All smiles once again but is Bronte Campbell OK playing support act to star sister Cate?

IT was a half-smile delivered following Saturday night’s women’s 50m freestyle final at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, won by comeback queen Cate Campbell, with younger sister Bronte taking silver.

Bronte Campbell and Cate Campbell following the women's 50m freestyle final.

IT was a glib throwaway line delivered with a half-smile, but it spoke volumes.

It was following Saturday night’s women’s 50m freestyle final at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, won by comeback queen Cate Campbell, with younger sister Bronte taking silver.

As the pair approached poolside interviewer Nathan Templeton they automatically walked to their set positions — Bronte was closest to the camera to field the first preliminary questions before the spotlight shone on Cate, the star of the show.

“You girls must be getting used to this,” Templeton quipped.

“Yes, said Bronte. “But it would be nice if the order changed once in a while.”

LIVE BLOG: Commonwealth Games day four

EXCLUSIVE: Sevens skipper thought Stannard was dead

WEIGHTLIFTER: I made Cronk look good in schoolboy footy

Bronte Campbell and Cate Campbell following the women's 50m freestyle final.

Watching the Campbell sisters in action at these Games it is hard not to wonder what must be going through Bronte’s mind as time after time she has put in remarkable performances, only to be considered a virtual support act to her big sister.

Even after the 4x100m freestyle relay, in which the four Australian swimmers combined to produce the fastest time in history, the post-race talk was all about Cate’s stunning return to form after the trauma of a disappointing Rio Olympics.

One could almost imagine a little voice inside Bronte’s head screaming, “Hang on, what about me? I bombed in Rio too; doesn’t anyone care how I’m feeling?”

If that’s the case, she hides it well. If there has ever been any sibling rivalry between the pair we’re yet see it.

Bronte scored a rare win over Cate in Kazan in 2015.

At the end of the 50m freestyle final the scene was one we have witnessed countless times: Cate touched the wall first, Bronte a fraction of a second behind, they lifted their goggles to check their times, then swam into each other’s arms.

It’s no act. They are genuinely close, although in a sporting sense they are swimming’s answer to tennis greats Venus and Serena Williams, with one’s greatest success often coming at the expense of the other.

And in the case of the Campbells, other than for one brief shining moment, it has all been one-way traffic.

It was at the 2015 World Championships in Kazan, and Bronte turned the tables, winning both the 100m freestyle, with Cate third, and the 50m freestyle, in which Cate finished fourth.

The media didn’t miss the significance of the achievement, the headlines proclaiming: ‘Bronte Campbell out of Cate’s shadow’, and ‘Second fiddle no more’.

“I have spent a very long time in Cate’s shadow. She casts a pretty big one,” Bronte said at the time. “I just had to be patient. It helps that Cate doesn’t walk around the house wearing her medals and talking about how much better she is than me.”

The view from the top was short-lived. The next year Cate broke the world record for the 100m freestyle.

This week the girls’ mother Jenny stressed that they are very different personalities who achieve in their own way.

“I have always said that swimming found Cate and with Bronte it was the other way around,” she said.

A star herself, Bronte has been in Cate’s shadow for much of her career.

“At first Cate didn’t really have to work at it. She started swimming and it came very easily to her almost from the first time she was in the water. She was just good at it and enjoyed it. It was only as she improved and could see the rewards that she started to put the effort in.

“Bronte was always focused. She always had the drive to do well.

“That’s just how they are. It is the same with their studies. Cate isn’t 100 per cent sure of what she wants to do. She has changed her mind a few times, but Bronte has it all worked out. She has a plan. Bronte always knows what she wants to do.”

And tonight, that’s to be interviewed by Nathan Templeton — last.

//////

Originally published as All smiles once again but is Bronte Campbell OK playing support act to star sister Cate?