Rhys Osborne has always been drawn to the water.

At the age of three, he tried to scale the back yard pool fence.

His parents took it as a sign, enrolling him in swimming lessons at the local pool.

But it wasn’t until he was 13 that he decided to drop out of tennis lessons and started training competitively as a full-time swimmer.

Since then the 21-year-old Charlestown local hasn’t stopped, now training under Kengo Yagami at West Wallsend, where he as been for the past six years.

He juggles his seven weekly pool sessions and three gym sessions with work as a swimming coach at The Forum at the University of Newcastle.

The backstroke short-course specialist has set his sights on making an Australian team, after performing well at the national short-course championships in August.

He has competed at nationals since 2006, which included the qualifier for the Beijing Olympics.

He missed making the semi-finals by just 0.16 seconds in the 50-metre backstroke, touching the wall at 26.01, just outside his personal best time.

“I’ve been top 10 at state for while, so my next goal is to make the finals at the next nationals meet and eventually make the Australian team,” he said.

He names last year’s World Cup meet as one of his sporting career highlights, completing against some world’s best swimmers

“I think my strength is definitely under the water, that’s why I often perform better in the sprints, especially in the short-course season,” he said.