Swimming’s latest world record holder Cate Campbell did a double take when she walked onto the pool deck for her first training session at the University of Auburn.
There, sitting in the rubbish bin was the previous world record plaque of 52.07 with the name (Britta) Steffen removed from the pool’s Honour Wall.
(Photo: Delly Carr/Swimming Australia Ltd.)
Campbell became the first Australian to set an individual world record in the event since Jodie Henry in 2004, with her 52.06 in Brisbane on July 2.
Joining Fanny Durack, Dawn Fraser, Lorraine Crapp, Shane Gould, Libby Trickett and Jodie Henry in an exclusive Australian world record club.
And Cate’s reaction?
“Well look what I just stumbled across,” thought Campbell, who strolled into the pool after the final members of the Australian team assembled for their pre-Rio Staging Camp.
Quick to welcome Cate and sister Bronte and the Australians was Auburn head coach, 2000 and 2004 Australian Olympian Brett Hawke.
He congratulated Campbell before apologising that Auburn was still working on her updated world record plaque.
“Sorry Cate….we have been a little slow off the mark – but we have our designers working on it,” Hawke told Campbell.
“For the moment you’ll just see your name and the new world record written in texta.”
Cate Campbell (Photo: Delly Carr/Swimming Australia Ltd.)
Hawke, a 50 metres freestyle specialist, later addressed the Australian team at their first official meeting – an inspiring story of missing the Olympic team in 1996; of losing concentration on the way to the pool deck in 2000 and his satisfying fifth place finish in 2004.
The Auburn coach of 10 years has been appointed to the coaching staff of the Brazilian swim team and leaves for Rio tomorrow.
Australian Swim team assemble in Auburn
The remaining members of the Australian Swim Team arrived in Auburn late Thursday night July 21 to join their fellow team members and officially begin the staging camp ahead of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
The camp, which will run until July 31 will allow the swimmers to acclimatise as Auburn is just two hours behind Rio, the team will be training form 11am to 1pm in the morning, and 7pm to 9pm for the evening session, aligning with the competition and training schedule in Rio.
Head Coach Jacco Verhaeren said Auburn was the perfect location for this kind of camp.
“Rio is two hours ahead of the schedule in Auburn so it’s really an ideal place to prepare yourself without going crazy on having ridiculous days. We have pretty normal days although a bit later of course than what they’re used to,” Verhaeren said.
“This week we are really looking for acclimatising so we’re not looking really for performance as of yet. There were a few guys that already arrived earlier, you can actually see already that they are adjusted and they are doing test sets already. For the majority of the team that will happen next week. So this is really about settling in, making sure you get your sleep sorted, your rest time sorted, and adjusting to the competition times.”
The swimmers will train at the Auburn University Aquatics Centre which boasts both an eight lane indoor and 10 lane outdoor pool, world class gym facilities and a familiar face in former Dolphin, and Head Coach at Auburn University Swim Club – Brett Hawke.
At the first team meeting following an introduction from Head Coach Jacco Verhaeren and an inspirational talk from Brett Hawke, West Australian duo Blair Evans and Tamsin Cook, who were absent at the Rio Farewell Grand Prix, were officially presented with their Olympic blazers. Evans is off to her second Games after competing in London, while Tamsin will make her debut in Rio.
The team will arrive in Rio on August 1 with the official press conference scheduled for August 2 (Rio time).
Swimming news courtesy of Swimming Australia.
Auburn might want to wait until Rio to make a new WR plague…
Jodie Henry was NOT last Aussie woman to set the 100 free world- record before Cate Camobell.
Henry clicked 53.52 @ Athens in ’04 for her pr/NR.
A year and- a-half later (January 30, 2006 @ Melboutne during thevCommonwealth Games Trials, Libby Trickett — then known as ” Lenton” — clocked a 53.42.
Germany’s Brittany Steffens then went 53.30 @ that Summer’s Euro Championships in Bydapest and Trickett topped that when she became the first woman sub- 53.0 w/her 52.88 during the Aussie Okympic Trials March 27, 2008.
Steffens then broke the wr four more times ending up w/ that 52.07 @ the Rome World Championships in August of ’09.
All of Steffen’s records I might add were swum while… Read more »
In this troubled wold, I find this story and photo hilarious…
I wonder if she went across to the Steffan 50m Free WR plaque, and just loosen it a little off the wall? 🙂
Look at those legs. She looks ready for Rio. Maybe a 51?
Looking a lot lighter – might have changed weights mix . After all she was on a plateau of 52.3 for 2 years.Yes she looks 51.7 which is in line with predictions made for her when she was 14-5.
That’s an awesome photo of Cate throwing away Steffen’s old WR! Congrat’s to her, and I can’t wait to see her compete in Rio! Nothing against Britta, but I’d love to see all those old “supersuit” records thrown in the trash, but that’s going to take awhile…
Exactly. Britta was the no 1 female sprinter at the time & would have posted a very quick time without the shiny suits in 08-09, but it’s the shiny suits records we all want demolished
I honestly dont want those records to be broken. Back then everyone said that FINA should delete those records, because they wont be broken for decades and then it turned out that many of those records were broken only a couple years later, so what happened? I just cant believe that a clean athlete can break a world record in athletics or swimming, especially not a shiny-suit record, so i will never be happy when a record is broken.
This reminds me of the post with Fratus swimming a 21 at practice. One big Auburn promotion.
“Look future recruits, this is what auburn swimmers do!”
“Campbell became the first Australian to set an individual world record in the event since Jodie Henry in 2004, with her 52.06 in Brisbane on July 2.”
Not true. Libby Trickett set three 100 free WRs after Henry:
1. 53.42 31 Jan 2006 Australian Championships
2. 52.99 March 2007 Duel in the Pool Melbourne (not ratified by FINA since done in mixed race)
3. 52.88 27 Mar 2008 Australian Trials
Notsofastswimmer- this article is a press release coming directly from Swimming Australia, but I will double check the information on there. Thanks.