Joshua Staples

2022 Junior Pan Pacific Championships

Day one of competition at the Veterans Memorial Aquatic Center in Honolulu, United States, for the 2022 Junior Pan Pacific Swimming Championships in August, Staples won the gold medal in the 1500-metre freestyle with a personal best time of 15:18.54, earning nine points for Australia. The following day, he placed eighth in the 400-metre individual medley, finishing in a time of 4:29.97 and scoring one point for Australia. In the 400-metre freestyle on day three, he won the gold medal in a personal best and Championships record time of 3:48.36, lowering the record over two full seconds from the 3:50.51 it was set at in 2010 by Nicholas Caldwell of the United States, and achieved nine points for Australia. For the 4×100-metre freestyle relay later in the same session, he split a 50.79 for the anchor leg of the relay, helping finish second in a time of 3:21.42 swimming exhibition. Between his three gold medals in his individual freestyle events and the three gold medals won by fellow Australian Flynn Southam in the 50-metre freestyle, 100-metre freestyle, and 200-metre freestyle, the 2022 Championships marked the first time swimmers representing Australia won all possible gold medals in the men's individual freestyle events at a single Junior Pan Pacific Swimming Championships.

2023 On the first day of the 2023 Australian Swimming Championships, in April in Gold Coast, Queensland, Staples ranked fourth in the preliminaries of the 400-metre freestyle with a 3:52.90 and qualified for the evening final, where he placed sixth in a time of 3:52.43 that was 0.05 seconds ahead of seventh-place finisher Mack Horton. For the second day, he placed second in the age final of the 200-metre freestyle with a 1:50.48 before placing sixth in the 1500-metre freestyle with a 15:44.96. On the third evening, he placed fifth in the 200-metre individual medley with a personal best time of 2:02.44 and sixth in the 800-metre freestyle with a 8:09.43. The fourth day, he improved upon his eighth-place finish in the 400-metre individual medley from the same competition in 2022, this time placing seventh with a 4:25.75.

In June, at the 2023 Australian Swimming Trials in Melbourne, Staples placed seventeenth in the 400-metre freestyle on day one with a 3:57.40, fifty-second in the 200-metre freestyle on day two with a 1:57.07, and eighth in the 800-metre freestyle on day three with a 8:06.11.

International championships (50 m) Staples swam only in exhibition.

Personal best times Long course metres (50 m pool) Event Time Meet Location Date Ref 400 m freestyle 3:48.36 2022 Junior Pan Pacific Championships Honolulu, United States 26 August 2022 800 m freestyle 7:56.29 2022 Junior Pan Pacific Championships Honolulu, United States 27 August 2022 1500 m freestyle 15:18.54 2022 Junior Pan Pacific Championships Honolulu, United States 24 August 2022