[1] The following year, he won the bronze medal in the 800-metre freestyle at the 2022 Australian Swimming Championships, held in Adelaide in May, with a time of 7:58.26.

[5] Day one of competition at the Veterans Memorial Aquatic Center in Honolulu, United States, for the 2022 Junior Pan Pacific Swimming Championships in August, Staples won the gold medal in the 1500-metre freestyle with a personal best time of 15:18.54, earning nine points for Australia.

[6] The fourth and final day of competition, Staples won the gold medal in the 800-metre freestyle with a personal best time of 7:56.29, which was just 1.13 seconds off the Championships record of 7:55.16 set by Robert Finke of the United States in 2016 and earned nine additional points for Australia.

[12] On the first day of the 2023 Australian Swimming Championships, in April in Gold Coast, Queensland, Staples ranked fourth in the preliminaries of the 400-metre freestyle with a 3:52.90 and qualified for the evening final, where he placed sixth in a time of 3:52.43 that was 0.05 seconds ahead of seventh-place finisher Mack Horton.

The fourth day, he improved upon his eighth-place finish in the 400-metre individual medley from the same competition in 2022, this time placing seventh with a 4:25.75.