With her eyes set on a fifth consecutive Olympic appearance next summer, Australian veteran Cate Campbell has aligned with coach Vince Raleigh in the lead-up to Paris 2024.
Campbell, 30, has now changed coaches twice in the last 15 months, having initially joined Damien Jones at the Rackley Swimming Club in Brisbane when she announced her return to the pool last February.
Prior to that, Campbell had been with coach Simon Cusack throughout the entirety of her elite career, following him to multiple stops including Sydney and Brisbane.
The Chandler Swimming Club, also based out of Brisbane, has been home to a number of Australia’s top athletes in recent years, with Raleigh having led Zac Stubblety-Cook to a new world record and World Championship title in the men’s 200 breaststroke last year. Mitch Larkin and Leah Neale also qualified for the Australian World Championship team in 2022 after training with Raleigh.
Campbell’s move to Chandler, confirmed to SwimSwam by Swimming Australia National Head Coach Rohan Taylor, comes as the sprinting superstar makes one final run at the Olympic Games to conclude a storied career that includes eight Olympic medals and four World Championship titles.
Campbell took an extended break out of the water following the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, where she won three medals including gold and a new world record in the women’s 400 freestyle relay and an individual bronze in the 100 free. That marked her first individual Olympic medal since her Olympic debut in 2008, where she claimed bronze in the 50 free as a 16-year-old.
Campbell reaffirmed her commitment to Paris 2024 in February of last year, and has been getting back into competition over the last few months, including placing third in the women’s 50 free (24.88) and tying for fifth in the 100 free (53.78) at the Australian Championships in April.
She is among the big names slated to compete on the 2023 Mare Nostrum Tour, which kicks off Saturday in Canet, and then Campbell will take on the 2023 Australian World Championship Trials in June.
However, Campbell has said she will not compete at the 2023 World Championships even if she qualifies, choosing to get back into a training block after the trials regardless of her results.