Hunt to end upheaval, health battles and pave Paris path
On hand at Griffith University’s Gold Coast campus to announce a partnership between the university and SA, Gallen stresses the importance of forging an identity outside the pool.
Even without professional glory, an athlete should have the tools to harness their passions, she says.
“I spent more than a decade of my life chasing the elusive Dolphins pin and didn’t quite make it.
“But having said that, I went back to university and got my PhD and I don’t know if I’d have done that if I was on the Australian swim team.”
The union will provide scholarship programs for Olympic and Paralympic athletes, as well as others in the swimming community, and internships for students within the SA ecosystem.
Alongside her were Brisbane’s Zac Stubblety-Cook – a Tokyo Olympics gold medallist and long course 200m breaststroke world record holder – as well as Australian open water swim team member Bianca Crisp.
Gallen said swimming typically experienced a drop in participation once an athlete reached their early adult years.
But with a focus on providing greater life balance to aspiring competitors, the hope was they remained engaged long-term.
“It’s not just the guys who have finished their Olympic careers but also those who have dedicated 10 years of their life to the sport and never quite got their Dolphin number.
“They feel like they’ve reached their potential, but there are other things to achieve.”
It is a reversal of mentality in elite sport, which Australian swim team coach Michael Bohl believes has taken until recent years to rectify.
The man who mentored Emma McKeon to seven medals in Tokyo said the key to bringing the best out of an athlete was to ensure they were not purely focused on competition, and that they were prepared for life beyond the limelight.
“I think you’ve got to get their life in balance, it can’t be everything is about swimming. If you’ve got all of your pie and 95 per cent is swimming you’re not getting the best out of your athletes,” Bohl said.
Addressing health concerns, lack of diversity
Part of SA’s collaboration with Griffith University will involve research initiatives to transform swimming’s environment.
Gallen declares a key goal is to foster a new generation of First Nations swimmers through to Brisbane ’32.
Since 1964, Samantha Reilly has been the only Indigenous Australian to swim at an Olympics; claiming a bronze medal at the 1992 Barcelona Games, and a bronze and silver at Atlanta 1996.
Gallen said the university partnership, and with that the creation of talent identification pathway Deadly Little Swimmers, would begin to identify and break down those barriers.
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The goal, she said, was to ensure Indigenous talent was fostered to the point where they donned the green and gold at Brisbane ’32.
“Why don’t we have many First Nations swimmers on our swim team, and how can we promote that space?” Gallen asks.
Among the other research initiatives include guidance on eating disorder issues and the mental wellbeing of athletes.
According to Bohl, the pressure on a swimmer to maintain such a high level of performance once they reached the peak could be overwhelming, as their income became reliant on sustained success.
“Obviously, there is pressure once you get to the level to make Australian teams,” Bohl says.
“Athletes are funded then and if you’re not performing at the high level you lose funding.
“They’re relying on the funding to survive and when they miss a team there’s that pressure of where am I getting the rent from?”
Champion’s path to Paris
“You can’t accidentally win a gold medal.”
And with that remark, Bohl backed Dolphins star Stubblety-Cook to make a statement at the World Championship trials next week, and chart his course to further Olympics glory.
The 24-year-old will take to the Melbourne Aquatic Centre from June 13, eager to cast aside an injury-plagued end of 2022.
Success there would propel him to July’s FINA World Championships.
“Excited I think is the right word. This season’s been a little bit different; obviously coming off the back of last year I had a couple of injuries and didn’t race for a while,” Stubblety-Cook says.
“Now building those races throughout the season has been really exciting, I’ve done some good work and I’m just excited to see what happens at trials.”
Stubblety-Cook captured the nation’s attention when he clinched the 200m breaststroke world record in 2:05.95 at the Australian Swimming Championships in Adelaide last year; almost four seconds faster than the World Championships qualifying time.
According to Bohl, the Brisbane champion was tracking well to peak at the perfect time to add another Olympics medal to his tally.
“You can’t accidentally win a gold medal, you’re a great performer under pressure, so it’s a stepping stone these titles,” Bohl says.