Go, go, Mollie O

Springfield student, and swimming superstar, Mollie O'Callaghan, began swimming at 4-years-old and entered her first competition three years later. Over the last three years, Mollie has represented Australia at the Junior World Championships, the Queensland ShortCourse Championships, Queensland State titles, 2021 Olympic Games, the FINA World Championships, and the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

SHANNON KING Digital Marketing and Communications Officer In a remarkable rise for Mollie, her 2022 successes included 13 medals across the FINA World Championships and Birmingham Commonwealth Games, becoming the youngest woman in 30 years to win the 100m freestyle World Championship. At the World Championships Mollie collected three Golds—100m freestyle, women’s 4x100m freestyle and the mixed 4x100m freestyle—and three silvers in the 200m freestyle, women’s 4x200m freestyle and the women’s medley relay. Mollie followed up her amazing achievements at Worlds with an outstanding Commonwealth Games bringing home Gold medals in the100m Freestyle, 4x100m Freestyle Relay, 4x200m Freestyle Relay (World Record), 4x100m Mixed Freestyle Relay, 4x100m Medley Relay, and Silver medals in 200m Freestyle and 50m Backstroke. Shannon King sat down with Mollie to gain an insight into what has been an incredible year for Mollie. SK: Mollie, 2022 has been a massive year for you. How has it stacked up against your expectations? MO: This year has exceeded my expectations in general. Coming back from Birmingham and Worlds, I've walked away proud of myself for what I've accomplished, and I've excelled in all my goals for this year. So, I'm really excited for next year and the years to come. SK: What has it been like representing Australia in your sport? MO: It's exciting and amazing representing Australia for swimming. I've worked alongside such incredible athletes over these past few years and it's amazing to finally put on the green and gold and do what I love. SK: Were there any races this year that have been particularly memorable for you? MO: I would say there were quite a few. The 200m Freestyle at Commonwealth Games— I came second, but I felt like I improved so much on my technique and skills and I PB'd and I was just overall very excited and happy with what I did. There were other races, like the 100m Freestyle at Worlds. I surprised myself by touching first and it was a little bit of a shock at first, but it's kind of settled in now with the past few races. SK: Dean and your SPW coaches obviously help you get physically ready for competition. How do you prepare yourself mentally? MO: This year, mentally preparing myself was a bit of a rough ride. I don't have much experience dealing with nerves and in the international stage, so this was such a big learning experience for me. Having Dean beside me helping and guiding me through the rocky stages has really helped. But yeah, I would say this year has been a big roller coaster. SK: There's been plenty of media coverage and hype surrounding your success this year. How do you keep that from becoming a distraction? MO: With the media, most of us don't really look at it. We just stay in the team environment and keep it positive. Just having each other there and ignoring all the negative and sometimes positive media can help us push through. And I personally don't really like looking at that stuff. SK: What does a week's training look like for you?

MO: A week's training is very structured and organised, but sometimes it's a bit everywhere. Typically, I would do nine sessions a week, two to three bike sessions depending on what stages of training we're doing. And in the two to three afternoon training sessions we'll do core, which goes for 30 minutes. And, we do like three to four gym

sessions, so it's very like jam packed through the week, It's nice to have structure, but also when you're on break you're like, oh, it's kind of nice to just chill and not do anything for a few days. SK: What do you do in your downtime? MO: In my downtime, I try to find a few hobbies. I'll do a little bit of art and whatnot to keep myself occupied or I'll hang out with friends. A lot of us just sleep in our downtime because we're so tired. SK: What are you focusing on for 2023? MO: Next year I'm hoping to compete in Worlds. I think that's probably my big goal next year is to hopefully make a few individuals on that and just learn, in a way, for the next Olympics. I'm not putting any pressure on myself to redo what I did this year, but, I would love to. SK: At what point did you realize that swimming was going to be your 'thing'? MO: There was a point when I was about maybe 14 or 15 when I made my first junior team. From then I've just been striving to make senior teams and keep improving. I guess each goal has been getting bigger and bigger. SK: Who inspires you? MO: The people around me inspire me a lot. Obviously, I have Dean who is very inspiring with the way he coaches. There are also fellow teammates like Kaylee McKeown, Madi Wilson, Meg Harris. I could list a bunch of girls. They are very inspiring, and I find them very humble. It doesn't really matter how they race; it's how they are outside of the water that really inspires me. SK: What's Dean really like? MO: As a coach, Dean is a bit nutty and crazy, but that always works with training and he always keeps it a great environment, very fun even when it's hard. But Dean is also very caring too and understands each individual athlete. He changes his approach for each swimmer and I guess that's how most of us have become very successful. SK: How have you managed to balance your Year 12 studies with your training commitments? MO: I extended my schooling so that I completed Year 11 and 12 over three years. This year has been difficult, and it's been a bit hard to get back into the routine of school. But I have teachers like Mr Lohe and Ms Johnson, who help me a lot and remind me that I have to stay on top of my school work. SK: What advice do you have for aspiring young swimmers looking to follow in your wake? MO: My advice is that everyone's a little bit different with the way that they handle things, and everyone has a different view of success. To me, success is just what you want to achieve as an individual. It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks, it is your goal, and you just strive for that.

Photo above courtesy of Delly Carr.