Olympian Sam Short opens up about the injury that ruined his Paris dreams

World champion swimmer Sam Short had a feeling his Paris campaign wouldn’t go to plan. Now he’s revealed the painful injury that ruined his Olympic dream.

Even before he got to Paris, Australian swim star Sam Short had a sinking feeling that his first Olympics wasn’t going to end the way he hoped.

Tipped to win at least a couple of medals in swimming’s endurance events after claiming gold (400m freestyle), silver (800m freestyle) and bronze (1500m freestyle) at the 2023 world championships, Short left the French capital empty-handed and heart broken.

In his own mind, he’s convinced he failed and let people down.

Of course he hadn’t, but that’s the mental demons champion swimmers often battle with.

The clock never lies and Short’s times at the Olympics were not as fast as his stunning performances from a year earlier, but there was a good reason.

He kept it a secret at the time because he didn’t want to sound like he was looking for excuses or detracting from anyone’s performances, but Short has been battling major injuries for the past year.

Sam Short has revealed his injury concerns across the Olympics. Picture: Speedo

Short at Bondi beach. Picture: Speedo

A legacy of all the hard training he’s done throughout the years, his right shoulder is in constant pain after he tore his subscapularis, causing tendinitis and tennis elbow.

“The whole year, every stroke, my shoulder and arm really hurt,” he said.

“When you do a thousand strokes a session and it hurts every stroke, that’s really taxing on the body. But a lot of distance swimmers get really bad shoulders eventually. If you ask any of the great swimmers they would probably attest to that but it’s really annoying and it can get quite painful.”

By mere mortal standards, Short’s performances at Paris were still impressive.

He finished fourth in the 400m freestyle final in a time that would have won him the gold at the last Olympics at Tokyo in 2021, and would have beaten Ian Thorpe for gold at Athens in 2004.

But he missed the final for the 1500m and the 800m, which was won by Ireland’s Daniel Wiffen in a time slower than Short’s PB, and was left to rue what could have been.

“I was definitely gutted, you work so hard to get to the Olympics, and so to not perform at your best is just really frustrating,” he said.

“I felt like I’d let people down, which upon reflection, I didn’t let anyone down. I was there racing and I still tried my best but at that moment I was pretty emotional because my dream is to become an Olympic gold medallist and I can’t let that opportunity slip by.”

Sam Short won three medals at the 2023 world championships.

Still just starting out on the global stage, Short has plenty of time on his side. He’ll only be 24 at the next Olympics in Los Angeles and 28 when Brisbane 2032 rolls around.

At his best, he’s a phenomenal swimmer with a high IQ, so he’s already accepted what went wrong in Paris and started plotting ways to ensure there’s no repeat.

“I’ve had a lot of time to reflect since Paris. I had a good break off and mentally, I’ve kind of reflected on it in a better way,” he said.

“It could have gone one or two ways, like ‘this sucks’ but I think I kind of went down the route of ‘what went wrong, what went right’ and what I could improve on and the last couple months I’ve been trying to fix those problems that probably stirred up earlier in the year.”

Short’s not the first swimmer to have a shoulder problem. But his determination to succeed at the Olympics meant he was caught in two worlds, so never took the rest he needed.

“I was still training well, I was on a lot of anti-inflammatory medication to try and get through the workload.” he said.

“But I definitely buried myself too hard in work instead of probably taking the time out to recover properly.

“I kind of panicked and started training even harder so that kind of probably led to not the best performances.

“Coming off ‘23, it probably was a failure. It was a bit frustrating and a kick in the teeth.”

Normally one of the chirpiest members of the Australian swim team, Short was unusually subdued after Paris. He didn’t speak to the media after any of his races and kept a low profile when he got home, surrounding himself with his close friends and family as he tried to soak in what happened.

In his first sit-down interview since Paris, at a Speedo safety masterclass at Bondi Beach, Short said his family had helped him regain his motivation for swimming.

“I didn’t want to talk about it as much,” he said. “They kept telling me they were proud of me, fourth at the Olympics, they’d give their left leg for it, but they know I want more and I’m better than fourth place.

“I’ve swum faster in the past, so they were disappointed for me but not in me. I kind of switched off from swimming for a couple of weeks and then got back on the horse.”

World champion

Foregoing surgery, Short has been receiving PRP (Platelet-rich plasma) injections to help recover, while taking a slower approach to training, with his first big goal next year’s world championships in Singapore then LA in 2028.

“I definitely questioned whether I want to train another four years if my arm’s going to hurt every stroke,” he said. “But I realised I want to get back, I love racing, I love winning. They’re kind of the moments I live for.

“I was a little bit angry after the Olympics, but I definitely just stepped back and realised at the end of day, it is Olympic sport.

“I’ve got family members battling cancer, I’ve got people battling stuff every day of the week so if I’m just walking around moping about coming fourth at the Olympics, I’ve got to pull my head in and realise I chose to be there

“So I definitely don’t feel sorry for myself. Yeah, I was unlucky, but that kind of happens in the sport. All the greats have battled through adversity to become who they are so I got angry and upset, obviously, but there are bigger things in life and I’ll be back.”

Originally published as Olympian Sam Short opens up about the injury that ruined his Paris dreams