Australian Championships, Night 4 Finals: Mollie O’Callaghan Reveals She Wanted To Scratch Before Winning The 200m Freestyle
Mollie O’Callaghan was ready to withdraw from her pet event – the 200m freestyle final on the last night of the 2025 Australian Swimming Championships – the event she won at last year’s Olympics in Paris – before producing the bravest of victories.
Swimming in an uncustomary lane one after barely qualifying for the final at the Brisbane Aquatic Centre and with the words of coach Dean Boxall ringing in her ears, Mollie O dug deep to win the final after a dramatic day.
Hours earlier the girl who arrived home with three gold medals from Paris – the toast of the nation, wanted out – for the first time in her career after clocking 2:00.04 – seven seconds slower than her Olympic record. She was done.
Her dislocated knee suffered in January, together with fatigue and self-doubt had taken its toll after a busy three days of racing, saying she was “swimming on one leg.”
MOLLIE O SO BRAVE: Mollie O’Callaghan digs deep in Brisbane. Photo Courtesy Delly Carr Swimming Australia
Lane one was no place for this Olympic champion – her immediate thought was to scratch from the final.
Enter St Peters Western head coach Boxall with a pep talk, a heart-to-heart that turned Mollie around; reluctantly taking her place in the final.
Using all of those qualities of an Olympic champion, Mollie won her second gold medal of the meet almost five seconds faster than her heat swim -winning the final in 1:55.71.
“It’s been a rough week and for the first time (in my life) I was thinking of pulling out of the final – my knee was getting progressively worse but a pep talk from Dean (Boxall) turned me around…something I wasn’t too stoked about,” admitted O’Callaghan.
She would later tell the ABC that Boxall had explained it was one of her chances to race this year as she didn’t get the opportunity at all at the start because of injury.
“Dean just said to come here tonight and try and flip the switch,” said O’Callaghan.
“All week I would say I was pretty mentally strong, but as the event goes on you slowly fade away with tiredness and fatigue and things start popping up and irritating, so to hold myself a bit accountable and to be like, ‘OK, just suck it up.’
“Dean was like, ‘If this is a possibility to happen at Worlds, you want to do it now so you have practice’ — so that was just the mentality, whatever happens, happens.
“But at the end of the day, I know I’m a fighter, we do the sport because we want to win and I’m going to push myself to the max even if it hurts — that’s the whole point of it.”
She had spoken earlier in the week about shedding a lot of tears after winning the 100m freestyle on the opening night followed by another eight races before arriving at the pool today for her pet event.
Swimming in lane four in the first heat, a lane traditionally reserved for the top seed, the Olympic champion struggled – she couldn’t break two minutes.
An anxious wait to watch the next two seeded heats as her new St Peters Western team mate Lani Pallisterwon heat two in 1:58.62 and WA’s Commonwealth Youth Games star Inez Miller took the third heat in 1:59.13.
Some quick calculations and Mollie had qualified for the 10-swimmer final – the seventh fastest qualifier and drawn in lane one – away from the action, but an outside lane with its advantages – an outside smoker as they say in the trade.
In the final it was Pallister, a noted front runner who had already won 400 and 800, who dragged the field through the first 100 in 56.95 with O’Callaghan a fraction behind in 57.08 before letting loose on the all-important third 50 in 29.71, unleashing a 28.92 on the final lap – the real Mollie was steaming home with both legs pumping like an outboard motor.
“To come back and race I am pretty proud of myself…this whole preparation has been like playing catch up..not training and then having to struggle in a lot of sessions,” said O’Callaghan.
“But I have just had to treat this as a stepping stone without focusing on the outcome.”
O’Callaghan will now regroup and begin her preparations for the World Championship Trials in Adelaide in June…and with the words of Dean Boxall ringing in her ears “let’s flip the switch.”
