Aussie swimmers try to surface from post-Olympic blues

Perth Now

16 hours ago

An unsettled Kaylee McKeown went from a "dark place" mentally to no place of her own. She's living in holiday rentals.
Fellow golden girl Mollie O'Callaghan was in a "hole". She's still trying to dig herself out.
Struggling Shayna Jack went to the jungle "to find myself". She got home, lost her beloved dog, and isn't over the mental toll.
Zac Stubblety-Cook went from Paris and more Olympic glory to questioning if he wanted to keep swimming.
"The post-Olympic blues is always something to be mindful of," Stubblety-Cook said in Adelaide at Australia's swim trials for next month's world titles.
"I think people underestimate what it is.
"We had such a successful Games, especially our female team.
"To come off the back of that, of course you're going to feel a bit alone. I think that's just normal."
Stubblety-Cook, an Olympic gold and silver medallist, is among a chorus of swimmers in Adelaide detailing the mental lows that followed their highs.
And the Dolphins' leadership group member said there was a positive among the negatives.
"Everyone is a human and it's nice to see a bit of the human side of the sport," he said.
Dolphins teammate Lani Pallister said the human factor was often overlooked, compounding post-Olympic problems.
"This is going to sound really brutal but I think sometimes people forget athletes are also people," Pallister said.
"There's so much expectation put on Australian swimmers ... we're expected to win multiple gold medals.
"And sometimes if you don't race at your best, it's almost the public that bring you down."
Even those that race at their best were impacted.
McKeown, the only Australian to win four individual Olympic gold medals, took four months off after Paris.
"I was in a really dark place mentally," she said.
"When you go from such a high, straight back to such a low, and you're left scrambling for ideas on what you're going to do next, it is hard to find your feet once again."
After her break, and with her coach Michael Bohl retired, she changed swim clubs and moved to Queensland's Gold Coast from the Sunshine Coast.
"I spent four months in a group where I wasn't finding myself really happy," McKeown said.
"I made the quick decision a week before nationals (in April) and moved back to Sunny Coast.
"I still haven't got a house to live. I'm in Airbnb's.
"It has been a really hard transition; just the things that people don't really see when you come and race."
O'Callaghan was the nation's most successful athlete in Paris, collecting three golds plus a silver and bronze.
Post-Olympics, she took five months, trying to find her identity outside of the pool.
The 21-year-old admitted she was still searching but was pragmatic about her problems.
"You have to always step in that dark place to get the best out of yourself," O'Callaghan said.
"That's what sport is about. It's putting yourself in that hole to see how mentally strong you are - and I've definitely done that this season."
Her teammate Jack won two golds in Paris at her first Olympics - she missed the Tokyo Games, having just served a two-year doping ban.
Jack, who was cleared of intentional doping, had a European Great Dane named Hugo - he was the sole reason she got out of bed many days while suspended.
After Paris, Jack went on the television show I'm A Celebrity ...Get Me Out Of Here.
Soon after returning home, she lost Hugo to cancer.
"I went to the jungle to try and find myself ... but when I got home and finding out that I was losing my dog, it was a huge mental toll," she said.
"He got me through everything to come back in the first place.
"I had two weeks with him; there was regret just around whether or not I did everything for him.
"I felt a lot of that guilt. Did I do right by him, by choosing my swimming a lot of the time, and choosing my career over my dog?"
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