The making for Qld swim teen giant-killer Mollie O’Callaghan

She has just beaten Olympic Games champion Ariarne Titmus and now a Queensland swim teen giant-killer reveals her big plans for 2022.

She has just beaten Olympic champion Ariarne Titmus at the state titles and is coming off the dizzy heights of Tokyo Olympic Games debut gold medals.

Now 17-year-old Mollie O’Callaghan has set her sights even further up the sporting mountain by circling as aims individual and starting relay roles at both the 2022 world titles and Commonwealth Games.

O’Callaghan said beating her club mate Titmus, the 200m and 400m Olympic Games champion, at the state titles last week was “pretty cool” but had to be put into perspective.

“I didn’t think too much about beating Arnie to be honest before the race,’’ she said.

“Afterwards it was pretty cool. I thought ‘like, sweet’.

“But I just wanted to personally see how I can go in that race and how close I can go to my PB because it has been such a long, awkward break, coming back and transitioning from the Olympics.’’

Mollie O'Callaghan back to school at St Peters Lutheran returning from the Olympics with 2 Gold and a Bronze medal. PICTURE: Brad Fleet

“We (Titmus and her) have both been on a very long break but it is pretty cool to know that coming off a break with no taper, that I can be that close (within a second) to a PB and I feel like I can do so much more.’’

Far more satisfying for O’Callaghan was rising to the occasion a few months earlier at the Olympics to swim personal best freestyle times of 53.08 seconds (100m) and 1.55:11 (200m) in heat relay swims at the Games.

O’Callaghan, whose first ever race was as a fill-in at the Greenbank State School pool, said achieving those PB marks was an achievement in a year which was “a little bit of an emotional roller coaster’’.

Swimmer Mollie O'Callaghan back to school at St Peters Lutheran returning from the Olympics with 2 Gold and a Bronze medal. PICTURE: Brad Fleet

She started 2021 swimming for St Peters Lutheran College at the QGSSSA carnival, and then progressed to making her first senior Australian Dolphins side - at an Olympics no less.

O’Callaghan then returned from Tokyo to a guard of honour from her school mates with three medals draped around her neck - gold from the 4x100m freestyle and 4x100m medley teams, and bronze from the 4x200m freestyle podium finish.

But O’Callaghan initially had to overcome the disappointment of missing selection in the 4x100m freestyle final team.

Mollie O'Callaghan. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images)

She said that moment sapped her of some confidence.

But the making of Mollie came in the next race - the 4x200m relay swim - when she rebounded from adversity to break the world junior 200m freestyle record.

“I kind of turned it into a positive thing,’’ O’Callaghan said.

“It showed I can recover well when something did not go my way personally,’’ O’Callaghan said.

“I know I can perform on an international stage under pressure and recover well when something (missing 4x100m final selection) did not go my way personally.

“And I think I enjoyed watching the race (finals) and learning from them (the starting team) to be honest.

“It was only my first open Australian team and I did put a lot of pressure on myself to get to that final stage. But in a way I was just there to learn.’’

O’Callaghan said her heat swim efforts at the Games had given her a taste and now she wanted to make the world title and Commonwealth Games teams and challenge for both individual race and a starting relay position.

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“I am looking forward to hopefully making my next team and hopefully being on the podium in a relay team,’’ she said.

To think it all started for O’Callaghan on a Friday night at the Greenbank State School when she went to watch her sister Sophie swim.

Mollie was not a swimmer but race organisers were short in a race and asked Mollie if she could swim.

So with her dad walking alongside the pool to make sure she did not sink, she won the race.

“We did not even know if she could swim 25m, anyway she jumped in and won,’’ said mum Toni.

“That is how it all started.

“Nick (dad) had to walk on the side of the pool in case she couldn’t make the 25m. But she did, so we said ‘okay, she can swim’.

And so started her journey to becoming an Olympian - and three medal Olympian to boot.

Originally published as The making for Qld swim teen giant-killer Mollie O’Callaghan