Nikita Pablo

Nikita Aleisha Pablo was born on 8 January 1995 in Southport, Queensland. She grew up in Aruba, where she took ballet and swimming before starting artistic swimming at nine. In her own account, the sport appealed because it combined a swimmer’s endurance with a gymnast’s strength and a ballerina’s flexibility and grace. She says competing at the Olympic Games was a long-standing ambition.

Pablo moved to Queensland in 2014 and joined the Gold Coast Mermaids Synchronised Swimming Club, coached by Marina Kholod. She made the Australian national team that year. A Gold Coast Bulletin report describes the Mermaids’ senior training as multidisciplinary, incorporating acrobatics, ballet, drama, yoga, gymnastics and cross-training, while Kholod said elite swimmers could train for as much as 30 hours a week alongside study or work.

Her senior international pathway included the 2015 FINA World Championships in Kazan. Pablo was part of the Australian team that achieved the qualification objective for Rio by finishing above New Zealand. World Aquatics records her 2015 personal-best duet marks as 72.0011 in the technical routine and 73.1667 in the free routine, and lists an 82.1667 thematic-duet score at the 2015 FINA Synchro World Trophy.

At Rio 2016, Pablo competed in both events available to her: the women’s duet with Rose Stackpole and Australia’s women’s team. The Australian Olympic Committee records a 24th-place overall duet finish, with 73.6360 in the technical routine and 74.7667 in the free routine, and an eighth-place team finish. The AOC’s contemporary report described Pablo and Stackpole as Olympic rookies who had only been selected as a duet in April and then undertook an intense preparation period.

Pablo continued internationally after Rio. She told Let’s Go Vegan that the 2017 World Championships in Budapest represented the peak of her performance; World Aquatics records her 2017 team personal bests as 72.6056 for the technical routine and 76.0333 for the free routine. A 2017 Gold Coast Bulletin report also identified her as a Gold Coast Mermaids senior team member preparing for Budapest.

In the same 2019 interview, Pablo said she had become a Queensland high-performance coach for Artistic Swimming Australia. She also discussed adopting a vegan diet during her athletic years and her reported experiences with energy, endurance, strength and recovery. These are self-reported lifestyle and performance observations rather than independently verified medical findings, and the sources do not establish her current coaching or competition status.

Career highlights

• Represented Australia at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in both the women's duet and team events.
• Finished 24th in the Rio 2016 women's duet with Rose Stackpole.
• Helped Australia finish eighth in the Rio 2016 women's team event.
• Competed at the 2015 FINA World Championships in Kazan as Australia pursued Olympic qualification.
• Was part of the Australian team that qualified for Rio 2016 by finishing above New Zealand at the 2015 World Championships.
• Competed at the 2017 FINA World Championships in Budapest after Rio.
• Recorded World Aquatics personal-best 2017 team routine scores of 72.6056 technical and 76.0333 free.
• Was identified in 2019 as a Queensland high-performance coach for Artistic Swimming Australia.

Selected competition results

Beyond the pool

In a 2019 interview, Pablo described a vegan lifestyle and her interest in plant-based nutrition, including favourite foods and eateries. She said she had moved into Queensland high-performance coaching for Artistic Swimming Australia. Her interview also mentions ballet as part of her early sporting background. No independently verified academic qualification, non-sport employment, or current status was found in the opened authoritative sources.