After an 18-month break post Tokyo, Bronte is ready to fly the Campbell flag to her fourth Games
For the first time in two decades, Bronte will be the only Campbell in the pool. As she prepares for her fourth Games, she reveals the pain she’s overcome, the post Tokyo break and how she almost called time.
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Australian swimming’s greatest double act has been broken up but the baton is staying in the same family.
For the first time in two decades, Cate Campbell isn’t part of the Australian Olympic swimming team.
But her sister Bronte is in Paris, flying the flag.
Two years younger, Bronte has always been Cate’s amazing little sister, though she’s been far more than that.
A star performer in her own right, Bronte’s list of achievements in the pool is staggering and includes winning two Olympic gold medals, five world championship gold medals and being a part of five world records.
Like any athlete with a famous sibling, she hasn’t received the full credit for her success.
Not that she would ever complain because she’s always loved swimming with and against Cate.
It’s sometimes forgotten because of the heartbreak Cate suffered when she missed out on the individual 100m freestyle medals at Rio in 2016 when she was the world record-holder that Bronte was the reigning 50m and 100m world champion and just as devastated.
There were tears from both sisters when Cate missed the team for Paris at last month’s trials but now it’s business as usual because Bronte has a job to do and has inherited the extra role as the Dolphin’s senior stateswoman.
At 30, she’s the oldest woman on the swim team – born 10 days before Emma McKeon – and just the fifth Aussie swimmer to compete at four Olympics, joining her older sibling as well as Leisel Jones, Emily Seebohm and Cameron McEvoy.
That’s a testimony to her ability and longevity but also her resilience because she’s had anything but a smooth ride.
You wouldn’t know it from her ever beaming smile and chirpy demeanour but Campbell has been in pain for years, battling chronic injuries to her shoulder, neck and hip.
She took an 18-month break to heal her aching body after being part of the 4x100m freestyle relay that won gold at the last Olympics in Tokyo and thought long and hard about retirement but gave it one last shot.
She switched coaches, joining Shannon Rollason in Canberra, and knuckled down but the injuries and pain have never completely gone away.
Her secret is that she has found a way to get through it all.
She finished fourth in the 100m freestyle final at the trials to secure her place on the relay that’s tipped to win gold again in Paris.
“My injuries are holding up really well,’’ Bronte said. “They’re all being managed quite well. I feel like I’m in a really good place.
“Pain free is a very lofty goal but I’m very, very, very close to it. In 2021, it was the least pain I’ve been in for probably about five or six years and I’m in less pain than I was then.
“Especially as you get older, the narrative tends to be that as you get older, you get more and more broken.
“But I’ve sort of found that as I get older, I’ve learnt more about my body and I’m able to access all the tools to make sure that it works really well.
“There’s a lot that goes into it but I’ve sort of fallen in love with that process of doing that and I really enjoy it. It can be quite creative.
“I now know what it needs so it’s a lot less overwhelming than at the start where you don’t actually know how to fix it.”
A third gold medal would be a fitting way for Campbell to end her swimming career, though her true legacy shouldn’t be just the number of races and prizes she won.
She’s also been a vocal advocate and spokesperson for athletes, serving as president of the Australian Swimmers Association for six years before stepping down in 2023.
She was involved in some tough negotiations, including the adoption of a new constitution for the sport and memorandum of understanding that secured more money for competitors as well as getting an athlete representative on the board, but typically said that wasn’t what gave her the most satisfaction,
“That was a very big and challenging role for me,” she said. “I learnt a lot and grew a lot in the six years that I was president.
“The big stuff, like the constitutional changes and the legacy pieces, I’m really proud of.
“But the thing I enjoyed the most was getting to help everyday swimmers make their life and their career a little bit easier.
“That’s the whole reason I did the role.”
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Originally published as After an 18-month break post Tokyo, Bronte is ready to fly the Campbell flag to her fourth Games
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