Cate CAMPBELL

Australia

Swimming

Olympic Medals

Games Participations4

First Olympic GamesBeijing 2008

Year of Birth1992

Social Media

Biography

Often regarded as the best relay swimmer Australia has ever produced, Cate Campbell boasts six medals - four gold, one silver and one bronze - in relay events at the Olympic Games. She also has two individual Olympic medals to her name.

Cate Campbell was born in Malawi on May 20, 1992, and was the eldest among four siblings. Her parents, Eric, an accountant, and Jenny, a nurse, were from South Africa.

While still very young, Cate was taught to swim by her mother. The seeds planted in the Campbell family home’s pool in Malawi blossomed when the Campbell clan moved to Australia in 2001. She took up competitive swimming and there was no looking back

She competed at the Australian Youth Olympic Festival 2007 in Sydney and won two gold medals - one in the 50m freestyle and the other as a member of the 400m freestyle relay team.

Cate made her Olympic debut at Beijing 2008 at the age of 16 and won two bronze medals on her maiden Summer Games outing. She managed a podium finish in the women’s 50m freestyle and the 4x100m freestyle relay, alongside Libby Trickett, Alice Mills and Melanie Schlanger.

It only marked the beginning of a storied Olympic career for the Australian swimmer. She won a hat-trick of gold medals in the women’s 4x100m relay event at London 2012, Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020. Her younger sister Bronte was her team-mate in Rio and Tokyo.

Cate’s other Olympic medals include a gold in the women’s 4×100m medley at Tokyo 2020 and a silver in the same event at Rio. Her second individual Olympic medal came at Tokyo, courtesy of a bronze medal in the women’s 100m freestyle.

The Australian also holds an enviable tally at the World Championships with 12 medals - four golds, five silvers and three bronze.

She was the women’s 100m freestyle world champion in 2013, a two-time gold medal winner in the women’s 4x100m freestyle in 2015 and 2019 and a part of the world champion 4x100m mixed medley Australian team in 2019. Cate’s first world championships medal, meanwhile, was a 50m freestyle bronze in 2009.

Cate Campbell has held several world records at different points in her career and still holds the world record (50.25s) in short course women’s 100m freestyle. The Australian swimmer has the second-fastest time after Sweden’s Sarah Sjöström in the long course variant of the event.

She also holds the standing Olympic records, as part of Australian swimming teams, in the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay (3:29.69 at Tokyo 2020) and 4x100m medley relay (3:51.60 at Tokyo 2020). Cate is also the Australian national record holder in the women’s 50m freestyle event, courtesy of the 23.78-second gold medal-winning swim at the Commonwealth Games 2018 in Gold Coast.

The CWG has been another competition that has seen Cate Campbell return with rich hauls. She has won six gold medals and two silvers in her two appearances in the multi-sport event in 2014 and 2018.

In 2018, Cate Campbell was diagnosed with stage one melanoma, a type of skin cancer, that developed in a mole she had had her whole life and had to get it removed. She has been an active advocate for skin cancer awareness since.

Cate Campbell was also one of the flagbearers for Australia at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics Opening Ceremony alongside basketball player Patty Mills.

Her quest to become the first Australian to swim at five Olympics came to an end after she was unable to make the cut for the Paris 2024 at the Australian Swimming Trials in Brisbane.

"I had hoped for the fairytale ending and it's what I had worked for and what I felt I was capable of, and unfortunately my body just said no,” Campbell said after the trials. "I came out and I gave it everything… unfortunately it wasn't meant to be."