Swimmer Cate Campbell broke the world 100 metres freestyle record over the weekend, a performance that may have been missed or at least overlooked as we attempted to figure out the results of the Federal election.
Campbell swam the 100 metres in a time of 52.06 at the pre Rio swim meet, and became the first Australian swimmer to break a record in seven years.
She took 0.01 seconds off the record, previously held by Germany’s Britta Steffen who was wearing a ‘supersuit’ when she swam the time in 2009 – suits that have since been banned.
Campbell’s performance came in stark contrast to other performances by Australian athletes in recent days, most notably tennis player Nick Kyrgios who lashed out at players and his own support teams competing in Wimbledon over the last week.
At the upcoming Olympic Games, Campbell said she wants to join Dawn Fraser and Jodie Henry in winning gold in the 100 metres freestyle.
Campbell proved to reporters she is feeling cool and calm about the competition, and is as humble as always. “I still can’t believe it’s happened,” she said. “It was a really controlled smart swim, it’s what I’ve been working towards doing for the past year or so putting together a smart swim.”
She said that while she’s chasing a gold medal in Rio, she always keeps a quote from the movie Cool Runnings in mind: “A gold medal is a wonderful thing but if you’re not enough without it you will never be enough with it.’
The 24-year-old said her sister and fellow swimmer Bronte cooked her a celebratory breakfast following the swim, after she had to sit out of the meet due to illness. “Bronte had gone to bed, but she made me breakfast this morning which was the best way possible to say congratulations, with food,’’ she told the Courier Mail.
Fox Sports reports that the Australian swimmers are “sitting pretty”, especially compared with the performance of Americans at their own trials last week. We currently have seven swimmers ranked number one in the world, with plenty of women to watch in the coming months.
So in case you did miss Campbell’s performance, you can watch her reaction in the below – which was just as good as the swim.