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Rising Australian swim star Olivia Wunsch’s coach Mikaela Pattinson reflects on her success

Rising swim star Olivia Wunsch almost induced labour in her 39-weeks pregnant coach with her thrilling swim in the women’s 4x100m relay at the World Championships. Now, one of the rising stars of Australian swimming has history in her sights.

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Sydney teenager Olivia Wunsch almost put her coach into early labor winning Australia’s first gold medal of the world titles, but there is nothing premature about the next generation coming through the ranks with NSW set to play a major role towards Brisbane’s 2032 Olympic Games.

Wunsch, 19, stole the show with her heroic final lap surge in the 4x100m freestyle relay final on Sunday night in a coming of age moment for Australia’s fastest ever teenager.

In fairness Wunsch was already on the radar, a five-time gold medallist at the 2023 world juniors including the 50m and 100m freestyle double, she was also a relay heat swimmer at last year’s Paris Olympic Games.

Olivia Wunsch celebrates leading Australia to gold.
Olivia Wunsch celebrates leading Australia to gold.

But eyeballing an Olympic champion such as Torri Huske of the US and coming out on top is a moment that captured the imagination of an Australian public who are searching for new names to replace the likes of retired stars Emma McKeon and Cate Campbell.

Wunsch will reload for the individual 100m freestyle heats on Thursday, and 50m freestyle on Saturday, her 39-weeks pregnant coach Mikaela Pattinson hoping those races are less stressful than the relay finish.

“I was screaming and jumping so I was a bit worried (I might go into labor) but no, it’s still in there,” she said.

“She’s not one to ever give up … I was quietly confident but once I saw the legs and I just knew like everything changed in the water and I knew she was going to come home very well.”

Pattinson says the experience of being on the Paris Olympic team with the likes of McKeon and Bronte Campbell served as a major motivator for Wunsch to keep building her career.

“That taste definitely made her excited,” Pattinson said.

“She’s gone on to make individual events this year but she obviously wants her name in that history book as well and she’s willing to do everything for that.”

Mollie O'Callaghan, Meg Harris, Milla Jansen and Olivia Wunsch of Team Australia celebrate.
Mollie O'Callaghan, Meg Harris, Milla Jansen and Olivia Wunsch of Team Australia celebrate.

Perhaps the biggest impact of Wunsch’s success is not just on the medal tally, but the inspiration she’ll be providing for hundreds of kids coming through the Carlile Swimming Club based in Ryde in Sydney’s north.

In April this year Carlile produced the biggest shock of the last decade, ending the 11-year reign of Brisbane’s all-powerful St Peters Western swim club run as national age club champions.

That SPW squad, firstly under the guidance of Michael Bohl and now Dean Boxall, is responsible for more Olympic champions than any other nursery in Australia.

Now Carlile, which was started by the legendary Forbes Carlile and is now led by head coach Chris Nesbit with Pattinson guiding the junior program from which Wunsch just graduated, is the No.1 club in the country with a view of producing 2032 Olympic champions.

Coming through the ranks are the likes of national age champions Charlotte Lim, Harrison Tancred, Issy Mulcahy and Lexi Mulcahy.

“We’ve definitely got 2032 in our mind,” Pattinson, who started at Carlile after covid in 2021, said.

“From the moment we started down there our project was 2032 Olympics and you know we’ve been very fortunate to have Liv there and sort of kick off the campaign with Paris 2024 and then and then hopefully LA 2028 but we’re doing our best to really improve the performance across Australian swimming at Australian age group level and hopefully that’ll transfer in the years to come.”

Todd Balym
Todd BalymCodes Editor

Todd Balym is the Codes team editor leading the team of reporters covering all the non-footy sports. He is an award-winning journalist with more than 20 years experience in media and covered major sporting events around the world including three Olympic Games.

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Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/olympics/rising-australian-swim-star-olivia-wunschs-coach-mikaela-pattinson-reflects-on-her-success/news-story/14efcbee320926154f4d14343db4ed33