MOLLIE’S simple secret TO SWIMMING FAST
MOLLIE O’Callaghan is the test case that proves swimming’s best-kept secrets are sometimes best left alone.
While scientists and coaches tie themselves in knots trying to figure out new ways of shaving precious fractions off swimmers’ times, O’Callaghan has an uncomplicated approach for getting from one end of the pool to the other as quickly as possible.
“I just try and swim as fast as I can,” she said. O’Callaghan’s simple explanation for how she succeeds where others fail will both baffle and bewilder her opponents, who consider her a technical genius
Not as tall as most of her main rivals, O’Callaghan doesn’t have any major advantages over anyone in her straight-line speed. But where she does make the biggest gains is under the water, when she pushes off the wall after her turns, kicking longer and more than most. It’s an impressive skill that’s been likened to Michael Phelps’s legendary work below the surface, but O’Callaghan insists it’s not some sort of master plan devised by her coach Dean Boxall, because the reality is more straightforward than people think. “I do focus a lot on my underwater, but I just work on what’s best for me. I don’t worry about what anyone else does at the end of the day,” she said. “Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses and I definitely try to work on my strengths as much as the weaknesses. But it’s just little things. There’s not a shortcut. I just try to hold my breath and just kick as much as I can for as long as I can. I just swim.”
The results so far have been spectacular since she made her senior debut 12 months ago.
Still just 18, O’Callaghan already has three Olympic medals, six world championship and seven Commonwealth Games medals and is just getting started.
Her biggest battle, she says, is coping with her frayed nerves, but she’s worked out ways to overcome her anxieties.
“I’m always going to get nervous. It’s just how I deal with it,” she said. “Sometimes I just forget what Dean says to me.
“He’s been a bit of a wildcard, but he’s been happy with everything because this is my first two international meets doing individual events. So he’s not focused on outcomes, he just wants me to just enjoy my races.”
O’Callaghan’s biggest challenge going forward could be picking which races to swim and which ones to leave, because of her versatility.
In Birmingham, she beat the reigning Olympic champion Emma McKeon to win the 100m freestyle, then was centimetres away from beating Ariarne Titmus in the 200m. And she beat Kaylee McKeown home in 50m backstroke. The possibilities for Mollie and endless.