Born in rural Victoria, the 23-year old backstroker says he's aiming for a podium finish in Rio.
Four years ago Josh Beaver came agonisingly close to Olympic qualification.
His dreams of a London Games debut were dashed by just 0.2 of a second.
"It was a little clap basically, when I'm talking about it that's how I describe it, a little clap to me. But that's all it is to me now - a little clap - and I've put it behind me and now to be able to move on."
He specialises in going backwards but Beaver says he keeps his focus forwards.
And last month he earned his Olympic debut in Adelaide with a performance that undercut the Rio qualification time by over a second.
It made him an instant celebrity in his rural home town of Tooradin in eastern Victoria.
"I actually received a letter in the mail from my old canteen lady that said I always wanted to make lunch for Joshua Beaver as an Olympian and now he's an actual Olympian."
Beaver possesses, says his coach Rohan Taylor, that special quality that makes a world-class backstroker.
"I think firstly they have to like looking at the ceiling instead of the bottom! But in saying that as far as body types go I think in general they have to be good technicians at swimming with length: I always say a good backstroker looks really tall in the water."
Beaver is making an impression that's much taller than his 175 centimetre frame.
He swims at least 55 kilometres a week in training, but Coach Taylor says it will be Josh's mental preparedness on the day that makes the difference.
"Training is like driving on a freeway in no traffic; you still have to learn to drive in traffic. It's the distractions around you that get in the way."
Currently ranked inside the top eight globally, Beaver's personal best over 200 metres is 1-minute-56-seconds flat.
But he says he's aiming to shave off at least another second before August to be amongst the medal contenders in Rio.
"There's only a small percentage of people that improve from their actual qualifying event to the actual Olympics, so I want to be in that per cent. I don't want to just be a number at the Olympics I want to be a competitor."
And even with a Melbourne winter ahead, he says there's nowhere he'd rather be than in the pool.
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