into the game," Cochrane said.
"We've done all the hard work, we've done everything that we need to do and now, over sort of the next 2.5 weeks, it'll be refining those skills and freshening the body up and putting together our best performance on race day."
