Three-time Olympian Bronte Campbell has spent a good portion of her swimming career dealing with chronic pain and gritting her teeth through shoulder, neck, hip, elbow injuries and whatever other setbacks you can think of.
At one point, Campbell would grimace at the thought of going to dinner at a restaurant with friends because of the pain that came with sitting upright.
So of all the injuries to suffer on the eve of Australia’s Olympic swimming trials in Brisbane, a calf issue certainly wasn’t on Campbell’s bingo card.
Campbell is racing the clock to overcome an unexpected four-centimetre calf tear and qualify for her fourth and final Olympic Games.
“I hadn’t really thought about doing my calf to be honest,” Campbell said. “It’s a bit more of a serious injury than I first thought and taking a bit longer than I first thought, but it’s all good.”
After the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Campbell spent 18 months out of the pool and seriously contemplated retirement, but in April last year confirmed her quest to make it onto the Dolphins team one last time in Paris.
Three-time Olympian Bronte Campbell is hoping to make the Australian team for Paris.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
The former 100m freestyle world champion and triple Olympic medallist is now based in Canberra, but returns home to Sydney every month or so for a visit.
Campbell has changed her stroke – “if the saying is that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, then it turns out you can” – and sacrificed the security of a job in the real world to pursue the Olympic dream one more time.
“There’s something to be said for being able to have a payslip and know what your income will be from month to month. Swimming is not really like that,” Campbell said.
Campbell, a freestyle specialist who will compete in the 50m and 100m freestyle events at Australia’s Olympic trials, starting on June 10, was in the gym pushing a sled last month when she felt a twinge in her calf.
Bronte Campbell at the Australian Open Swimming Championships on the Gold Coast last month. Credit: Getty
It is an injury more commonly associated with footballers than swimmers, and it’s not one without complications. Diving off the blocks and turning at each end of the pool can be painful with an injured calf.
Campbell, who turned 30 on Tuesday, still entered the Australian swimming championships last month on the Gold Coast, but used a double foot start on the blocks – two feet at the front, instead of one ahead of the other – to limit the impact on her tender calf.
After the race, Campbell withdrew from the meet, sparking concerns that her last Olympic campaign might be in tatters.
“It’s healing up,” she said. “It’ll definitely be fine by the time trials come around.
“Is it ideal to have injuries leading into major meets? Probably not. But it’s something that I’ve done for my whole life, so I don’t really get too worried about it. If you’re writing a textbook preparation, I’ve definitely seen that that doesn’t have to be the case to enable performance.
“Because trials are so close, the main concern is that you’re not doing any more damage.”
Speak to anyone about Campbell and they will tell you she is optimism personified.
That certainly shone through when she suffered the injury. Campbell was adamant her injury would only keep her out of the pool for a matter of days, despite walking around with a limp. An MRI scan showed the tear was bigger than first thought.
The difference this time, compared to Olympic trials in 2012, 2016 and 2021, is that Campbell knows she has nothing to lose. She understands how difficult it is for a swimmer at her age to go faster than ever before and is at peace with the possibility of not making the team for Paris.
“It’s a very freeing mindset to be in where you know that your worth and your legacy in the sport is bigger than one race,” Campbell said. “It’s a really nice way to approach trials where it does really come down to one race and the weight of that can be quite daunting.
Australia’s women’s 4x100m women’s relay team in Tokyo, Bronte Campbell, Meg Harris, Emma McKeon and Cate Campbell, celebrate on the podium.Credit: AP
“I think when I started this journey, coming back into the pool, I genuinely had to want to do this regardless of the result. The actual chances of coming back and everything working and me swimming fast enough were pretty unknown and fairly slim. It’s not often that people take such big breaks and then get back to what their best was.
“I’m really aiming to be swimming my best, but because the chances are so slim, I had to want to do it regardless of whether I got there or not.”
Campbell faces a simple equation if she wants to make a fourth Olympics. She needs to finish in the top two of either the 50m or 100m freestyles and go under qualifying times, which stand at 24.67 seconds and 53.61 seconds respectively. Campbell’s personal bests are 24.12s and 52.27s, and she will need to go close to those to secure a spot for an individual race at the Olympics.
Bronte Campbell will compete in the 50m and 100m freestyle events at Australia’s Olympic trials next month. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
The other avenue of qualification is as a relay swimmer. A top-six finish in the 100m freestyle will be enough for Campbell to book her ticket to Paris, given Australia will take extra swimmers for relay heats.
Australia is blessed with depth in the 100m freestyle, with the likes of Emma McKeon, Mollie O’Callaghan, Shayna Jack and Meg Harris all vying for individual positions.
There is only one thing Campbell has battled more than injuries during her career – comparisons to her sister Cate.
Cate is also back in the pool, after an extended break, aiming to make Australia’s team for what would be her fifth Olympics.
The pair – as they have throughout their careers – will race against each other in Brisbane and there is the distinct possibility one might make it and the other won’t.
Bronte said she hadn’t given the scenario any thought.
“That’s going to sound callous or not true, but I actually don’t think a lot about results,” Campbell said. “I spend a lot of time thinking about what I need to do and the things that are important for me to control.
“Cate and I have been racing next to each other for so long. It is hard enough to know and predict what you yourself are going to do, let alone what someone else is going to do. In my head, I’ve not planned any scenarios beyond trials.”
Swimmers normally like to get their races out of the way early in competitions, but Campbell is fortunate that her two individual races aren’t scheduled until the final two days of trials.
She has a few extra days to get her calf 100 per cent right.
“I’m very, very happy with how my career has gone, but I do still want to keep having one last push and see what happens,” Campbell said.
“I was fairly certain that I was going to be done after Tokyo. I genuinely don’t see myself [swimming] four years from now gearing up for Los Angeles, but I have no idea what the future holds.”
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