The Day Doctors Told Mollie O’Callaghan She Would Not Be Swimming at This Year’s Commonwealth Games And Pan Pacs
Australia’s triple Olympic gold medallist from Paris, Mollie O’Callaghan, will take her place in the Australian swim team for this year’s Commonwealth Games and Pan Pacs despite being told by doctors to withdraw from the Selection Trials due to injury.
The 22-year-old Queenslander revealing on social media from the Dolphins German training camp in Darmstadt, her battle to swim on after a second opinion – fighting back from stress fractures, bruising in her back and a shoulder injury.
Just over a week before the start of the Games in Glasgow the five-time Commonwealth gold medallist from Birmingham in 2022 dropped the bombshell on social media.
“Last month I was told I wouldn’t be able to compete at Trials, the Commonwealth Games or Pan Pacs. I was also told to stop swimming immediately,” O’Callaghan said.
“It was a moment that reinforced just how much representing Australia means to me and how badly I want to be part of this team.
“The scans showed stress fractures and bone oedema in my lumbar spine.
“My team immediately sought advice from a spinal specialist to see if there was any safe way for me to compete.
“Thankfully, after further assessment everything has continued to move in a positive direction and after Trials I was given the green light to compete at the Commonwealth Games and Pan Pacs.
“Things might look a little different for me at the Commonwealth Games and Pan Pacs but I’ll give everything I have and do my absolute best every time I race.
“A huge thank you to my team and my spinal specialist for working tirelessly to find a way to keep me in the water while making sure my recovery always came first.
“I truly couldn’t have done this without you. I can’t wait to wear the green and gold again. See you in Glasgow!”
O’Callaghan went on to qualify for the 100 and 200m freestyle and 50m backstroke during the Trials in Sydney – a lay down misère to contest four relays – the 4x100m freestyle and medley, the 4x200m freestyle and the Mixed Freestyle Relay.
The Dean Boxall-coached O’Callaghan heads to Glasgow as the defending champion in the 100m freestyle and a huge chance to add the Commonwealth 200m freestyle title to her Olympic gold.
The news comes just a week after the withdrawal of her close friend and fellow Olympic and Commonwealth Games backstroke champion Kaylee McKeown and the news yesterday that her St Peters Western teammate and fellow Olympic relay gold medalist Shayna Jack revealed she would retire following the Games and Pan Pac competitions.
Ther Glasgow campaign begin on July 23 with the 2026 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships running from August 12 to August 15 at the William Woollett Jr. Aquatics Center in Irvine, California.