[4] Competing for the Georgia Bulldogs during the 2021–2022 collegiate season, he won the NCAA title in the 500 yard freestyle in March 2022 before permanently relocating back to South Africa in April 2022 and becoming a professional swimmer.

[9][10][11][12][13] He qualified to compete in the Olympics (delayed until July 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic) in May 2021[14] and was called "the next Michael Phelps" in the media leading up to the start of competition.

[16] In the 2021 FINA Swimming World Cup, which consisted of four competitions across two continents in October 2021 and was conducted in short course metres, Sates was the overall highest-scoring male competitor with a total of 227 points across all four stops that earned him $140,000 of prize money.

[20][21] His swim also moved him to the eighth fastest swimmer in the event in history, just two spots and 31-hundredths of a second behind Caeleb Dressel of the United States.

[1] In his first collegiate competition, a dual meet against Emory University on 29 January, Sates won the 200 yard freestyle with a time of 1:33.89.

[35][36] His time of 1:31.82 ranked Sates as the fifth-fastest male freshman in the 200 yard freestyle in the history of the NCAA, behind Townley Haas, Dean Farris, Cameron Craig, and Drew Kibler.

[37] In the prelims heats of the 500 yard freestyle on day two, Sates lowered his personal best time in the event by approximately 17 seconds to a 4:13.65 to rank third overall heading into the final.

[41] On Day four of competition, Sates ranked third in the prelims heat of the 200 yard butterfly, qualifying for the final with a time of 1:41.91, which was 1.83 seconds behind first-ranked Luca Urlando.

[46] On day one of the 2022 NCAA Championships in March, Sates opened the 4×200 yard freestyle with a 1:30.78 for the lead-off leg, helping achieve a final mark of 6:05.59 and a second-place finish.

[55] Concluding his first NCAA Championships, Sates swam a 42.90 for the third leg of the 4×100 yard freestyle relay to help place eleventh in a combined time of 2:48.81.

[55] At the 2022 South Africa National Swimming Championships in Gqeberha in April, Sates qualified for the final of the 400 metre freestyle on day one with a time of 3:54.94 in the prelims heats.

[59] In the final, he won the gold medal with a time of 1:46.15, which achieved him a qualifying time in the 200 metre freestyle for the 2022 World Aquatics Championships and 2022 Commonwealth Games, and won a gold medal in the 4×100 metre freestyle relay, swimming the lead-off leg for the relay team from KwaZulu-Natal.

[74] At the 2022 Mare Nostrum stop in Monaco, Sates swam a personal best time of 1:57.43 in the 200 metre individual medley, winning the event.

[75] A few days later, at the stop in Barcelona, Spain, he won the 200 metre freestyle with another personal best time, finishing in 1:45.91 and setting a new meet record in the event.

[87] Day one of swimming at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, held in Birmingham, England, Sates advanced to the final in the 400 metre freestyle ranking sixth in the preliminaries with a time of 3:49.69.

[98] Chad le Clos substituted in for Sates on the finals relay, lowered the butterfly time by over two full seconds and helped achieve a fourth-place finish in the event.

[110][111] The next day, he placed fourth in the 200 metre individual medley in a time of 1:52.89, which was 2.52 seconds behind gold medalist Shaine Casas of the United States who, with his win, also moved ahead of Sates into the overall number one rank for the World Cup by a margin of 0.7 points.

[109][117] Day one at the 2022 World Short Course Championships in Melbourne, Australia, Sates split a 57.31 for the anchor leg of the 4×100 metre freestyle relay to help place thirteenth overall.

[123] On day five of six, he finished in a South African record time of 3:59.21 in the final of the 400 metre individual medley to win the bronze medal.

[130] In the 100 metre butterfly on day four, he achieved a 2023 World Aquatics Championships qualifying time of 51.91 seconds in the final and won the silver medal.