Mollie O’Callaghan entered the yr burdened by the standing that got here with changing into a person Olympic gold medallist. Later in January, she dislocated her knee. In June, she broke down in tears and laid out her struggles, unravelling in a heartbreaking tv interview.
“This yr, oh my god,” O’Callaghan mentioned on the swimming world championships in Singapore on Wednesday evening.
“Truthfully, coming right here was one of many final issues I assumed I might do.”
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How gloriously incorrect she was.
O’Callaghan suited up on evening 4 of the world championships, well-known gold cap and all, and muscled her solution to one other gold medal.
She unleashed a thunderous closing lap to clinch gold within the girls’s 200-metre freestyle.
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In doing so, she drew degree with Australian swimming legend Grant Hackett on 10 long-course world championship gold medals.
The one Australian who’s received extra long-course world championship golds is Ian Thorpe, who secured 11.
And with the 100m freestyle and extra relays to come back, O’Callaghan may match and move Thorpe earlier than her work in Singapore is completed.
“At the beginning of the yr, in the event you informed me I might grow to be world champion once more, I might be shocked,” O’Callaghan mentioned.
Mollie O’Callaghan after successful gold within the girls’s 200m freestyle. Getty
The 21-year-old was being interviewed by Australian swimming nice Cate Campbell on the 9 broadcast after her triumph within the 200m.
Campbell was additionally the interviewer in that tear-jerking interview in June, at Australia’s trials for the world championships. Campbell consoled her former Dolphins teammate in Adelaide, telling her she ought to “be so extremely proud”.
Standing poolside in Singapore, Australian flag draped round her shoulders, the champion from Logan was gleaming with satisfaction.
“It is fairly unbelievable to have the ability to stand on the rostrum for my nation once more,” O’Callaghan smiled.
From left to proper: Silver medallist Bingjie Li, gold medallist Mollie O’Callaghan and bronze medallist Claire Weinstein. AP
Exhibiting no indicators of the suspected meals poisoning that struck Dolphins teammate Sam Brief earlier on Wednesday, O’Callaghan clinched gold with a time of 1 minute, 53.48 seconds (1:53.48).
China’s Bingjie Li grabbed silver in 1:54.52 as American Claire Weinstein took bronze in 1:54.67.
Australia’s Jamie Perkins completed seventh in 1:56.55.
O’Callaghan solely had a lead of 0.22 of a second over second place on the closing flip — at that stage, Weinstein was her nearest opponent — however a 28.41-second closing lap blew her rivals away.
Of the ten long-course world championship gold medals O’Callaghan has received, 4 are from particular person races.
Mollie O’Callaghan and her coach, Dean Boxall, share a heat embrace after her triumph. AP
Wednesday evening’s 200m win adopted her triumph within the four-lap occasion on the Fukuoka world titles of 2023.
She additionally received the Olympic 200m freestyle title in Paris final yr.
“I’ve devoted my complete life to this, from college years, skipping college a little bit bit,” O’Callaghan laughed.
“Actually, day in, time out, coming to the pool, being on the pool for like 5 hours within the morning, coming again, doing it once more [in the afternoon], and simply giving up these little issues to dedicate it to this second … It is all value it in the long term for me, and it is one thing I take pleasure in, and moments like this make it so significantly better.”
Aussie teenager’s shock bronze … from lane eight
Wednesday evening additionally noticed Australia’s Harrison Turner, a 21-year-old from Brisbane, snare a shock bronze medal within the males’s 200m butterfly — and he did so in lane eight.
The Queenslander additionally broke the Australian report, cranking out a time of 1:54.17 to take down the 1:54.46 posted by Nick D’Arcy in Sydney in 2009.
“In the event you informed me I used to be going to win a bronze medal at the beginning of the yr with a PB [personal best] of 1:57, I might have been like, ‘Yeah, nah, you are dreaming’. I am misplaced for phrases,” Turner informed Campbell on the 9 broadcast.
“Being in eight lane, I simply snuck in. I assumed, ‘I’ve bought a lane, I’ve bought an opportunity’.
“I by no means would have imagined to sneak in a bronze there.”
Turner is competing at his first senior long-course meet as a Dolphin.
American Luca Urlando received gold in 1:51.87 as Poland’s Krzysztof Chmielewski picked up silver in 1:52.64.
