Cameron Leslie with his gold medal from the men's S4 100m freestyle at the World Para Swimming Championships in Portugal. Photo / Supplied
Cameron Leslie with his gold medal from the men's S4 100m freestyle at the World Para Swimming Championships in Portugal. Photo / Supplied
Dual-code para-athlete Cameron Leslie fell short on Halberg Awards night, but a week later he’s been announced a finalist for a world sports award.
The New Zealand Paralympian, who both swims for his country and plays for the Wheel Blacks, is a nominee for the prestigious awards ceremony, where he’ll get to brush shoulders with global superstars like Lionel Messi and Rafael Nadal.
When he received the email finding out his fate, Leslie said he had a “giggle”.
“Someone’s having a laugh here, I’ll believe it when I see it,” Leslie told Gold Sport.
The 33-year-old is a three-time Paralympic gold medallist in the men’s individual medley 150m SM4 in 2008, 2012, and 2016.
Leslie (3.0 classification) is also co-captain of the Wheel Blacks and was key in the team’s qualification for the Tokyo Paralympics for the first time in 12 years.
The Whangarēi local was later forced to withdraw from the 2020 Paralympics travelling team due to the birth of his daughter and Covid-19 restrictions.
Following that difficult decision, Leslie hasn’t been idle returning last year in his best form yet in the pool.
New Zealand Paralympian #164 Cameron Leslie is a nominee in the prestigious Laureus World Sports Awards. Photo / Supplied.
The Paralympian won gold and three silvers at the World Para Swimming Champs in Portugal and also set a new world best time in the men’s 50m freestyle S4.
“It definitely has caught me off guard the whole thing,” Leslie said of the Laureus nomination.
“It’s not the sort of thing that I set out and aspire to do in terms of being nominated for big awards or anything like that.”
Leslie said “it’s very humbling” to now sit alongside some of the world’s best such as basketballer Steph Curry (sportsman of the year finalist) and footballer Alexia Putellas (sportswoman of the year finalist).
Leslie has more on his plate than most athletes, with a job, wife, and two kids, and struggles to find space for his swimming and rugby.
He said there’s not a lot of time left in his day for training, which will usually be very early or the “bookend of the day”.
After being selected as a Halberg finalist, Leslie was pipped for the para-athlete of the year award by para-skier Corey Peters — who won two medals at the Winter Paralympics in Beijing in 2022.
Leslie is underway with training for a big season ahead. In April he’ll compete in the national swimming champs in Auckland before the world champs later this year.
But in the immediate future, Leslie said he’s waiting on the email confirming dates for the prestigious awards event.
