Lexie McGovern and Georgia Wheeler from Young have both brought home bronze medals from the National Swimming Championships held on the Gold Coast last month.
Heading into the competition Georgia was seeded fourth in the Under 13 girls 50m backstroke and finished second in her heat with a new personal best time.
The following day Georgia competed in the final where she once again bested her personal best time with a 31.27second swim, ending up in third, only seven thousandths of a second off second place.
Lexie is a multiclass swimmer and competed in a number of events throughout the competition including the 12 year old girls 100m breaststroke, 50m butterfly, 4 x 50m freestyle relay and the 100m butterfly.
Lexie was also asked to compete in the freestyle leg of the medley relay for Western Australia as one of their swimmers wasn't able to compete on the day.
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It was in the 100m butterfly that the local picked up her bronze medal taking a huge 9.68 seconds off her personal best time to finish in 1.43.54.
Both girls train very hard throughout the year and when compared to kids in the city that they race against, they have far less facilities that are able to cater to those competing at the National level.
"We travel thousands of kilometers during the winter months just to get some pool time," Lexie's Mum, Renee McGovern said.
"They have both shown complete dedication to dry land training which is a huge commitment for children of their ages."
The time, commitment and dedication of the girls is to be admired with hours upon hours a week spent training as well as mentally preparing to go up against some of the best swimmers from all across the country.
Both girls have a fantastic support system, especially from their families who travel with them, take them to training and help them to prepare for the meets.
"Both girls at such a young age should be credited for their passion to their sport," Renee said.
"What they love more than anything is that they get to train with some amazing friends and they continue to build bonds with kids from all over NSW and Australia."
For both the girls to have finished in the School Sport Australia National Swimming Championships in the top ten would have been impressive enough, but to have had the pair of the girls bring home bronze medals is amazing.
A huge congratulations goes out to both of the girls and to their families for all of the hard work in making it to the podium in one of the most competitive sports around.
The Hilltops is very proud of the both of you!
