Bronte Campbell will seek to add her name to one of the most exclusive lists in sport, after deciding to chase a spot on the national team for next year’s Paris Olympics.
Only four Australian swimmers, her sister Cate, Emily Seebohm, Libby Trickett and Dawn Fraser have won gold medals at three different Olympics.
When Wide World of Sports pointed out she could find herself part of that group in July 2024, Campbell was momentarily blown away.
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“Woah,” she said, before pausing briefly.
“That’s a very short list. Is that everyone?
“I’d never really thought of that. It’s pretty incredible. It’s a great list and I’d love to have my name on it.”
Campbell hasn’t competed since the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, having decided to take a much needed break from the sport.
Part of the gold medal winning 4×100 metres freestyle relay team in both Rio and Tokyo, she needed time away to decide whether or not she wanted to take a shot at qualifying for Paris, a decision she confirmed on Nine’s Sports Sunday.
“A lot of my friends have been telling me they’re looking forward to my comeback, but I never actually said I was retired,” she explained to Wide World of Sports prior to the announcement.
“I purposely didn’t do that. After the Tokyo Olympics I really needed a break, to do something different with my life other than swimming. It was an all-consuming thing for 21 years.
“It was not just my mind that needed the break, but also my body.
“I took the 18 months, and to be honest I flipped between, ‘Yeah, I can’t wait to swim again’ to, ‘Wow, life without training every day is quite good’.”
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Life without training meant a 9-5 job for the first time in her life, taking on a business consulting role with Ernst & Young in Sydney and feeling like a “normal person”.
“It was great to experience that and figure out what I wanted to do,” the 28-year-old explained.
“But if I want to go to Paris this is the time I have to make that call.
“There’s still a little part of me that thought, ‘I want to see what can happen if I apply everything I’ve ever learnt in my career and see where that gets me to.’
“That break means all my injuries are in a good state, the main driver for me, apart from the fact I love it, is the curiosity of what might happen this time around. If I didn’t scratch that itch I’d probably regret it.”
Not only are the physical aches and pains gone, mentally Campbell has a fresh approach as well.
“It definitely does give you a new perspective, taking the time away,” she said.
“That perspective comes with taking a step back and realising it’s not all about getting upset because one training session doesn’t go very well, which I had a tendency to do.
“Now I can see the bigger picture, and the extra bit of perspective is that I realise I actually do have a choice to do this. Before, I kind of always knew I had a choice of whether to swim or not, but it didn’t feel like that. It felt like I had to swim.
“Now I’m making the choice to do it again, which also means I can make the choice to stop at any time. It’s a very small distinction but it makes a big difference.”
Getting back into training meant returning to the pool at the Cranbrook school in Sydney, and the dreaded early morning wake up calls.
“You know what, the alarm is at 4.45am and I haven’t got up this early for a very long time. It’s too early,” she joked.
“Before when I was training as a senior athlete you got to get up a little bit later, because you don’t need to train around school time. But at the moment, because I’ve been training with a school program it’s back to getting up at 4:45.
“That’s not morning, by the way. 4:45 is the middle of the night, lets be clear on that!
“That’s the bit I don’t like. It never gets better.”
Campbell’s long-time coach, Simon Cusack, has moved into a new role mentoring younger coaches, which means Campbell will now work with Shannon Rollason, who previously coached Jodie Henry and Alice Mills.
And despite being a two-time Olympic gold medallist, Campbell realises this is a whole new start.
“I don’t want to swim again and rely on what I did in the past,” she said.
“Swimming’s not like that anyway. In my event, you’ve got to be amongst the best in the world just to qualify for a relay team, given the depth and quality of the 100 metres freestyle swimmers in this country.
“I want to do better. My goal is to break new ground. I’m not just phoning this in.
“This time I can explore things a bit deeper, and I’m really interested by that. That’s the goal, not to just do the same things again.”
The depth in the 100 metres freestyle that Campbell references means there’s a chance that 15 months of work could count for nothing, and she might find herself watching the Paris Olympics from afar if she doesn’t make the team.
“I’m 100 per cent prepared for that,” she said, when asked if she’d contemplated the possibility of not qualifying.
“I want to do this, regardless of results. I want to do this because of the things I’m going to learn along the way. It’s the curiosity that’s driving me.
“The result doesn’t actually justify the means of getting there. I’ve had preparations in the past where I absolutely hated it, but I ended up getting a good result.
“I’m embarking on this knowing that my injuries could flare up at any time, and it could be a case of, I thought I could do this but I can’t. I’m very much aware that could happen.
“Success is possible, but so is failure.
“That’s scary, but it’s also very invigorating.”
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