For four days Australia’s wonder women ruled the Paris pool, winning four Olympic gold medals, but on the fifth day the world struck back. In the biggest shock of the Olympic competition Australia’s super sprinters were shut out of the medals in the women’s 100m freestyle as speedsters from three continents combined to remind the Australian team that this is more than a domestic affair.
In an exceptionally close race, Sweden’s world record-holder Sarah Sjöström finally triumphed in the blue riband sprint at her fifth Olympic Games, winning in 52.16sec from American Torri Huske (52.29) and Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey (52.33).
Two days after she won her first individual Olympic gold medal in the 200m freestyle, Australia’s 20-year-old dual world champion Mollie O’Callaghan missed the medals by the cruellest margin of 0.01sec, finishing fourth in 52.34. Australia’s second contender Shayna Jack was fifth in 52.72.
O’Callaghan admits openly that she can be eaten alive by her nerves during major competition, and while she kept them under control to win the 200m, they appeared to get the better of her this time.
“I was really nervous heading into this,” she said. “I haven’t had a lot of sleep. Over the past few days. I tried really hard to manage myself and get up for this. I knew it was going to be a tough race from the start. We’re all very close. It’s one of those races. It’s by 0.01. Literally everything counts. If you stuff something up, it really costs you.”
O’Callaghan expressed conflicting emotions afterwards, saying she was happy with her swim but then disappointed with her time. In the end she was philosophical. “I expected a lot more, but at the end of the day, you’ve just got to suck it up and wait another four years,” she said.
This is hard-won experience for the young star, who has now felt both the ups and downs of Olympic competition in five days. She made her Olympic debut as a relay swimmer in Tokyo, but she is now one of the key players in the Australian team, with all that attendant pressure.
She began her week leading off the 4x100m freestyle relay, then returned two days later to defeat the Tokyo Olympic champion, her training partner Ariarne Titmus, in the 200m freestyle, but she was starting to run low on energy tonight.
Her fastest time of 52.08sec, set when she won the world title in Fukuoka last year, would have been enough to win the gold in Paris, but – as has been said repeatedly by Australian head coach Rohan Taylor this week – the Olympics is a racing meet and only the toughest triumph.
Coach Dean Boxall now has the task of getting O’Callaghan back up for her next three events, all relays, starting with tomorrow’s 4x200m freestyle, which the Australian women are favoured to win.
Jack, 26, had no trouble finding perspective despite missing the medals, having survived the trauma of an unintentional doping infraction that cost her the opportunity to make her Olympic debut three years ago. Just having the chance to stand up in an Olympic final was above and beyond what she hoped for three years ago while she was fighting to save her career after a failed drug test.
“I just really wanted to just soak that all in and take it all in and use that to drive me home,” she said. “I definitely tried to absorb the fact that I’m here as an Olympian and a couple years ago, I never thought that would even be possible. So to be here, standing out there for my country and knowing everybody back home is supporting us and just wanting us to do it proud, I couldn’t ask for anything more.”
