With less than a year to go until the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, 27-year-old backstroking ace Emily Seebohm of Australia has changed up her training home.
Seebohm has been training under coach David Lush at Brisbane Grammar in Brisbane, Queensland since 2015 but has confirmed to SwimSwam that she is now located at Griffith University on the Gold Coast under coach Michael Bohl. Griffith University is home to Olympic medalist Emma McKeon, Olympic finalist Taylor McKeown, Olympian Georgia Bohl, among others.
Seebohm was the 100m back and 200m back World Champion at the 2015 World Championship in Kazan, Russia, but she fell short of the podium in both events at the 2016 Olympic Games. There in Rio, however, Seebohm was a member of Australia’s silver medal-winning women’s medley relay.
The 2017 World Championships saw Seebohm gut out gold in the 200m back, representing the nation’s sole individual gold in Budapest.
Along the way, Seebohm has been hit with difficulties outside the pool, including a knee dislocation in 2015 and surgery for endometriosis in 2017. Seebohm also had a rough break-up with Olympic medalist Mitch Larkin in 2018.
Before this year’s World Championships in Gwangju, Korea, Seebohm, was usurped by young guns Minna Atherton and Kaylee McKeown, both of whom finished ahead of the veteran at the Aussie World Trials. That left Seebohm at home for Worlds, and time to ponder her next move.
Atherton had long been Seebohm’s training partner under Lush at Brisbane Grammar, with the 19-year-old busting out the best year of her career. She clinched 3 medals at the 2018 Short Course World Championships, including individual bronze in the 100m back. She followed that up with silver in the 100m back in Gwangju, along with mixed medley relay gold and women’s medley relay silver.
Seebohm has been back to racing already, hitting the first cluster of the 2019 FINA World Cup Series. She ranked 3rd in FINA points after the first 3 stops, sitting behind Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu and Aussie teammate Cate Campbell.
Bohl told SwimSwam that Seebohm joined his squad approximately 10 weeks ago, kicking off the first week after Aussie World Trials.
Maybe this is a move to push her 200 IM to the next level. She has a PB of 2:09. Bohl is a fantastic IM coach, and it would give her a chance to take the pressure off while still maintaining the fitness and endurance needed to pop a good 200 back.
Also Swim Swam if she moved one week after trials then it is not less than a year out.
Seems like this decision was made in advance of world trials and implemented after trials. Would be odd to make a snap decision in one week.
Kelsey, is Emily now officially sponsored by Aquashop?
I don’t think so, she’s always been good friends with the owner though. She’s still posting photos of Arena gear and most swimmers deal with the brand names direct rather than shops/providers as a third party. But if she is good on her – she’s always been good at marketing herself and at the end of the day I’m sure Swimming Aus doesn’t provide enough $$ to be a professional athlete.
Maybe avoiding Minna and changing to a coach who might help her more in the 200IM might be both good ideas for probably Em’s last roll of the Olympic dice.
Australian swimmers seem to get injured a lot. Their sprinters don’t last very long either.
Australian swimmers get injured a lot. Their sprinters don’t last too long either.
Cate Campbell won a medal in Beijing 11 years ago.
Missed the podium since…
She was also out for the bulk of the Olympic cycle between Beijing and London.
Good luck to her!! Gonna take a lot just to qualify git the aussie Olympic team, her best chance I believe is to go after the 200im to try and make the team
Should have gone back to Matt Brown.
I would think his year has been planned & the girls back programs designed around Bronte Job .
I thought he’d left Rackley?