Australian swimmer Sam Short will go for Olympic gold in the men’s 400m, 800m and 1,500m freestyle later this month with a very real chance of standing on the podium for all three events. That potential feat is all the more remarkable given just three years ago, the 20-year-old came close to quitting the sport.

Rewind to Swimming Australia’s trials for the Tokyo Olympics, midway through the pandemic, and Short was a rising talent in the middle-distance program. Then only 17, Covid-19 had dashed the Queenslander’s dreams of competing at the cancelled junior world championships, But at the Olympic trials in Adelaide, Short placed second in the 1,500m with a time within the official qualifying standard.

But there was a problem. Swimming Australia’s qualifying standards are set much higher than the official Olympic times. The national body requires swimmers to match the slowest finalist at the prior world championships. Short was outside that time – and Swimming Australia did not exercise its discretion to take him to Tokyo anyway. And so the emerging talent was forced to watch the Olympics from afar as he battled to finish year 12 amid pandemic lockdowns.

“It was pretty hard to keep going,” Short tells Guardian Australia. “I was 17, there’s only so long you can mooch off your parents. I was in year 12, graduating school, I wanted to go to uni. It was definitely a difficult time.”

Stinging from his omission, Short consulted a sports psychologist. But despite contemplating leaving the sport, his elected to stick with it. “Everything worked out in the end,” he laughs. “I’m glad I kept going.”

Just 12 months on from Tokyo, at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, Short won the 1,500m freestyle and finished second in the 400m discipline. Last year, at the world championships in Fukuoka, he completed a rare trio of placings: gold in the 400m freestyle, silver in the 800m and bronze in the 1,500m. Short, and his friend and rival Elijah Winnington, had confirmed their place as the next big things in Australian middle-distance swimming.

Despite Short’s strong performances at last year’s world championships, he enters the Paris Olympics as an underdog after illness affected his performances at the recent trials in Brisbane. Short qualified second in the 400m and 800m events, behind Winnington on both occasions, before withdrawing from the 1,500m race – though he will still be able to contest the event in Paris.

“I was battling a bit of illness in the week leading in,” Short says. “It’s definitely a good learning experience, to race not at the best health, but I still got the job done. I know come Olympic time, if everything goes right – which I’m doing everything in my power to make that happen – it will be a much easier ride and I’ll be able to enjoy the moment even more.

“I’m not going in ranked number one in the world,” he adds. “Going in a bit under the radar will definitely benefit me.”

Short grew up in Maroochydore on the Sunshine Coast with his family, everyone from his grandparents down, heavily involved in the local surf club. But Short was told he could only be part of the club if he did swimming lessons. “That’s the reason I started training,” he says. The professional swimmer remains actively involved in the surf club; he will participate in the world surf life-saving championships later this year.

A childhood spent on the beach and in the water took its toll two years ago when, on the eve of the world championships, he was diagnosed with stage two melanoma in his back. “It was incredibly stressful – just before my first-ever international race,” he recalls. The Australian swum his events and then immediately had surgery in Hungary given the risk of rapid progression.

Ever since Short has been an ambassador for the Melanoma Institute Australia. “I’ve learned a lot – I’m the biggest promoter for sun safety now,” Short says. “I’ve been doing my best to spread the message to kids my age. No one, when they are 18, thinks they’re going to get skin cancer. I learned the hard way.”

While Short ultimately elected to remain with swimming after the disappointments of 2021, he has also gone on to study law at university. Balancing the two pursuits is not always easy – he was recently required to complete a constitutional law exam while at the training camp in France. “Incredibly difficult,” Short laughs. “But a good distraction as well.”

Even with the exam out of the way, Short has a busy time ahead – with three events on his Olympic program. “It’s a lot of swimming,” he says. Accounting for heats and finals, the Australian will race more than six kilometres in Paris – plus plenty of warm-up and training laps.

Short’s three events also offer up significant variety – the 400m race is a blend of speed and endurance, the 1,500m event is pure endurance and the 800m discipline sits somewhere in the middle.

“I pride myself on being one of the hardest workers in the pool,” he says. “If I can do a good 1,500, the 800 will just happen, and the 400 is easy compared with the 1,500. I like the challenge.”

On the opening night of the Olympic swimming program, barring anything unexpected in the heats, 2022 world champion Winnington and 2023 world champion Short will stand on the blocks for Australia in the men’s 400m freestyle final. It will be quite the setting for Short’s Olympic debut – with a gold medal and a place in Australian swimming history on the line.

“Once you get a taste of racing at the highest level, of being really competitive, it’s quite addictive,” Short says. “I love racing – that’s why I swim. That’s why I train so hard – I want to race the best when they’re at their best. It will be a perfect storm in Paris.”

Short’s personal best in the 400m freestyle is the eighth fastest time in history. The Australian record, held by the legendary Ian Thorpe, is six tenths of a second away; the world record – 3 minutes and 40.07 seconds – is only one one-hundredth faster than Thorpe’s mark. A new world record in within Short’s grasp.

“It’s more than likely that 3.40s will be thrown around [in Paris],” Short says. “Ian Thorpe is the greatest middle distance swimmer the world has ever seen. Training to beat him – that’s the goal.”