Headed into the 2016 Olympic Games, Australian sprint star Cate Campbell was widely regarded as the gold medal favorite in both the women’s individual 50m and 100m freestyle events. The swimmer fired off a remarkable 51.97 split to help carry her Aussie squad to gold in the women’s 4×100 freestyle relay to kick-off her Rio campaign, but, individually, Campbell faltered.
After having set a world record of 52.06 just weeks before the Rio opening ceremony, Campbell wound up more than a second slower in the individual 100m freestyle event at the Games. As such, Campbell had to settle with finishing 6th in the 100 (53.24) and 5th in the 50 free (24.15). Aussie Head Coach Jacco Verhaeren commented post-race that the disappointing outcomes “can really only put it to nerves and nothing else.”
However, now over two months removed from the Rio ordeal, Campbell’s coach, Simon Cusack, is pointing to another factor as having impacted his protegé’s lackluster outing. In order to minimize pressure on athletes headed into a Games, Cusack tells The Australian that “no key swimmer should hold leadership roles in the team in the two years going into the Olympics.”
“There’s a lot of things that compounded the pressure on her in Rio (Campbell also carried a hernia into the Games) and when it unraveled, it unraveled in a big way. By nature, Cate is a pleaser. She wants to please people, and watching her, it became a chore for her being a spokesperson. When she stood up behind the blocks in Rio, her biggest fear was letting people down who she cares about.’’
Cusack will be meeting with Verhaeren in the coming weeks to further evaluate the squad’s performance. The Commercial coach says that the weeks since Rio have been ‘pretty traumatic’ for his swimmer, which has included Cusack offering guidance to Campbell on finding more of a ‘balance in her life’ moving forward.
“She has tended to become a bit too unbalanced and swimming-focused, so I encouraged her to go skydiving when she was in New Zealand (on holidays), and to find more joy in her life.’’
However, Campbell announced mid-August that she plans on continuing to pursue a 4th Olympic Games. She says she ‘can’t leave her Olympic campaign like this.’
“I want to leave with happy tears. You’re going to have to lock me in for 2020.”
People here criticising Cusack and Campbell need to seriously wake up. It happens and swimmers have tough meets, or their nerves get to them. It’s part of life. It doesn’t take away the fact that Campbell IS the fastest woman in the world over the 50 and 100 meter distances. She’s also an absolute legend of a person. These things happen and Cusack makes a very good point about too much pressure, actually.
First day of competition – 51.97
Last day of competition – 52.17
And 53.24 in between. How was it possible? Please don’t tell me that relays were like a walking in the park. Quite an opposite. In individual races Cate Campbell had such an advantage that she could medal without stressing herself. Both relays were tough and she was under intense psychological pressure that she managed very confidently.
The only explanation I can see is that she started unusually fast and it was too much to handle at the end. She used to say that should the distance be 101m she would die at the end. That is how sensitive she is to the deviations from the… Read more »
Dear Prickles – if it wasn’t for things like this we would have no Rudyard Kipling poems or country music . I immedistely thought of a song & researched the best version for you .There is no ode for Cate s serial loss of the womens Olympic 100 freestyle but this one seems pretty close . Barbarra Fairchilds version of ‘Tips of my Fingers ‘ . Go ye to youtube – & enjoy .
“…But I let it slip right through my hands but I let it slip right through my hands”
I did enjoyed. Thanks.
Love is the most uncertain thing in the world. But I wouldn’t say it about professional sport. When in post race interview Katie Ledecky was asked a stupid question: how she managed to break 4 minutes barrier – there was no any lyric in her answer. There was nothing like ” Oh, my Gosh, I can’t believe it’s happened to me. Oh, my Gosh!!” The answer was very brief and prosaic :”A lot of training”. That is when I started to believe that she is a real deal.
Cate Campbell is one of the greatest… Read more »
In the words of Bronte Campbell, “it is important to make analogies, but not to treat us as the same person”.
As Dee already explained, Bronte had injuries before and during the Rio Olympics. She tried to downplay it, but anyone who had been paying attention to Bronte, would know she had been struggling all year with injuries and illnesses. A decision was made not to get cortisone shots in her shoulder before or during trials, and she managed to qualify in the top 2 for the 100m and 50m, even though people who attended the trials said they could tell she was in pain, and post trials was struggling with her injury for several weeks, before getting treatment.… Read more »
@SPF:
This Bronte’s health issue story is important to interpret correctly Rio’s results. But since you know that much about Bronte’s conditions at OG you may explain how so much injured swimmer can deliver 52.15 in relay. Quite a time I would say. And why didn’t she swim medley relay heat? Was her health condition worsened after that world record race on day one?
Cate Campbell can swim 52.7 as confidently as Ledecky can do 8:11. So dominant they are.
It is hard to believe that Cate Campbell hasn’t tried at practice 24.7(rt: 0.8) on the way out and doesn’t know how costly it can be. If it was admitted that she and/or her coach were mistaken… Read more »
You can put up any conspiracy theory you like, you are entitled to do so. We all know relay splits are different to individual event splits and relays tend to be faster. Bronte’s relay split was slower than what she did in Kazan 51.77 in the same event. I can only assume they chose Cate for the medley relay heats and finals as they wanted to ensure one Australia would qualify well (after coming 3rd in Kazan) and Cate swam a better relay split than Bronte, and same for the final. Cate was in form, Bronte was not. It was a sensible decision. This is not the first time the Australian team has only picked a swimmer to do both… Read more »
Dear SPF, in no way I would like to discredit these two outstanding swimmers. As much as probably you did I wished to see siblings on the podium and 50m tech-suits record beaten. It hasn’t happened in a very strange way. All these explanations that are based on psychological stress are good for a teenager who is competing first time internationally but are not applicable for world champions and world record holders. It is just my opinion. But I agree that sometimes unexplainable things do happen. Take for instance Femke Heemskerk’s performance in Kazan: 51.9 split in relay and terrible results in individual races at 100 and 200 where she was a strong contender based on her April times.
… Read more »
Well for the US it probably helped that we had such a bad performance at worlds haha. We didn’t exactly have the highest expectations going into the olympics.
Did anyone watch the 100 final? Cate had a shocker start and blew her load on the first 50 she panicked. Pure and simple. The Aussies biggest problem is lack of racing. Unlike most of the US team who have just finished the NCAA season are race hardened with great starts and turns. Most of the Aussies starts and turns sucked and the they buckled under Olympic pressure.
Whole lotta armchair psychologists on this thread…
Isn’t that the point of open forums? People throw opinions around, talk about experiences, query things… Nobody is, as far as I can tell, making statements if fact.
We all love swimming, we were all gutted for Cate (I’d like to think) and nobody is being unduly unkind… These are genuine queries people have!
Dear Cate ,
On behalf of the ppl of Australia – it really is ok . Be yourself , do what you want .You have a great life , you are insanely talented .
ENJOY IT . And once again thank you Campbell family for choosing us . We are insanely gratefu.
Gina.( self apponted spokesperson for the post political post sport hoi poloi) .
To the downticker .For Penny & Simone to have had this unexpected magnificent win – someone else had to lose . In this case it was CC . Thats the way it is .
When a young healthy person dies but able to donate multiple organs – its obviously not the best for the donor but a magnificent win for the recipients .
Can this man even fathom what MP experienced going into Rio? Shut up and stop being butthurt.
I think keeping medal contenders out of the spotlight and banned from leadership roles is a terrible idea. Sounds weak, like surrender. There are many athletes who carry a nation’s high expectations into competition and deliver again and again. Coddling certainly doesn’t build confidence.