Brianna Throssell, by her own admission, was “a young kid who had no idea what she was doing”.
Throssell burst onto the scene in March 2015, posting the then fastest 200-metre butterfly time in the world that year. The rising star from Subiaco had the world at her feet.
But now she struggles to remember just how many times she has walked away from that event. Countless is the easiest way to sum it up. And tears? Throssell shed plenty along the away.
“I was young and fearless, and I just had nothing to worry about,” Throssell said. “When I really started training for it and focusing on it, I just forgot how to race it.”
So, when the 26-year-old takes a second to think about the 100m and 200m butterfly bronze medals she won at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, she says it’s more than she could have hoped for.
Now Throssell, part of Australia’s star-studded Dolphins outfit taking on Team USA in the Duel in the Pool at the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre this weekend, will shift her focus to the 100m butterfly on the road to the Paris Olympics in 2024.
Brianna Throssell’s best may be yet to come as she shifts her focus in the pool.Credit:Getty
“The 200m fly has always been a big mental battle,” she said. “I’m not back where those times were in 2015 and 2016, that’s for sure but, for me, it’s just about getting in the water and not panicking because that’s what I’d do.
“I reflect back on the times I did, and wonder why when I’m training that much better, and I’m such a more mature athlete now – with the work I’ve put behind me and what my body has gone through – I just don’t understand why the racing doesn’t really replicate that.
“It’s something I’m going to work towards in the future. I’m not saying I won’t swim the 200m fly, but I spent so many years focusing on that one event. I’m just trying to stay as versatile as I can.
“If I feel like racing the 200m fly, then I will. If it doesn’t fall in the program on a good day, then I won’t race it. I want to race the 200m fly every now and then at local meets, because I think it really helps the back end of my 100m fly.
“That was my tactic around it and why I swam it at trials, because it was on the last day and I had nothing else on. I was like, ‘I’ll just race it to help me in the 100m’, and I ended up doing OK in it. I raced it at Commonwealth Games and walked away with a bronze which is exciting.”
Throssell was part of Australia’s gold medal-winning 4x100m medley relay team in Tokyo, where she also claimed a pair of relay bronze medals and featured in a 200m butterfly final.
Now she is poised to join Dean Boxall’s stable – alongside Ariarne Titmus, Elijah Winnington, Kiah Melverton and Mollie O’Callaghan – desperate to unlock her potential in the 100m butterfly and freestyle events with an eye on Australia’s relay teams.
“That was why I wanted to continue my freestyle work, to be a part of the 4×100 and 4×200 relays,” Throssell said. “Relays in Australia are a huge part, and it’s always such an honour to be a part of the relays, so I definitely want to be pursuing those.
“I’ll be training under Dean starting this season, which will be really exciting. There are some awesome freestylers there, so I think my freestyle will increase a little bit.
“The squad at St Peters, it’s incredible. They’ve got amazing athletes there. It’s an honour to be training alongside Ariarne, Elijah, Kiah. It will be a really awesome squad to be a part of.”
