For Nicholas Hum, sport runs through his veins. Growing up, his father represented Victoria on the track while his grandmother worked in the Athlete Village at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne. It will be exactly 56 years since the Hum family’s first brush with elite sport that Nicholas hopes to represent Australia at the London Paralympic Games in 2012.

Nicholas was approached by his now coach Max Binnington while competing during a school sports event and was encouraged to attend some athletics training sessions to test out his fast twitch muscles. With a passion for sport, Nicholas took up the offer and in November 2010 competed in long jump and the 100m at the Australian AWD Junior Championships in Canberra, breaking the national records in both events.

Competing at the 2011 IPC Athletics World Championships in Christchurch on Australia Day was a very special time for Nicholas. Not only did he celebrate his 18th birthday in Christchurch, but he donned the green and gold for the first time. As the second youngest competitor in his international field, Nicholas set a new Australian and Oceania F20 long jump record with a jump of 6.55m. He is now ranked fifth in the world and hopes to repeat and better this performance in the future.

Continuing his successful 2011, Nicholas was awarded the Young Achievers Awards from children’s charity Variety and has since become a Variety Youth Ambassador.

Nicholas enjoys spending his time improving his woodwork skills and is already familiar with the difficult art of cabinet making. He loves to keep fit in the gym and play basketball. He also hopes to take up outdoor recreation sports such as rock-climbing, hiking and white-water rafting with his sister.

As a talented athlete with the vast majority of his career still in front of him, Nicholas stands well-placed to achieve his dream of one day winning a Paralympic Games gold medal.