Mollie O’Callaghan Out of Pan Pacs Due to Back Injury
Another of Australia’s top stars decided to skip the Pan Pacific Championships. Mollie O’Callaghan, who has been among the world’s best 100 and 200 freestylers for the past four years, has withdrawn from Pan Pacs after dealing with a back injury.
O’Callaghan raced at the Commonwealth Games last week, winning gold in the 200 free and silver in the 100 free along with three relay golds, but she opted out of the second stop on Australia’s international tour. O’Callaghan started strong during her week in Glasgow, Scotland, but swam well off her best times during the latter part of the meet.
Swimming Australia head coach Rohan Taylor revealed the news in a press release, emphasizing that every decision the team made was with the Los Angeles Olympics in mind. “She made the decision to return home rather than add another campaign with significant travel,” Taylor said. “As I said, our lens is on LA and less is more right now for Mollie.”
In the same release, O’Callaghan said, “I am really happy with my campaign and to have a swim with the 4x100m medley girls was the perfect way to finish my second Commonwealth Games campaign. I always knew my program was going to be different, and I would reassess at the end of the Games and my injury is exactly where I thought it would be. And the time is right for me to go home. Good luck to all my teammates in California.”
That makes four of Australia’s highest-profile swimmers, all individual Olympic champions, not heading to Irvine, Calif., for the showdown with swimmers from the United States, Canada and Japan. Sprinters Cam McEvoy and Kyle Chalmers had decided to focus on the Commonwealth Games only while Kaylee McKeown, a four-time individual Olympic champion in backstroke, pulled out of both meets with injuries.
Notably, one Australian will join the Pan Pacs team after previously planning to skip out. The release noted that Matt Temple, who won 100 butterfly silver, 200 fly bronze and three relay golds at the Commonwealth Games, will now attend the meet.