Reaction to Cate Campbell’s 100m freestyle shock needs perspective
CATE Campbell missing a medal in the 100m freestyle was a shock, but the widespread reaction needs perspective, writes KIEREN PERKINS.
Olympics
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MORE world No. 1s and world record-holders get beaten at the Olympics than win which is a brutal fact so the rabid public response that there is some systemic flaw in our top swimmers in Rio is off the mark.
Cate Campbell missing a medal in the 100m freestyle final was a shock to me when I felt she was set up to win it but that widespread reaction needs perspective.
It’s not a case for the Department of Kneejerk Reactions to cry about turns and tapers, suddenly send everyone to a sports psychologist or flip the timing of Australia’s Olympics trials to mirror the Americans a month out from competition.
The first thing I’d say is that Cate absolutely nailed her relay gold medal swim and her heat and semi-final of the 100m freestyle so the weight of being the public face of the swim team for months didn’t show there.
The 100m final was the one she really, really wanted to win and the pressure to deliver got to her. She swam a bad race.
Whether or not she panicked after a poor start off the blocks in the final, it certainly threw her off following her game plan. The girl who was cruising and made it look easy in the semi suddenly had a much higher stroke rate and was pushing hard to get back into race.
She was more than a second off her world record of early July. It absolutely reinforced that the Olympics is about racing and staying in control which elevates even more what Kyle Chalmers was able to do in his first big men’s 100m.
Mitch Larkin’s silver in the 200m backstroke was some redemption for the two-time world champion, I don’t know what was off with Emily Seebohm and the Australian swim coach said there were no excuses with Cam McEvoy when he was outswum in the 100m final.
At the Olympics the whole world has put in an extra effort, what is at stake is so much more important and the nerves and risks are more elevated. Michael Klim, Sam Riley, Eamon Sullivan, James Magnussen, Susie O’Neill ... favourites get beaten at the Olympics.
Almost all our swimming favourites have missed individual gold and our bolts from the blue like Chalmers and Mack Horton have shaken up the pool. Amazing.
The music stopped for the swim team on this particular day when excitement stalled on visions of a six or seven gold medal campaign.
Compared to the 2012 London Olympics, three gold medals and a bunch of bronze and silver is still a really solid Games with Mack Horton and others still to swim. It still puts a youth-orientated team on new-era footing.
The comment that was most telling for me from Cate Campbell when she was trying to make sense of her emptiness in Rio was “please still love me back.”
The emotions were swirling around her but it was an indicator to me, certainly post-race, that she was very worried about the consequences of not performing the way she hoped and people just adoring “Cate the Swimmer”.
That can be one of the behaviours when perspective is lost and you have been caught up in this whirl that you are fighting for sheep stations.
While no one can deny this is the most important event Cate is ever going to compete in as a swimmer, it is swimming at the end of the day.
Before the Olympics, Cate made special mention of a line from the Cool Runnings movie about Jamaica’s bobsled team which competed at the 1988 Winter Olympic Games in Calgary.
She referenced the quote: “A gold medal is a wonderful thing but if you’re not enough without it you will never be enough with it.”
Maybe she was trying to talk herself into something she didn’t naturally have.
It might be the thing she has to think about working on but I would say Cate is a wonderful ambassador for swimming and such a reflection of the team’s excellent culture change.
Everyone is proud of the way she and sister Bronte have represented themselves.
They will be drained emotionally but just as they have supported each other through the highs they will support each through this tough period to make sense of what comes next.
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