Surf Life Saving Australia has just announced its 12-strong open team for the 2022 Lifesaving World Championships and Zustovich is a key member of the team.

Zustovich, a beach competitor, is one of three debutants on the team.

The Lifesaving World Championships will be held in Riccione, Italy from September 21 to October 2.

After a successful 2018 World Championships campaign in Adelaide and a dominant 2019 international event season, the Australian Team was set to defend the title in 2020.

The last two years has been spent navigating the challenges of COVID, maximising the opportunities for domestic event attendance, and monitoring the world stage to stay at the top of the sport technically and competitively.

Head Coach Kurt Wilson congratulated the athletes on their selection and is excited for what lies ahead for the team.

"To have now locked in our twelve athletes set to represent the Australian Life Saving Team at the 2022 Lifesaving World Championships in Italy, is extremely exciting," Wilson said.

"I am honoured to be leading this athletic cohort through this campaign," Wilson said .

"The talent, technical capacity, current form, and potential as a team is a brilliant reflection on all the hard work, sacrifice, outside the box thinking and athlete management that's gone on all around the country over the last two years by coaches, support networks and clubs to ensure the athletes had every opportunity to be at their best to earn their selection on this team."

The coach said the six males and six females that have been selected have a brilliant balance of youth with three Australian Open team debutantes and an abundance of experience having six of our 2020 Championship winning team returning to defend their title.

"This will provide us with an outstanding platform for performance to take on the anything that is presented to us on the world stage," Wilson said about the mixture of experience.

The full team is:

Harriet Brown - Northcliffe SLSC, QLD

Ben Carberry - Currumbin SLSC, QLD

Prue Davies - Currumbin SLSC, QLD

Rachel Eddy - Currumbin SLSC, QLD

Elizabeth Forsyth - Currumbin SLSC, QLD

Harrison Hynes - Trigg Island SLSC / West Life Saving Club, WA

Mariah Jones - Tweed Heads & Coolangatta SLSC / Sunshine Coast Grammar Pool Life Saving Club, QLD

James Koch - Bondi SBLSC / The Hills Swimming and Life Saving Club, NSW

Kendrick Louis - Manly LSC, NSW

Naomi Scott - Northcliffe SLSC, NSW

Jake Smith - Trigg Island SLSC / West Life Saving Club, NSW

Sam Zustovich - Mollymook SLSC, NSW