Help Eve get to Tokyo 2020 and beyond…

Eve Thomas – The Hibiscus Coast swimmer and former Orewa College student is aiming high, very high and is following in the wake of her double Olympic swimming medallist mother, Sarah Hardcastle (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Hardcastle).

To help Eve achieve her Olympic dream the Thomas family recently decided to relocate to Brisbane to enable Eve to train with the very best Australian swimmers and to continue to work with her long-term coach John Gatfield at St. Peters Western.

It could be said that Eve has arrived on the New Zealand swimming scene from relative obscurity in recent months. However, this will not come as a surprise to those that know her; as her development has been carefully managed and planned by her parents and coach Gatfield. Her seemingly late arrival at the tender age of 17 is due to a deliberate delay in her development to avoid athlete burnout that is unfortunately so prevalent in the sport today, especially with young women.

Eve’s personal best times have been tumbling at an alarming rate since her arrival in Queensland and will continue to do so in the build-up to Tokyo as she gradually increases the intensity of her training regime in what is undoubtedly one of the world’s elite swim programs.

In April this year, she claimed 3 national age group titles having never previously qualified for a final. This was then backed-up with further significant improvements at the Aon NZ Open Championships in July, where she won bronze medals in both the 400m and 800m freestyle events having not even qualified to enter those events in 2017! During this meet she achieved qualifying times for both the youth Pan Pacific games and the youth Olympics in both events, narrowly missing out on the strict selection criteria for the latter.

However, this world-class training comes at a significant financial cost, and it is here that we ask businesses, family and friends alike to help us provide her with the best opportunities possible and to be able to compete on the world stage on an equal footing with the more established swimming nations athletes.

Eve has recently qualified for the Junior Pan Pacific games to be held in Fiji in August. This very exciting for her as it is her first international competition, but the trip alone will cost us in the region of $6000 (NZD).

Also a top of the range Speedo swimsuit retails at around $800, we would like to thank Speedo Australia for generously gifting Eve several of these fantastic suits. 😊

Please help Eve make her dreams come true, every little bit helps. We are all eternally grateful for your generous donations. Thank you ❤❤❤