Cate Campbell, the Australian swimmer who was top Dolphin in the 50 and 100m free for over a decade, has retired from her passion and job as a competitive swimmer. Her legacy in inspiring waves of young girls and helping to create the world’s premier sprint powerhouse.

Campbell, Dolphin #665, stood on 39 podiums for Australia during an outstanding career topped by four Olympic titles, four World long-course crowns, six Commonwealth golds, nine Pan Pacific wins and a Universiade title.

World 100m freestyle champion in 2013, Campbell, who turned 32 in May, celebrated the majority of her gold medals with Australia teammates in 4x100m free relays, including the past three Olympic titles, at London 2012, Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020ne, all three victories sealed in World-record times.

At her first Olympics in 2008 at the age of 16, Cate was fastest qualifier into the semis of the 50 free, in 24.20. She qualified fifth for the final in 24.42, and then clocked 24.17 in the final for bronze behind Germany’s Britta Steffen and Australia teammate Libby Lenton (Trickett). Both Australians also took bronze in the 4×100 free relay.

In Tokyo 13 years later, Cate Natalie Campbell, born on the approach to the Barcelona 1992 Olympics in May that year, served as Australia’s joint flagbearer before claiming gold in the 4x100m medley and bronze in the 100m freestyle, her success and even presence in that solo race testament to her towering perseverance in the five years since she entered the Rio 2016 100m final as hot favourite but suffered a debilitating bout of nerves and emerged sixth in 53.24.

If she had swum inside that time 40 times before, she also had a best of 52.06, the World record she set at Trials in 2016, and had also raced 14 times inside the 52.70 in which the Rio crown was won in the first snap for gold in the event since 1984, American Simone Manuel and Canadian Penny Oleksiak sharing the top honour.

Manuel’s pioneering gold was the first ever won by as black woman, forty years after East German doping blocked Dutch sprinter Enith Brigitha and a victory that might have inspired generations for young black girls to take up swimming. 

Cate and younger sister Bronte Campbell, the 50-100 World champion of 2015, had been tipped for the podium in 2016. Bronte missed the medals by 0.05sec, bronze going to Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom, who in winning the 100m butterfly in Rio also became the first female swimmer from her country to claim an Olympic title in the pool.

The Campbells not only survived that storm but remained title contenders all the way to Tokyo five years after Rio, the extra year in the cycle down to the Covid pandemic.

Cate announced her retirement today a week after she missed the cut for the Paris Olympics at trials in Brisbane. Bronte will be there, this time without her sister beside her, the siblings having shared the 2016 and 2020ne 4x100m free podiums as well as two world titles in that relays, in 2015 and 2019.

Cate retires a world record holder (50.25, 100m free, short-course) and a sprinter who has celebrated 13 global standards, eight long- and seven short-course in her career.

She was coached by Simon Cusack at the Commercial Swimming Club for over two decades, before moving to train with Damien Jones at the Rackley Swimming Club then then Maxine Seear, a coach at the Chandler program led by Vince Raleigh, for her fifth and final Olympic campaign bid.

The first of five children born to South African parents, Eric, an accountant, and Jenny, a nurse, Cate was taught to swim by her mother at the family’s home in Malawi and recalls swimming near Hippopotami in Lake Malawi as a small child.

Campbell also recalls that at school she “could not sing or dance” but she excelled swimming and public speaking. The Campbells moved from Malawi to Australia in 2001 and it was soon after this that Campbell joined a training squad.

Between 2008 and 2024, Cate Campbell swam the 100m free long-course 52 times on 52 seconds plus and raced inside 53.5 on 86 occasions. 

The deepest career of speed ever seen over the course of a female freestyler’s career was part of a fine history and soaring achievement on the roller-coaster of performance sport in the pool on the way to this interview on the deck at trials in Brisbane this month after emotional scenes in which the Australian sprint sorority flocked to honour Campbell before she left the fast lane for the last time.

That career included Cate Campbell’s use of her Athlete Voice, here a coupe of prime examples

The drive for FINA reform:

IWD: The Swimming Voice – When Cate Campbell Labelled FINA Leaders “Strange & A Bit Arrogant” For Placing Money Ahead Of Athlete Interest

Inclusion and Save Women’s Sport 

Cate Campbell’s Opera Of Inclusion & Fair Play For The Swim Sorority

Male Puberty Rules Out Access To Female Racing As FINA ‘Gold-Standard’ Policy Safeguards Fair Play For Women & Creates Open Category For Transgender Athletes

Sadly, American commentators and fans overlooked all of that, swim career and athlete voice, when jeering at Campbell from the sidelines as they watched her miss the cut for Paris 2024. The recent schadenfreude in the U.S. was sparked by Campbell’s jokey broadside at Americans after Australia topped the gold count at the Fukuoka 2023 World Championships but the USA emphasised the last, overall podiums, column on a medals table to show how they had “won the meet”. In the kickback, Americans also overlooked a history of Gary Hall Jr, Thorpey’s Thunder Down Under and the sound of smashing guitars and much else down the decades that is simply a part of the spectrum of the comic, the friendly and not-so-friendly rivalry and the competitive nature of world-class sport. 

In stark contrast, Sarah Sjostrom was among those sending their love to Campbell, Sjostrom citing Cate as her ‘inspiration’. Deeper Understanding is the key, Gary Hall’s actual comments and subsequent, graceful handling of a silver lining part of helpful and healing perspective. 

And so to this…

Cate Campbell – Retirement Note In Full

From little things, big dreams grow. 

After over 20 years, over 35,00km, over 19,000,000 stokes, 4 Olympics, 8 Olympic medals, 7 World Records and countless memories it’s time to officially say goodbye to the dream I have had since I was 9 years old. 

As of today, I am officially retired from elite sport. 

I have had some time over the past week to reflect on my career, and while there are many conflicting emotions, especially because it did not end exactly how I had hoped, I am still able to look back without regret. I gave the pursuit of a 5th Olympics everything I had, and therefore, even in failure, there is a small, indelible kernel of pride.

One of the biggest myths is that swimming is an individual sport. While it was only me under the bright lights behind the starting blocks, there was a small army of people who got me to that place. So, I would like to thank my extended team over the years. 

My family, my friends, my partner, my competitors, my Australian Dolphins teammates, my management team, my physios, my coaches, Swimming Australia, the Queensland Academy of Sport, the Australian Olympic Committee, the New South Whales Institute of Sport, my sponsors, the swimming officials and referees, the basket kids, the events teams and every single swimming fan who has supported me over the years. 

It’s been a long and wild ride and I wouldn’t change it for the world. I can’t wait to cheer on the Australian Dolphins and the rest of the Australian Olympic Team in Paris. I am entering my cheerleading era. 

All my love, Cate xx

SOS: Congratulations to Cate on a great career – may you use your athlete voice at every possible opportunity and may it survive any shift into governance or positions of influence and decision-making, moves that all too often end in assimilation of the athlete into a machine set to blazer mode, the chance to be a force for change bypassed on far too many occasions.

For more daily swimming news from our monthly Vortex compilation visit SOS:

The Vortex, June 2024 / The Vortex, May 2024 / The Vortex April 2024