Paris Olympics 2024: Australia swimmers to take long break after “mentally draining” Games

Australia’s swimming heroes Mollie O’Callaghan and Kaylee McKeown will take some time off after the Olympics and skip the World Cup legs later this year after an emotional and draining week where both won five medals at the Paris Games.

O’Callaghan won three golds, a silver and a bronze while McKeown claimed two golds, a silver and two bronze medals as the two swimmers had their most successful Games and topped the individual medal charts for Australia.

The Asian legs of the World Cup will be held in Shanghai, Incheon and Singapore in October and November but O’Callaghan said she needed to take a breather to “reset and re-evaluate” before competing again.

“I’m extremely tired, it’s been an emotional, draining week. I’ve had to try and keep myself together. There’s been a lot of happiness, a lot of sadness. And it’s really hard to process,” O’Callaghan told reporters.

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“I need to have a good, long break. I need to have a mental break. People don’t see behind (the scenes), us training every day. It’s really, really mentally draining and it’s really tough,” she added. “We are so self-critical. We’re so hard on ourselves. We drain ourselves every day to just do a few laps in the water… We’re doing everything that it takes to get a few little seconds off for moments like this.”

When McKeown was asked if she would go to the World Cup, she said: “Same answer as Mollie.”

The 23-year-old, who convinced her 4x100m medley relay teammates to leap into the pool in their tracksuits at the end of the meet, said they had done the best that they could even though the U.S. pipped them to the top of the medals chart.

“This Olympic Games, I wanted to challenge myself… There’s nothing else that I would have done different. But in saying that, I haven’t had time to reflect,” McKeown said.

“I’m sure if I do reflect, I’ll nitpick everything as athletes do. But I’m just so proud of myself, my team, my coach, just all of Australia really. We’ve come together,” she said. “I’m not sure what this year will hold for me. I’ll probably take a bit of time out of the sport. I need to be able to do that just to mentally refresh. I don’t think people realise how hard it is in a nine-day meet.”