‘All I wanted to do was play rugby’: Neill’s snap moment that led him to the pool

Deep down Tommy Neill knew that he was a good swimmer, however ‘hated swimming’ and had a passion for rugby. Then a cruel snap injury changed everything.

It took a cruel twist of fate for Olympian Tommy Neill to snap out of his hatred for swimming.

A promising openside flanker, Neill had ambitions to play representative rugby, possibly for the Reds and maybe even the Wallabies.

Growing up, he didn’t need to look far for inspiration, enrolling as a student at St Joseph’s College, Gregory Terrace, one of Brisbane’s most esteemed rugby nurseries.

The private school’s alumni boasts three Wallabies captains – Jimmy Flynn, Tony Shaw and Michael Lynagh – and a star-studded honour roll of other footy stars, including Brisbane Broncos skipper Patrick Carrigan.

But his destiny wasn’t on the rugby paddock. When he was 14, he broke his leg in a game, and his rugby dreams disappeared the moment he heard his bone crack.

“Growing up, all I wanted to do was play rugby. I hated swimming,” Neill said. “The posters on my wall were like Quade Cooper, Will Genia, all the Reds 2011 team.

Tommy Neill never thought he’d be a swimmer. Picture: Chris Hyde/Getty Images

“But when I snapped my leg, the doc said swimming’s the best recovery for it, and I was like ‘oh yeah, here we go’, but I always sort of knew I was a lot better at swimming so that’s when I started to really love the competitive aspect of it.”

Now 22, Neill is off to Paris for his second Olympics, having won a bronze medal in the 4x200m freestyle relay in Tokyo, when he was picked to swim the anchor leg ahead of Mack Horton, one of his childhood heroes.

Only a casual fan of the sport at the time, Neill’s lightning bolt moment came when he sat down in front of the television and watched Horton beating China’s Sun Yang on the opening night of finals at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

“After watching that race I thought, that is epic, I want to do that,” Neill said. “That was probably one of the most special races I’ve ever watched and I didn’t even know it was on.”

Inspired by what he’d seen, and helped by a late growth spurt, Neill’s progress quickly accelerated. He started winning national age group titles and made his first Australian team for the junior Pan Pacs while still in high school.

He made the team for the Tokyo Olympics when he was in his teens after finishing third in the 200m freestyle final at the trials.

Neill got to swim the individual 200m freestyle in Tokyo after Kyle Chalmers pulled out to save himself for the 100m – and he just missed a place in the final by just 0.03 seconds.

He was anointed as a star of the future, until fate intervened again.

Tommy Neill has firmed his place across the relay team. Picture: Michael Klein

Having already been struck down by glandular fever, Neill contracted long Covid, which contributed to him missing selection for the 2022 world championships and Commonwealth Games, which he now sees as a blessing in disguise.

“That was probably the best thing that’s ever happened to me in swimming. It allowed me to take my foot off the gas a bit and stop putting so much pressure on myself and then just find the love for the sport again,” he said.

“When I look back at it now, I’ve realised how down in the dumps I was, but I’m happy now and loving the sport again, I didn’t actually realise in the moment that I was in a very low, dark place sort of thing.

“When I got glandular fever, that was sort of the first big hiccup and challenge I had to face, but we had a plan because there was a precedent, people had had glandular fever before so we could follow stuff.

“The next year when I got long Covid, there wasn’t a precedent for it, so no one knew how to deal with it so we just thought, ‘okay, we’ll just work through it’, which was actually just the dumbest thing we could do and I missed the team.

“You never forget that because you don’t ever want to feel that feeling again. And that’s often why when people do miss a team, their next year is so good because they’re so motivated to get back on it and not have that feeling again.”

Neill has overcome his fair share of injury and illness in the lead up to Paris. Pics Tara Croser.

Born in Hong Kong, Neill’s interests extend far beyond swimming, which also helps him stay level-headed.

He’s studying advanced business at university and his grandmother, Jan Williamson, is a famous painter, specialising in portraits, though he says he hasn’t inherited any artistic skills.

While Horton’s win over Sun was his favourite moment in swimming, his favourite swimmer is Grant Hackett, “because the bloke raced tough”.

“I love watching him and hearing some of his stories about racing with collapsed lungs and stuff like that, it’s all pretty inspiring.

“I feel like it just screams Australia like when the chips are down and everything, your back’s against the wall, he’s still able to perform.

“I’ve realised that being an athlete is actually the greatest job in the world and I want to do it for as long as I can. So I think for as long as I’m swimming, I’ll probably never believe that I’ve reached my limit yet.”

Originally published as ‘All I wanted to do was play rugby’: Neill’s snap moment that led him to the pool