Swimmer Jack Cartwright overcomes shoulder surgery to win
Jack Cartwright’s shoulder is “held together with three pins” but he still won silver in Paris. His mother Michelle chronicles his incredible journey from a small Central Queensland pool deck to the top of the swimming world.
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Olympic silver medallist Jack Cartwright was destined to be a swimmer.
“He just grew up on the pool deck,” mum Michelle said, recalling how her youngest son made his first appearance at a club meeting in Biloela in a baby capsule when he was just eight days old.
“We just thought this kid doesn’t have a chance to do anything else because we’ve got a family of swimmers.”
Michelle and husband Brad have been there for every step of Jack’s journey, from his first learn-to-swim class at age three to realising the ultimate goal of an Olympic medal.
They were poolside in Paris when Jack won silver with the Australian men’s 4x100m relay on day one of the swimming program.
Jack took the team out, followed by Flynn Southam and Kai Taylor, before Kyle Chalmers unleashed a blistering final leg to propel the Aussies into second.
Michelle said it was incredible to watch it all unfold.
She and Brad worked their way down the grandstand to be a little closer for the medal presentation, where Jack blew kisses up to them and they, of course, reciprocated.
“It was just a totally wonderful experience,” she said.
“We’ve travelled with Jack wherever he’s swum around the world, which has been an absolute blessing, but we can’t compare this to anything else.
“We have to keep pinching ourselves to say this is actually the Olympics, this is something he’s dreamed of ever since he was a little boy.”
But with the highs have come lows, the most challenging of them in the lead-up to the Tokyo Olympics.
It’s during her emotional account of those events that Michelle makes a startling revelation.
“Jack’s shoulder is held together with three pins from the top to the bottom,” she said.
“In 2021, it was the worst case scenario when we realised that, over time, the rotator cuff had torn from 12 o’clock to 7 o’clock position.
“It was something we had to address straight away.
“Even though he swam at the Olympic trials in 2021, they knew he wasn’t going to make the team but he still didn’t want to give up.
“While his teammates, including his girlfriend Abbey Harkin, were at orientation to go to the Olympics, we were researching surgeons and being fast-tracked into surgery.”
Michelle said that despite the heartbreak of missing Olympic selection and the daunting prospect of months of rehabilitation, Jack’s focus never wavered.
“Not once did he say I don’t want to swim any more,” she said.
“Most people at the age of 22 could well have said they’re done.
“But he showed such courage and persistence and thought this isn’t going to beat me because I haven’t achieved what I want to achieve.”
What followed was a carefully managed 18-month rehabilitation program which saw him back to his best at the world championships in Budapest in 2022.
“For Jack to bounce back and be able to swim at this elite level was incredible,” Michelle said.
“Since then, he’s swum in two world championships and medalled and has a world record in a relay.
“He would love an individual spot and that might come one day but he’s very much a team player.
“He’s so humble, he’s never complained, he just keeps trying to realise his dreams and shows 100 percent commitment.”
That summation of Jack’s character was very similar to the one offered by his childhood coach Caroline Hayes, who delighted in his Olympic success.
Jack started swimming at age three with Gail Walker, who ran the Biloela Swim Centre before Paul and Annette Connolly took over.
Michelle was a teacher by profession and became a learn-to-swim teacher at that time.
She chokes back tears as she recounts one of her fondest stories prompted by a recent phone call with Paul.
“One of my lovely friends used to look after Jack on the days I taught Prep at St Joseph’s next door and then she would drop him at the pool,” Michelle said.
“I’d give him a hug and he would go and sit out the back in the office of the pool.
“We used to call him Jack out the back because he used to sit there until it was time for his swimming lesson.
“I was only talking to Paul the other day and he said ‘It’s a long way from him being Jack out the back now’.”
When the Biloela pool closed, Michelle would embark on a three-hour round trip three days a week to ferry Jack and two of his brothers Sam and Henry to lessons with Caroline in Gladstone.
She did that for six months before the family relocated to Tannum Sands.
Michelle said that when Jack was 15, he told her he wanted to get into a big program in Brisbane.
She said his “big break” came when the talented teenager was identified by decorated coach Michael Bohl from the renowned St Peters Western Swim Club.
The Cartwrights moved to Brisbane in early 2014 where Jack would start working with his current coach Dean Boxall.
“He trusts Dean immensely,” Michelle said.
“We call Dean the third parent in the relationship because he has really watched Jack grow up and he’s been there with him and us all the way.
“We’re so fortunate that when we left a regional program and landed in the city Jack’s been so well looked after and supported.
“He looks bigger and stronger than he’s ever been and he’s happy, so that’s wonderful.”
Michelle said that as an elite athlete, Jack had a “surreal existence”.
“Even though he’s 25, he hasn’t experienced life as a lot of young people have.
“His life has been training, eating, sleeping, physio and whatever else his swimming requires.
“It’s a journey we’ve all been on and there was never one point in time where we thought we couldn’t do this.
“We’re a unit and that’s never going to change.”
Originally published as Swimmer Jack Cartwright overcomes shoulder surgery to win
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