- Cate Campbell said she felt like a ‘fraud’ after failing to qualify for Paris 2024
- The four-time gold medallist had agonisingly just missed out on her fifth Games
Aussie swimming great Cate Campbell has opened up on the moment her glittering career ended in heartbreak as she failed to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
The 32-year-old is one of Australia’s most decorated swimmers and was on the cusp of making history as the first Aussie to swim at five Olympic Games.
Having captained the Australian team at the Tokyo Games in 2021 – while also competing in Beijing in 2008, London in 2012 and Rio in 2016 – the four-time gold medallist had worked all her life to achieve extraordinary things.
But it came crashing down when Campbell, who also holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Communication from the Queensland University of Technology, failed to qualify for the Olympic swimming team in June 2024.
She placed seventh in the women’s 50m freestyle at Australia’s Olympic selection trials in Brisbane, with Shayna Jack and Meg Harris – who went on to win silver in Paris – both being selected for the Games.
Campbell had broken down in tears in the pool after missing out on qualifying. She had also missed out qualifying for the 100m freestyle final by one-hundredth of a second earlier in the week.
Olympic swimming great Cate Campbell has opened up on how she felt like a ‘fraud’ after failing to qualify for the Paris Olympic Games
Campbell of Queensland was embraced by her competitors after the Women’s 50m Freestyle Final during the 2024 Australian Swimming Trials at Brisbane Aquatic Centre
Campbell said she was ‘heartbroken’ by the moment, having come so agonisingly close to making history as the first Aussie swimmer to appear at five Olympics
‘I was heartbroken and I was devastated,’ Campbell told the Courier Mail, reflecting on the agonising moment.
‘To be honest, I felt foolish. I felt like a fraud. I felt like a failure. I felt like I had wasted the past two years of my life training to this point.
‘I was ashamed, I was embarrassed, and it was all of those things because that’s what happens when you’re out there and you do something vulnerable and it doesn’t work out. Then there was the disappointment that this is the end.’
Despite the disappointment, she finished her Olympic career with eight medals, including four golds. Those titles accompany her already bursting trophy cabinet, with Campbell having also won six gold medals at the Commonwealth Games and 37 major international medals.
Amid the pain she added that there was a sense of ‘relief’ around the moment.
‘There was relief that I could let go and stop fighting,’ she added.
Much of her life has been devoted to training to help her strive for excellence in the pool.
Campbell admitted that she now is excited about the future, and was excited to have her weekends back, she did have some regrets from her career.
Campbell admitted that she now is excited about the future, and was excited to have her weekends back, she did have some regrets from her career.
‘It’s the full stop, the closing of the chapter in the book on a career which I’m very happy with and very proud of, but there are regrets and mistakes that you secretly hoped that you could have changed… it’s the complete knowledge that part of my life is over.’
One of those regrets related to missing out on winning gold in the women’s 50m final Rio.
Amid the disappointment of that result, she took a break from swimming the following year before bouncing back at the Commonwealth Games, winning gold while also breaking the world record for the women’s 4x100m relay alongside her sister Bronte.
Campbell, a former chair of the Australian Olympic Committee Athletes’ Commission, is now forging a new journey and says she is enjoying the ‘ordinary’ things in life.
‘I have no desire to have an extraordinary life any more. It’s now about finding the little joys and enjoying the little things. There’s so much joy to be had in life if you just look for it. Cheers to the ordinary.’
