Mikkayla was just four-hundredths-of-a-second away from claiming the bronze medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in the 400m freestyle final, a race in which Ariana Titmus won gold.
Mikkayla Sheridan was a genuine all-rounder, with competitive events ranging from the 200m and 400m freestyle, to 200m backstroke, and 400m individual medley.
Swimming alongside legendary champions Ariarne Titmus and Emma McKeon in the women’s 4 × 200m freestyle relay at the 2018 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships in Tokyo, the Australian team won the gold medal.
In doing so, the Australians relegated the USA, led by the great Katie Ledecky and Katie McLaughlin, to a silver medal.
The Australians also smashed the championship record by more than 2 seconds in the gold medal swim. Canada took bronze.
The excellent form of 2018 continued into the Commonwealth Games hosted on the Gold Coast – and the fulfillment of a young woman’s long held dream.
She said at the time: “It’s still quite a surreal feeling and I don’t think that’s it quite sunk in yet that I’ve made my first Australian team. It’s been a goal of mine for so many years and it’s what’s been keeping me in the sport,” she said.
“I just wanted to represent my country at the highest level, and I guess a part of me always thought that maybe that would never happen for me.
“But the fact that I’ve actually achieved something that I set out to do for over six years is kind of mind boggling.”
In fact, she was just four-hundredths-of-a-second away from claiming the bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games in the 400m freestyle final, a race in which Ariana Titmus won gold.
In the Autumn of 2019, Mikkayla Hunter was recruited to the inaugural International Swimming League swimming for the New York Breakers, who competed in the Americas Division.
The International Swimming League (ISL) was a professional swimming league, established in 2019.
Mikkayla Hunter has also been inducted into Swimming SA’s Hall of Fame.
