"It's a perfect way to exit the pool" - Cate Campbell makes emotional farewell after missing out on Paris 2024
For the first time in two decades, Cate Campbell will not be on the Australian Olympic swimming team.
The sprint freestyle specialist ended her career in her hometown of Brisbane on Saturday (15 June) by finishing seventh in the 50m freestyle - a race won by Shayna Jack - at the Australian Olympic Trials for Paris 2024. On Friday, the four-time Olympic gold medallist refused to talk to the media after missing out on the 100m freestyle final by one one-hundredth of a second.
At the end of her last race, her fellow competitors all went over to commiserate with - and congratulate - the 32-year-old who has been a mainstay for the Dolphins since she made her Olympic debut at Beijing 2008 aged 16.
In a tearful post-race interview, Campbell said, "It's not the fairytale ending that I had hoped for, that I had worked so hard for. The mind was willing but the body was a little bit lacking, but that's sport and that's why we love it so much.
"That moment with the girls in the water was so incredibly special, and I'm just so thankful for every single person who I've met along this incredible journey."
"This is the end, and it's a perfect way to exit the pool," she told ABC. "My first major competition was in this swimming pool, maybe over 20 years ago. I warmed up in this pool just behind us for the first time as a nine-year-old. Tonight I warmed up in it as a 32-year-old. I got to walk out and swim in a swimming pool that I've competed in so many times, that I've qualified for teams in, that I've broken world records in.
"I looked up at the stand at the spot where my dad used to buy every newspaper under the sun because he had a swimming carnival to sit through for two days. This place and this sport has embedded itself so deeply into me that I just feel really, really privileged that, if it was going to end, it was going to end this way in front of this crowd and the people who I love."
Cate Campbell - Australian swimming icon
At Beijing 2008, Campbell won bronze in the 50m freestyle and the 4x100m freestyle relay. Four years later, she swam the second leg as Australia improved to gold at London 2012.
At Rio 2016, younger sister Bronte was alongside her as Australia's women retained their 4x100m freestyle title. Five years later at the postponed Tokyo 2020 Games, the siblings helped Australia complete a hat-trick of titles before Cate won 100m freestyle bronze and then anchored the women's 4x100m medley relay team to glory for her fourth Olympic gold.
At the World Championships, she won the 100m freestyle title in Barcelona in 2013 and three more relay golds. Campbell also secured six Commonwealth Games golds and nine Pan Pacific titles in her haul of 37 major international medals.
Emma McKeon was first to greet Campbell after finishing third in the 50 free final. She said, "Just sharing that with Cate and, like, she's inspired all of us... She's been at the top of the sprint freestyle game for, I don't even know how long, longer than I've been swimming, probably."
Reigning world 100m and 200m freestyle champion Mollie O'Callaghan, who finished sixth, said, "Cate has really set up this for a lot of us women. She set the standards, and she's one of the most inspirational women in and out of the water."
While Campbell missed out on a fifth Games, Bronte - who was fifth in the 50 free - will be going to Paris 2024 to match big sister's tally of four. "You know, she watched me at my first Olympics from the couch, and I'll get to do the same for her last Olympics," said Cate Campbell.