How Australian breaststroker overcame a career-threatening injury to win gold in Glasgow at Commonwealth Games
Scroll down to see all the medals from day two of the Commonwealth Games.
Glasgow: A fraud back. Dangerous food. Not being able to eat my mother’s home-cooked meals while in a camp in Germany.
Australia’s all-time winning swimming team continued their Commonwealth Games assault on Saturday night, overcoming varying degrees of adversity to claim a further five gold medals in the pool, further cementing their status as Glasgow’s standout nation.
Mollie O’Callaghan won gold in the women’s 200m freestyle but admitted she was “in my head” as she recovered from a back injury and described the victory as one of the low points of her career by her exceptionally high standards.
After winning the 400 meters, distance king Sam Short wished for a young and hungry Ian Thorpe to swim next to him, but he could not break the world record he had been chasing and obsessing over for years.
Alex Perkins won gold in the 50m butterfly for the first individual international title of his career, before Australia capped another dominant evening by winning the mixed 4x100m freestyle relay with Flynn Southam, Kyle Chalmers, Shayna Jack and Meg Harris.
But the story of the night was Sam Williamson, for whom any of the illnesses listed above could be a cure.
The Victorian breaststroker saved the best individual performance of the second night for last, a year after hell she thought she would ever swim again, let alone compete in a fair dinkum race.
Williamson would have preferred the night of toilet vomiting he endured before Elijah Winnington’s silver medal in the 400-meter freestyle to the grueling rehab he endured from tearing his patellar tendon in a freak gym accident last year that left him fighting back tears of pain and frustration when he couldn’t get out of his own bed to go to the toilet.
After learning to walk and swim again, it was impressive to see Williamson (59.17) motor over two-time Olympic gold medalist Adam Ramsay-Peaty (59.65) of England in the 100m breaststroke, stunning the local crowd and completing one of the feel-good stories of the Games.
Williamson previously revealed he saw “my knee halfway up my thigh” after a routine box jump went horribly wrong. Just returning to elite swimming required extraordinary mental toughness. Swimming well enough to beat Ramsay-Peaty took it to another level yet again and the Briton settled for the bronze medal.
“Mentally it was the toughest challenge I’ve ever faced,” Williamson said. “Every day I wanted to throw in the towel, and every day I wanted to give up. But I knew how far I had come to get to that point. I knew that if I threw in the towel, everything that had happened up until then wasn’t worth it.”
“In the last 10 metres, everyone behind me was cheering for me and they were the ones who pinned me against the wall.”
Seven added: “To walk away with a medal is incredible but to walk away with a gold medal is just a dream come true and proves that you can achieve anything if you put your mind to it.”
Ramsay-Peaty became emotional after finishing third.
“I’m not crying because it’s bronze instead of gold,” he told reporters after the race. “I cry because I know swimming could be better.
“What’s the point of 5.30 in the morning? What’s the point of feeling exhausted all the time? What’s the point of saying no to all family activities because of training? That’s not perfection for me. I like scrap, but I lost that scrap in the last 25 metres.”
Australia was always expected to dominate at the Commonwealth Games and medals are pouring in for Scotland. But the Dolphins exceeded even their own lofty expectations by collecting 20 medals in the opening two nights.
O’Callaghan is struggling with injury
One of the bravest performances belonged to O’Callaghan. O’Callaghan said he had no regrets about announcing 11 days ago that stress fractures in his back put him in danger of missing both the Commonwealth Games and next month’s Pan Pacific Championships in California.
He told the coaches that his body could not cope with the rigors of being benched in the 4x100m freestyle medley relay later in the night, so he put all his eggs in the 200m freestyle basket, an event in which he is the reigning Olympic and world champion.
Her winning time of 1:54.66 was well off her personal best of 1:52.48, but given the conditions, O’Callaghan was both relieved and disappointed after edging out teammate Lani Pallister (1:55.01).
“I’m always a harsh critic… and I always want to have a slightly better time,” O’Callaghan said.
“I think I’m very confused right now. Injury and dealing with it isn’t the best thing… but as an athlete you have to find ways to adapt.”
“It’s always ‘Can I do this? Can’t I do that?’ There will be moments when you think: It’s definitely a battle to get here, push the limits and push the limits.
“It’s supposed to be a little bumpy in the sport. The lows make the highs even better. That’s definitely one of my lowest lows. But honestly, it’s such a high to be there.”
As for his decision not to keep his injury a secret?
“It was easier to put this huge bomb in there instead of throwing a smoke bomb during the race or the relay,” he said. “I kind of thought it might be easier to not surprise everyone.”
O’Callaghan’s decision to withdraw from the medley relay means a swimmer must now win the 100m freestyle, 50m backstroke, 4x200m freestyle relay and 4x100m medley relay to break the Commonwealth Games record for seven gold medals won in a single Games.
But given his back injury still requires careful treatment, the Australian is unlikely to take unnecessary risks.
Short also claimed gold in the men’s 400m freestyle but no one could keep up with him, swimming a personal best of 3:40.67 at last month’s Australian trials, again falling short of Lukas Martens’ world record of 3:39.96.
His time of 3:41.25 was the third-fastest of his career – an outstanding swimming performance in almost every respect – but the Queenslander made no secret of his ambition to become the fastest man in history. Being on the road doesn’t feel like the comforts of home.
“I would love to break the world record [beat] It’s Thorpey’s time, but I have a lot more opportunity to do it,” Short said.
“You come here after traveling and that might be the key to things. It’s not as easy as staying at home and eating my mother’s food during the trials. Still, I’m happy.”
From food poisoning to silver
Meanwhile, Winnington (3:45.56) had to make a crucial decision at 2.30am on Saturday morning. The 26-year-old was bent over the toilet at a Glasgow hotel and suspected food poisoning.
He sent a message to his coach Dean Boxall, then guessed to himself and deleted the message.
“Last night I was a little nauseous going to bed and I was up most of last night because of the toilet,” Winnington said.
Winnington was adamant that he “didn’t want to give up” and agreed to compete after meeting with Boxall. He was glad he did.
“I wanted to fight and I’m happy,” he said.
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Tom Decent is chief sports writer for The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect with: X or email.
Hannah Kennelly is an award-winning sports journalist and Formula 1 writer for The Age.Connect via email.
