In an interview with The Australian published this week, sprint star Cate Campbell says she thought she had been disqualified for a false start in the 2016 Olympic 100 free final, leading to her disappointing 6th-place showing.
Campbell was the world record-holder and heavy gold medal favorite going into that event in Rio, and her 6th-place finish was one of the low points of a relatively disappointing Olympics for Australia.
At the time, Campbell herself called the race “possibly the greatest choke in Olympic history.” But almost four years later, Campbell gave The Australian some more details about what threw off her Olympic race. Notably, Campbell says she believed she moved on the block and would be disqualified at the end of the race.
“I moved,” Campbell said. “But I might have been still enough to move again when the starting signal went.
“I was about 90 percent sure that I would be disqualified,” she continued. “Maybe it would have been a preferable option.”
The sprinter, then 24 years old, said the start threw off her race plan, and in a swim that takes less than a minute from start to finish, there wasn’t enough time for her to regroup.
“I won’t say exactly what I said [to herself in the water] because you won’t be able to print it,” Campbell told The Australian. “And then any race plan you had has been taken over by this overarching thought and 100 meters is not enough time to really reformulate and go again.
“I always say that it was probably the first 25 meters, 35 meters of that swim that derailed the whole event. I just dumped way too much energy, and that was part of it.”
Excuse making
Wait-I thought she said it was a text message that got on her mind? Is she switching stories or are all these media outlets just making up stories now?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4349738/Cate-Campbell-reveals-text-caused-choke.html
Typically a false start is choking so it doesn’t have to be one or the other. Text message > nerves > false start (choke) > expecting dq > screwed race plan.
My assessment at the time was that she got spooked by Penny Oleksiak virtually tying with her in the semi-final with a very smart 52.7 which made her think she had to swim more aggressively in the final than she needed to. We’ll never know for sure. It still doesn’t explain why she was also out of the medals in the 50FS.
Could I request the SwimSwam powers that be to just stop publishing any stories about Cate Campbell to save her from the unwarranted hatred and vitriol here
Or turning the comments off would work too!
What so y’all think Cate Campbell just gets to criticize and call sports fans names, and we shouldn’t get the opportunity to clap back?
No one hates Cate Campbell. They’re just tired of the excuses that you never hear from anyone else. Just take the loss and move on.
Saw her head movement prior to the start and thought she was DQ’ed. Heard afterwards from USA swimming officials that the Starter (from US) thought so, but the Referee didn’t, so no dual confirmation. That obviously affected her–she was the last to leave the block, over-swam the first 50m and died around 70m.
Be kind with your comments–that could happen to anybody.
Be kind with your comments–that could happen to anybody.
The only part of this story that could happen to me is the “last to leave the block” part.
i think my favorite part about the swimswam comments section is the way people put their own expectations onto swimmers who they have either never met or only seen on TV. step off your high horse and dispel this power you feel you have when you’re behind a screen with a keyboard. Cate Campbell will no doubt go down in history as one of the best female sprinters in the world. Even Michael Phelps had races where he choked (see 400IM 2012 olympics). it is an olympic year. No doubt most people conducting interviews will ask returning olympians about their performance in 2016. Lay off Cate Campbell. your thoughts on what SHE said about HER performance do not matter. you… Read more »
This is a pro sports comment board. If you want to hand out participation trophies on some age group site.
kind sir I’ve seen you on all the comment sections being rude. there is nothing professional about you. You are just a rude person who likes to think you know best. these athletes have nothing to prove to you so you should stop acting like they do
Would you make up your mind with the capitalization? You use either all caps or no caps. Don’t come on here and go all e.e. cummings at me.
Lol a response like this is proof you just lost
Grumpy old man. Don’t pay much attention to his rudeness. Some petty, please. It may happen to us too with years. If he is rude about somebody it is a great indicator that this person deserves respect.
100%. Movement on the blocks and thoughts of being DQ’d would have destroyed her focus. Especially when the mental side of her race was all but gone in the lead-up. I hope she can bounce back, new coach, new training program and openly talking about her mistakes. I think she will finally show the world how good she is in Tokyo
i think she’s already shown how good she is. 50.9 on a relay and mutliple world championship medals is no joke. she’s also the 3rd fastest performer ever in the 100 free, which is amazing. Whenever she gets in the water it’s a treat. i’m wishing her the best in Tokyo because she’s an athlete I have looked up to and enjoyed watching swim for years. I just think people need to stop this toxic unhealthy practice of projecting what they want on world class athletes.
Simone is amazing. Cate’s just a relay swimmer.
^truth
You missed pan PACs in 2018 ? The meet all the Americans said Australia should concentrate on that year ?
She hasn’t changed coach since Rio has she? The team just moved to a different city.
^^Correct, same coach new city^^
If you watch the race on YouTube change the speed to x0.25 you can see her flinch on the start. Mentally you’ve always got to be prepared for the very best and very worst
This is the comment that should be up top, it’s true.. love to see Longhorn whine about this one
What’s the lesson here? That you need to mentally rehearse *everything* before the big race.
I think the lesson is you keep your excuses to yourself after you lose. Even if asked.
Doesn’t seem like an excuse to me. If anything she’s basically told us how she choked.
So an excuse for her excuse?
When has choking ever been an excuse rather than a total failure?
Bingo!