Samantha Reid

Born in Sunnybank, Queensland, on 28 October 1988, Samantha Lee Reid took up synchronised swimming at age eight after following her sister into the sport. The archived Australian Olympic Committee profile says she first represented Queensland in 2000 and had been part of the Australian national team since 2005. It also records eight years of dance, while noting that she played field hockey and volleyball at high school.

Her early international pathway included the 2002 World Junior Synchronised Swimming Championships in Montreal and the 2003 Oceania Synchronised Swimming Championships. At the 2006 Oceania Championships she won gold. In 2007, Reid was part of Australia’s ten-person FINA World Championships team in Melbourne that reached the free-combination final—the first Australian team to do so in that routine, according to The Age’s contemporary report.

Reid made her Olympic debut at Beijing 2008 at age 19. The AOC describes her as the smallest member of the Australian team at 158 centimetres, noting that her height required her to hold herself higher to match teammates but could assist with lifts. Australia finished seventh in the women’s team event. Olympedia independently records the same placing and identifies Aqualina Synchronised Swimming Club in Cleveland as an affiliation.

The archived AOC profile records Anna Nepotcheva as her coach from 2005 and Marina Kholod from 2006, and lists Gold Coast, Australia, as her primary training base and Chandler as a secondary base. It names Gold Coast Mermaids as her club for the London 2012 campaign. Because Olympedia lists Aqualina and the available club reporting is historical, the evidence supports a time-specific Mermaids connection rather than a claim that the club alone developed her.

Between the Olympics, Reid continued international competition. At the 2010 Swiss Open she placed fourth in the team event and twelfth in the duet. She finished sixth in the 2011 French Open team event and ninth at the 2011 German Open. At the 2011 FINA World Championships in Shanghai she placed seventeenth in the team event and eighteenth in the technical-team event; the Australian team qualified an Olympic place there, according to the archived AOC profile.

Australia selected Reid for London 2012 as one of seven swimmers competing solely in the team event, alongside four Olympic debutants and the experienced duet pair Eloise Amberger and Sarah Bombell. ABC’s team announcement describes the squad’s qualification and changed training routines. At London, Reid and Australia finished eighth in the women’s team event, her second Olympic appearance. The AOC’s current profile confirms Beijing 2008 and London 2012 as her Olympic history; no reliable source reviewed here documents a later Olympic selection, reserve status, or current competitive status.

Career highlights

• Two-time Olympic team competitor: Beijing 2008 and London 2012.
• Seventh place in Australia's women's team at Beijing 2008.
• Eighth place in Australia's women's team at London 2012.
• Gold medal at the 2006 Oceania Synchronised Swimming Championships.
• Member of Australia's first team to reach the FINA World Championships free-combination final, Melbourne 2007.
• 2010 Swiss Open: fourth in team and twelfth in duet.
• 2011 FINA World Championships, Shanghai: seventeenth in team and eighteenth in technical team.
• Australian national-team member from 2005, with coaching credited to Anna Nepotcheva and Marina Kholod in the archived AOC profile.

Selected competition results

Beyond the pool

The archived AOC profile records attendance at Kimberley Park State School and Rivermount College, and a Bachelor of Creative Industries begun in 2011. It also records eight years of dance and high-school participation in field hockey and volleyball. The reviewed sources do not reliably document her post-athletic career, hobbies beyond these activities, or current residence/status; no inference is made.