At 3.30pm, when 15-year-old Bryce Bolinger finishes his day at school, he piles into his mum's car and he and the rest of the family immediately drive to the Bathurst indoor swimming centre for training before heading right back home.
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For Bryce, his mum Kristy and the rest of the family, it's a part of life. Because for years now, the family has made the three hour round trip to Bathurst and back four days of the week to support Bryce's swimming career.
Bryce is a keen swimmer, and quite good at it too. He has recently qualified for the nationals being held in Sydney this week. By the time you read this, Bryce will probably be competing in one of his heats.
Bryce is a multi-class swimmer, which means he competes as a swimmer with a disability. Bryce has high-functioning autism and motor dyspraxia, the latter being the reason his parents were encouraged to get him into swimming at a young age.
Bryce will be joined at the same event by able-bodied swimmer Tom Hawkins from Mudgee, though they won't compete against each other.
Bryce is trained by Emily Miller, a world hand cycling champion and soon-to-be Tokyo paralympian based in Bathurst.
Bryce's hard work has paid off, but his mum Kristy said it has been a tough slog sometimes, lamenting that there are other children out there with ready access to an indoor facility. Though even with a facility in Mudgee, some travel would still be needed.
"We probably would still have to do the travel, but it would help to fit in - maybe we could lessen the travel - and do a couple of training sessions down here. Some of these kids are training five nights, five days. Which is just unattainable for us living here in Mudgee, unfortunately," she said.
Bryce has been country swimming champion, mountains and plains champion and has earned a disability sportsperson award twice in Mudgee.
Bryce puts no limits on himself.
"I'd probably [like to take swimming] to a really high level. Maybe an Olympian probably. I have no idea how far I'll get to be honest. I could make it being an Olympian or maybe more, I'm not sure," he said.
"Well, the thing is you just keep kicking, look as much as possible and keep moving on to push yourself forward."
Bryce has a busy schedule ahead of him. Kristy rattled off his itinerary.
"So we'll be doing nationals this weekend from Thursday to Sunday. The following weekend he [Bryce] will be doing the multiclass championships again in Homebush. The following weekend we're doing the all schools championships... we then have New South Wales country championships coming up. We have senior state coming up and we have the third round of multiclass championships coming up," she said.
Bryce is more than okay with all the swimming. "I love it, going fast, I love getting lots of victories and I like the people and the support," he said.
