Surf Life Saving Australia's (SLSA) Talent Identification program, has formed partnerships with 3 Olympic sports to provide more opportunities for surf athletes to realise an Olympic dream.

In Australia there is a long history of Surf Life Saving athletes sharing their athletic talent with an Olympic sport. Since Sydney 2000, 81 surf athletes have represented Australia at the Olympics, winning 60 Olympic medals along the way.

Sprint canoe, rowing and swimming are the most popular Olympic sports for surf athletes so SLSA has formed partnerships with Australian Canoeing, Rowing Australia and Swimming Australia to continue to sport this talent sharing.

Canoeing, rowing and swimming will provide surf athletes with the opportunity to see if they have the physical qualities the sports are looking for and if they do, be selected into a talent share program to fast track their development (Talent Identification).

The benefit back to SLS from these partnerships is that SLSA has access to the high performance knowledge and expertise of three of Australia’s most successful Olympic sports to provide development opportunities for SLS coaches and athletes to improve surf performance.