Rio 2016: Aussie sisters overcome adversity to win gold and make Olympic swimming history
CATE Campbell can’t remember when the dream started, only that it was real and now it’s been achieved.
Olympics
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CATE Campbell can’t remember when the dream started, only that it was real and now it’s been achieved.
Cate Campbell and her younger sister Bronte Campbell have stood on the top step of the Olympic Games podium with a gold medal draped from their necks as champions of the 4x100m freestyle relay with teammates Emma McKeon and Brittany Elmslie.
For Cate and Brittany, it was their second Olympic gold medal after winning in London four years ago.
For Bronte and Emma, it’s sweet reward for daring to dream of such a moment when they were heartbroken to miss this team four years ago.
Each swimmer has been pushed to the brink at some point in their career and could have easily walked away from the pool, but now they’re Olympic champions.
The Campbell sisters have both battled shoulder injuries in recent years, not to mention serious illnesses six years ago. Elmslie missed last year with a breast cancer scare while McKeon contemplated never swimming again after she missed that 2012 Olympic team.
But now they’re gold medallists and world record holders and for the Campbell sisters they are the first siblings in swimming history to share a gold medal.
For them the journey started 15 years ago when as little girls that just moved to Australia from Malawi they walked into Simon Cusack’s Indooroopilly swim school for lessons.
Cusack has been their coach from day one to today, nursing them through horrendous runs of injury, illness and setbacks that at times felt like they’d never fully conquer.
“I think it was one of those unspoken dreams, one of those ones buried really deep down in your heart because it kind of feels like a dream that is almost too good to be true and almost couldn’t be a reality,” Cate Campbell said.
“To have it a reality tonight is incredible, one of those moments I think we will never forget.”
It was an emphatic victory that, when you look at the way Australia stacked their relay team with the two fastest women in the world the Campbell sisters racing last, they were never going to lose.
McKeon, who qualified for today’s 100m butterfly just one hour earlier, led off with in 53.41s while Elmslie kept them on the tails of the USA with her own time of 53.12s before Bronte surged to the lead with a 52.15s split and Cate anchored them home with a split time of 51.97s.
When they hit the wall in a staggering 3:30.65, they’d broken their own world record set at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and carved themselves a spot in history.
“Definitely my favourite race ever, in an Olympic final with my sister and two girls I have known since I was 12 or 13 years old and a gold medal and a world record,” Bronte Campbell said.
“You can’t ask for me. Every kid dreams of it, it’s what we’ve always hoped for.”
It was Australia’s second gold medal of the night and for Dolphins coach Jacco Verhaeren it was a performance that stamped this relay team – and the Campbell sisters – in a special place in swimming history.
“This relay team is really exceptional,” he said.
“When you have the Campbell girls, you know that something special is going to come but still you have to execute on the day.
“They broke the world record, it’s the best relay team I’ve ever seen indeed.”
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