At 5.30am on a Wednesday morning when most of us are still asleep, 22-year-old Jessica Oates is already slicing through the water.
The pool is quiet, her strokes steady and determined, each one echoing the discipline she has carried since childhood.
For Jessica, this early routine isn’t just training, it’s a way of life – a life dedicated to giving everything she has, both in the classroom and in the pool.
And she has achieved great things in her chosen sport: lifesaving pool rescue.
In July, Jessica represented Australia at the Commonwealth Lifesaving Championships in Wales and came away with medals. She also felt pride in being among the Australian women athletes topping the medal table.
Next month she will be travelling to New Zealand as part of the Australian development team, and next year she hopes to be part of the world championships team in South Africa aiming for a coveted spot in the A Finals, the top eight in the world.
Jessica’s lifesaving journey began at Dicky Beach Surf Club where she competed in the under-8s through to under-14s before moving to Maroochydore, the club she now calls home. Today Jessica lives in Dakabin, north of Brisbane, but commutes to the Sunshine Coast to train and compete.
Jessica can’t recollect the first time she entered the water. Her parents enrolled Jessica in swimming lessons as a baby and it wasn’t long before her natural competitive spirit surfaced.
She became a surf lifesaving nipper on the Sunshine Coast and from there, her passion for the ocean and racing combined. Eventually she discovered pool rescue lifesaving, a sport that for her was the best of both worlds.
“It’s kind of a niche sport, but it’s perfect for me,” Jessica said.
“I love swimming and I love lifesaving, so it just made sense.”
Now in her final semester studying occupational therapy at the University of the Sunshine Coast (UniSC), Jessica’s life is a balancing act between elite sport and study. Her weekly schedule looks more like a full-time job.
“[For example] on Wednesdays, I’m in the pool from 5.30am to 7.30am, then I’ll hit the gym, head home for a nap and squeeze in my honours project before going back to training at 4.30 in the afternoon,” she said.
“Every day looks a bit different but time management is everything.”
Jessica credits UniSC for helping her juggle both worlds.
“I’ve been lucky,” she said.
“My lecturers have been so understanding. Sometimes I have to apply for extensions if competitions overlap exams, but they have always supported me.”
Her dedication, however, hasn’t come without setbacks. In the past four years, Jessica underwent three knee surgeries, two of them in quick succession.
A September 2024 operation failed to repair, forcing her back under the knife just three months later in January 2025.
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The recovery period was gruelling, but with the Commonwealth Lifesaving Championships in Wales looming in July, she had little choice but to push forward.
“Some days I felt like going backwards and other days I felt strong,” she said.
“I just had to trust the healing process and trust myself. It taught me a lot about patience and courage.”
Surrounded by supportive coaches, teammates and family, Jessica fought her way back into competition. Against the odds, she represented her country just six months after surgery.
It was not the first time a setback had fueled her fire. In 2018, at just 15, Jessica was competing at the national championships when a critical error cost her dearly.
“It was a mannequin race where you swim out, clip a mannequin to a tube and you swim back,” she said.
“I was the first to finish but I clipped it wrong and got disqualified. I was devastated, but that was the moment I realised I never wanted to feel like that again. I decided I was going to dedicate myself fully.”
That determination has led to some of her proudest achievements, including breaking an Australian under-19 record in 2022.
“I worked so hard for that and everything just came together on that day,” she said.
“It still makes me smile when I think about it.”
Beyond racing, Jessica sees a future in coaching and mentoring.
“I would love to give back to the surf club, help develop younger lifesavers and pass on what I have learned. I don’t think I will ever leave lifesaving. It is part of who I am.”
For Jessica, lifesaving is about far more than medals and records.
“To me lifesaving is about community,” she said.
“At the end of the day, the goal is to save someone’s life: that’s what makes it different to other sports. You can be competitive and travel the world, but it always comes back to saving people.”
Blanca Tomaki is a student at the University of the Sunshine Coast.
