Bronte craves rehab break
BRONTE Campbell will take a break from swimming after the Commonwealth Games in a move she hopes will rejuvenate her career in the same way older sister Cate has benefited from time away from the pool.
While Cate’s post-Olympic hiatus was more of a mental break from the sport, Bronte – the 2015 world champion in the 50m and 100m freestyle – will take three months off training and miss August’s Pan Pacific championships to rehabilitate her troublesome shoulders.
The Brisbane-based sisters will be among 20 Olympians and Paralympians in action at the NSW state championships at Homebush over the next three days in the final hitout for Australia’s elite swimmers ahead of next month’s Commonwealth Games trials.
And while Bronte said the shoulder issues that plagued her past two major campaigns – at the Rio Olympics and Budapest world championships – would not halt her Commonwealth Games campaign, the best long-term solution is rest.
“It’s been about two years now that I’ve been managing it, so after Commonwealth Games, I’m going to have a few months off, maybe up to three months off and just do rehab,” she said.
“Surgery isn’t really an option, there’s nothing hugely structurally wrong that surgery will absolutely fix, it’s more of a risk than anything else.
“So I’m definitely not looking at surgery but looking at some intensive rehab without the load of swimming to get everything back to a normal baseline.”
That will mean missing the Pan Pacs, one of the few meets at which Australian swimmers face athletes from the US outside of Olympic and world championship competition.
“It was a really tough decision and not something I took lightly but it got to a stage where it was pretty much the only decision left to make,” she said.
“I’m really excited about it now.”
Bronte didn’t have to look far from home for inspiration on returning from a break though, with Cate proving time out of the water is far from career-ending.
“Seeing Cate take a break and then come back with renewed vigour is very encouraging,” she said of her sister who returned from a post-Rio lay-off to break the world 100m shortcourse record late last year.