For 39 days, Sam Short battled the bitter reality of having seen his Olympic dreams unravel in the pool.
A world champion in 2023, Short was Australia’s bright hope on night one in Paris, but faded to finish fourth in his favoured 400m freestyle event, just 0.14 seconds off the medals.
In the 800m and 1500m freestyle — events in which Short won silver and bronze, respectively, 12 months earlier at the world championships — the 20-year-old failed to even make the finals.
Failure is a strong word, but it’s how Short chose to describe his efforts in an Instagram post once he returned to Australia.
“In the eyes of myself and my team around me, we can all admit it was a ‘failure’,” Short wrote to his 12,000 followers.
As Ariarne Titmus, Kaylee McKeown and Mollie O’Callaghan celebrated gold medals, Short cut a dejected figure.
Sam Short finished a disappointing Paris 2024 campaign.Credit: Getty Images
It was even tougher to take given he’d made the bold call a few months earlier that he thought he could break the 400m and 1500m freestyle world records.
“I just wanted to clear the air. It was kind of getting rid of a burden,” Short said of his Instagram post.
“It just sucked. You dream your whole life about the Olympics and you miss out on the podium by, what, a fingernail? That’s upsetting.
“I definitely wasn’t myself in Paris. It was one of the lowest moments of my career, considering how hard I worked for it. It didn’t pan out the way I wanted it to.
“I didn’t really want to speak [to the media]. I kind of got in my head a little bit. I’ve definitely become mentally stronger over the last couple of months and done a lot of work with a sports psychologist.”
Short will be back in the water next week at the Australian swimming trials in Adelaide, hoping to qualify for the world championships in Singapore that start on July 27.
It was at last year’s Olympic trials in Brisbane when it first emerged that Short wasn’t at 100 per cent. He had been privately battling issues throughout the year.
In January, Short tore the subscapularis muscle in his shoulder and was managing tendonitis and tennis elbow. Every stroke through the water was a painful reminder of what he was up against.
Sam Short celebrates after winning gold in the opening race of the 2023 world championships in the men’s 400m freestyle.Credit: Getty
He then picked up gastro before trials, losing five kilograms in the process. He made the Dolphins Olympic team, but admits there was an element of panic.
Instead of resting, Short trained harder to make up for lost time — a decision that ultimately contributed to his struggles at the biggest moment of his career.
“I kind of just buried myself and ruined my immune system from that,” Short said. “I was going into trials wounded. You always go into those things thinking you’re going to be great. When you don’t, it’s a bit of a shock.
“If I’m doing 1000 strokes and eight kilometres a session, just to be fit enough for my races, that pain adds up through the whole week. It’s really taxing … and gets very annoying, very quickly.”
Short is at peace with what happened in Paris. Luck did not go his way, and he has already achieved much in a short career.
Not once did he consider pulling out, despite knowing deep down his chances of success were slim — even if he finished less than a second behind 400m freestyle gold medallist Lukas Martens.
“I know other people that would do crazy stuff just for the opportunity I earned,” Short said. “You’ve always got to step up.”
With his shoulder now feeling “really strong”, Short returned to the water. Instead of racing at Australia’s national championships in April, Short found himself in Brazil, of all places, after a stint competing in the United States.
His times were impressive, coming off a heavy block of altitude training. It bodes well for Monday night, when Short will race Olympic silver medallist Elijah Winnington in what will be one of the standout showdowns across six days of racing.
Short’s 400m freestyle time of three minutes, 43.84 seconds in April is the third-fastest in the world this year.
“I’m just so excited to race,” Short said. “I’ve been training really well and I love the Adelaide pool. There’s no way I won’t be racing the best in the world again.”
Titmus, who will be commentating for Channel Nine in Adelaide, says it’s a hard race to call.
“I think there’s hunger from both sides,” Titmus said. “Although Elijah won a silver medal at the Olympics, which is outstanding, I believe he has more to give. Sam, I believe, has that hunger there that maybe Elijah doesn’t. It’ll be a wonderful race.”
The Australian swimming trials in Adelaide will be shown live and exclusively on Channel 9 and 9Now from June 9-14.
