Born in Malawi but representing Australia, Bronte Campbell is a world-class swimmer. Campbell is a 4x Olympian (’12, ’16, ’20, ’24) and 2x Olympic champion, competing alongside sister, Cate Campbell, most of her career.
Campbell family
Both Bronte and her sister are sprint freestylers, and are 2015’s fastest swimmers worldwide in the 50m freestyle. Standing 5’10” Campbell is one of five siblings. Born in Blantyre, Malawai Campbell had always swum in hot Africa, but when she moved over to Australia at 7 years old, she took an interest in swimming after watching the Sydney Olympics.
Junior career
Campbell really broke out on the international level in 2009 at the Australian Youth Olympic Festival, but in 2011 she won gold in the 50m freestyle at the FINA World Junior Championships held in Peru.
2012 Olympic Games
In 2012 Campbell and her sister, Cate, qualified for the London Olympics in the same event – the 50m freestyle. They were the first set of Australian siblings to make an Olympic Games in the same event. She finished 10th overall, making it to the semi-finals. She claims that her secret weapon is taking ice baths set at just 10 degrees Celcius.
2013 World Championships
The following year she swam at the World Championships, held in Barcelona. She finished second in the 400m freestyle relay, fifth in the 50m freestyle and 11th in the 100m freestyle.
2014 Commonwealth Games
In her Comm Games debut, Bronte earned a hat trick of medals and then one. She finished behind her sister Cate in both the 50 and 100 free, touching at 2nd (52.86) in the 100 and 3rd (24.20) in the 50. She then helped the Aussies take gold in both the 400 free and medley relays. While she only swam in the heats of the medley relay, she led off the finals 400 free relay in a games record of 53.15 (to be broken later in the meet by her sister) in what would end up a world record for the Aussie team of 3:30.98.
2014 Pan Pacific Championships
Recently in 2014 Campbell continued her international competitions – she grabbed a gold in the 400m freestyle relay and a silver in both the 50m and 100m freestyles. At the 2014 Pan Pacific Championships Campbell won gold, silver and bronze.
2015 performances
In Apr. 2015 Campbell won her first National title in the 50m freestyle, finishing ahead of Cate who came in second. She’s currently training in Brisbane, Australia under Commercial Coach, Simon Cusack, with her sights set on Rio 2016. After her swimming career comes to an end, she wants to pursue a career in media.
2015 FINA World Championships
At the 2015 FINA World Championships Campbell had one of the best meets of her career. In her first event of the meet, the 100-meter free, Campbell came out of the semi-finals third behind her sister, Cate, and Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom. Coming off of the block, Bronte finished first to the wall, just .01 seconds ahead of Cate, and blasted home to win gold in 52.52.
In her second individual event, the 50-meter free, Cate was the heavy favor to win. Bronte qualified for the final of the 50, coming out of the semi-final in fourth place. When it came to the final, Bronte shed .20 seconds to take the win, finishing .10 ahead of the rest of the field (24.12). Her double-win made Bronte only the third swimmer in history to take the 50-100m freestyle double in World Championship history.
In her relay events at the World Championships, Campbell also picked up a gold on the 400-meter freestyle relay where she split a blistering 51.77 on the third leg. As the anchor of the 400-meter medley relay Campbell brought home the Australian team to a bronze medal after diving in the water fifth. Her split was nearly identical to the previous relay at 51.78.
2016 Australian Olympic Trials
Campbell along with her sister Cate qualified to represent Australia at the 2016 Rio Olympics in the 50M, 100M and 4X100M Free Relay.
2016 Rio Olympics
Campbell finished fourth in the 50M Free, just missing a podium finish by .03 seconds. In the 100M Free, Campbell again finished a disappointing fourth, five one-hundredths of a second behind third place finisher, Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden. In the 4X100M Free Relay, Bronte, sister Cate, Brittany Elmslie, and Emma McKeon combined to set a World Record of 3:30.65 to win Gold.
2017 World Championships
In the 4x100m Freestyle Relay, Campbell swam the second leg, teaming with Shayna Jack, Brittany Elmslie and Emma McKeon to win the silver medal. Campbell’s 52.14 was the fastest split for the Aussies. Swimming the freestyle leg on the 4x100m Mixed Medley relay, Campbell helped the Aussies win a silver behind the United States. Teaming with Mitchell Larkin, Daniel Cave and Emma McKeon. Australia finished just 0.04 seconds ahead of third place Canada, and set a new Oceanic Record.
In the 100m Freestyle, Campbell finished seventh with a time of 53.18. In her other individual event, the 50m free, Campbell finished in a three-way tie for sixth place with Xiang Liu of China and Anna Santamans of France, all touching the wall at 24.58 seconds.
Campbell once again swam the freestyle leg for Australia’s 4x100m Medley Relay to help secure the bronze medal. Emily Seebohm, Taylor McKeown, Emma McKeon and Campbell touched just over 0.50 seconds ahead of fourth place finished, Canada.
2018 Commonwealth Games
Bronte went all in for the 2018 Commonwealth Games, announcing that she would be taking an extended break afterword to recover from nagging injuries. However, by her performances it was not apparent that anything was wrong. She started off the meet by aiding Australia to a world record in the 400 free relay, ringing in a split of 52.03. In the 50 free, she tied with Canadian Taylor Ruck for 2nd (24.26) behind her sister, Cate. The best was yet to come however, as she stormed past her sister on the back half of the 100 free final and touched in 52.27 for a new games record and commonwealth gold. This earned her the anchor position on the 400 medley relay, which she swam in 51.57 to earn Australia another gold.
2019 World Championships
Campbell started her world championships in the women’s 4×100 free relay, where she led off in 52.85 to help Australia get a gold medal and championship record. Campbell kept the golds coming in, anchoring the 4×100 mixed medley relay in the prelims (52.32), which went on to win the final heat.
On Day 7, Campbell raced in the finals of the mixed 4×100 free relay, splitting 52.36 to help the Australians earn silver in a new Oceanian record. Campbell also had the semi finals of the 50 free on this day, where she tied for 8th place (24.46), forcing her to swim-off for a place in the final heat, which she won (24.38).
On Day 8, Campbell finished her meet in the final of the 50 free, where she finished in 8th with a time of 24.48.
2020 Olympic Games
Bronte started her 3rd Games off with gold, helping Australia to a first-place finish with a world record in the 4×100 free relay. In Prelims, Campbell anchored in 52.82 to put Australia in lane 4 for the final. In finals, she led off the squad in 53.01 en route to AUS’s 3:29.69 performance, breaking their own world record by .36 and winning the event by over 3 seconds.
2024 Australian Olympic Trials (Brisbane, Australia)
Campbell posted an impressive 52.95 in the 100 free prelims, placing her 4th into the final. She was off that in the final with a 53.10 but snagged a relay spot as she maintained seed and qualified for her 4th Olympics.
