‘Anything is achievable’: Emily Seebohm reveals shock Olympic comeback after becoming a mum
Emily Seebohm reveals the moment she realised she was falling in love with her new fiancee, a former MAFs star, and the shock that came with falling pregnant.
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She is one of the country’s greatest athletes, a four-time Olympian, winner of seven Olympic medals and a five-time world champion. But Emily Seebohm now has her mind set on a goal no Australian swimmer has reached.
Seebohm, 31, is days away from giving birth to her first child – a boy – while also planning a comeback to compete in the 2024 Paris Olympics. It would mean her fifth Olympics, a feat not yet achieved by an Australian swimmer, and as a new mother.
“It would be insane,” says a heavily pregnant Seebohm with a smile at her Hendra home, on Brisbane’s northside.
“I think to do it and have a baby as well, that’s the biggest lesson I could give to my child.
“You don’t ever give up on something you want, even if you think it’s not possible, anything is achievable.
“So I’m just going to give it a go.”
After the Tokyo Olympics, where she won gold in the 4x100m medley relay and bronze in the 200m backstroke, the decorated athlete had all but made up her mind it would be her last.
But in the two years since, she’s been gifted a renewed fighting spirit spurred along by a new romance and engagement to fiance, Ryan Gallagher, 35, and their baby due any day.
“I feel like I have this extra bit of strength that wasn’t there before,” she says.
“Being a mum and just seeing what my body has been capable of doing gives me an extra bit of something that no one else has.”
With eight months until the trials to decide the Australian Olympic team, Seebohm’s goal is ambitious. But if we’ve learned one thing about the world champion, she’s capable of anything, especially now as a soon-to-be mum and wife.
“I am so excited for this next part,” she says, brimming with joy at the thought of what is to come. “Life is full-on but I don’t think there’s any other way I can do it.”
On top of a sporting comeback and new baby, she’s planning a wedding. It was a celebration set for this month but has been postponed as they prepare for the baby boy’s arrival.
As Seebohm sits on the couch, Bruce her dog resting his head on her pregnant belly, she is content. After a string of public relationships and messy breakups over the years, including with fellow Australian swimmer Mitch Larkin and Nova breakfast radio host David “Luttsy” Lutteral, Seebohm is grateful to have found Gallagher, the man who changed her life.
Seebohm met Gallagher, a contestant on season five of Married At First Sight in 2018, in July last year when they were both contestants on reality show The Challenge: Australia.
They became fast friends while filming the series in Argentina and, Seebohm says, feelings grew stronger in the final weeks of the show.
“The first challenge we actually paired up with each other and that was when it was more than just getting to know him but how to work as a team and we just clicked in a friendship way at first,” says Seebohm, who has also appeared on I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! and Australian Ninja Warrior.
“It wasn’t until later into the show that we both had the thought there’s more than just a friendship there, but nothing happened on the show until we came off.”
The swimmer had a boyfriend of more than a year back in Australia but broke up with him over the phone two days after filming ended to follow her connection with Gallagher.
After the show wrapped, they booked a three-week road trip together, travelling from New York to Los Angeles.
“We wanted to work out if it was just a show thing, you know, being in an intense environment, and the fact we had each other’s back (on the show) was it just that giving us a connection or was it more in-depth than just the show?” Seebohm says.
“There were no cameras and we wanted to know what we were actually going to feel like.” She pauses, then smiles, “It worked out for me.”
Seebohm credits Gallagher with helping her discover a life outside of her sport.
“I have more of an understanding of who I am without the swimming because I haven’t swum much since Tokyo so I’ve been able to find my feet a bit out of the water,” she says.
“He is totally accepting of wherever my journey takes me and instead of trying to steer me in directions, he’s very much just telling me to work out what I want to do.”
Five months after they met, Gallagher proposed on his family farm in Goulburn in regional New South Wales in December with a ring he designed himself.
The moment came as a complete shock, Seebohm says.
“He got down on one knee and said, ‘I love you so much, I can’t imagine life without you, will you marry me?’
“I was like, ‘Wow, this ring is so nice and then I said, ‘Yes, of course’,” says Seebohm with a laugh. “The ring is three solitaire cuts. He says the two smaller ones represent me and him and the big one is our love.”
A month later, in January this year, the surprises kept coming. The couple found out they were expecting a baby.
“Ryan had seen (pregnancy) tests on sale and said, ‘You should just get them for the hell of it,’” Seebohm says of when she found out she was pregnant.
“They were on special so he was like, ‘Just chuck them in, we’ll need them eventually.’ Later that day, he said, ‘You should just do one for fun’, … and then there was such a faint line.”
Seebohm couldn’t believe it. She did two more tests that day, each showing the same faint positive result.
“We were both just so excited. It wasn’t really planned out but I think we both were like, ‘Well, we are engaged anyway, we love each other’ … we both talked about wanting kids and we are both prepared for them, let’s just do it.”
Most of the shock, however, came from actually falling pregnant, Seebohm says.
The athlete has long spoken out on her endometriosis diagnosis, a condition which can often make it difficult for women to conceive naturally. So, she says, she’s counting her blessings.
“I feel lucky, I feel really lucky, it’s nice that my body just decided that it’s OK and ready,” she says. “I have listened to so many stories of people with endo that have really struggled so I feel very blessed that I didn’t have the struggle I could have had.”
After a tough first trimester of sickness and a pregnancy that’s allowed her to do less exercise than she would have liked, Seebohm is more than ready for life’s next chapter to begin.
She will give birth, hopefully as planned, at Brisbane’s Wesley Hospital later this month.
And, she says, she will let her son know the strength, resilience and determination he gave her to return to the water.
“It (finding out I was pregnant) helped me clarify what I wanted more,” she says.
It’s been two years since Seebohm has competed, with her last races at the Tokyo games in 2021, postponed a year due to Covid, where she put in a stellar performance.
It was her fourth Olympics, joining Cate Campbell and Leisel Jones as the only other Australian swimmers to be four-time Olympians. “Before Tokyo, I was very much thinking this is going to be my last so I really tried to enjoy that … I thought maybe I was done. I thought I would feel like, ‘I’m glad that’s over’ but I had the best time and really enjoyed it. When I finished, I just felt I could still keep going and if I could, why would I not?”
After some time off, where she appeared on a string of reality television shows, the backstroker started training again early this year, joining The Dolphins camp in February on the Gold Coast.
But being eight weeks’ pregnant at the time, having told her coach Michael Bohl, her time in the water was short-lived.
Yet it left a mark.
Being surrounded by her teammates, then watching them compete at the recent World Championships, reignited the fire.
With Ryan by her side, her parents and family nearby, Seebohm has the support to quite literally, go for gold.
“I’m going to have my baby and get back in the water and see if I can make that Paris Olympic team,” she says. “I’m pretty excited to put in some hard work and really see where that can take me,” she says. “My times are still so relevant so why not just give it a crack.
“I don’t want to add pressure to myself but I’m going to take it day by day, do the work and make sure that I can handle it.”
First step, she says, is making the team with the trials in June next year, eight months after she’s set to give birth.
The games are in July/August next year.
So, how will she do it?
“I don’t know,” she laughs.
“I feel like I’m going to be cooked 24/7 but I am reminding myself that it’s for a year and if it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen, but at least I’ll be able to go to sleep at night and not have to wonder what would have happened and know that I tried.” The plan is to start light training by October/November, she says, roughly six weeks after giving birth, with hopes her body remembers what it’s capable of.
“For me, swimming is like riding a bike, it’s going to feel weird for a bit, but then my body’s going to come back into shape and I’m going to work my butt off,” says Seebohm, who’s hoping to compete in the 200m backstroke.
“Obviously it’s not going to be easy, I know it’s not, so as long as I’m accepting of that. I know what it takes, I’ve been there before, and it’s just going to be different.”
Her triumphs will be felt nationwide, with the swimmer a formidable force on a journey that will no doubt capture and inspire fans everywhere.
Despite her goal to just make the team, her hopes are, as always, much higher.
“I not only want to make it but be able to swim a good time … if I’m kicking it with the best in the world, I’ll be pretty stoked.
“If I can go faster than Tokyo, or the same time as Tokyo, that would be awesome.”
As she prepares to welcome her little one, hold her child in her arms and ride the highs and lows of motherhood, whatever happens next, she’s already more powerful than ever.
“Anyone has it in them to try,” she says with a grin. “If it shows women out there that you don’t have to give up on your dream then I would love that.”
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