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Introduction
Chelsea began swimming competitively at age 6 in Queensland, Australia, before moving to the Gold Coast and joining Southport Olympic Swimming Club. A breastroke specialist, she represented Australia at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, winning gold in the 4x100m Medley Relay, and went on to win two individual bronze medals and relay gold at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. After overcoming a serious hip injury, she is now passionate about helping young swimmers develop their skills and confidence in the sport.
Early Journey
What did you like about swimming that made you want to train so hard and give so much time to it?
“I really enjoyed the feeling in the water, I always used to think that swimming was, like, the closest thing we had to flying, because you felt really weightless in the water, that’s initially why. Um, but the opportunities and the friendships you get to make is really what drew me in as I, um, progressed in my career was I, there wasn’t many other things that you could do in your life where you got to travel the world with your friends, and also push yourself to the limit, um, in a group which I really liked. I’m not a team sport type of person, um, but swimming is one of those unique things were you get to do something individually, but be a part of a team still, so I very much enjoyed that.”
When did you realize that breastroke was your best stroke?
“I actually have a funny story about this, I, my parents put me in learn to swim, when I was a kid, um, in Australia, you know, it’s very common for you to be out in to learn to swim from the moment you can walk, and the learn to swim instructor said to my mom, we’re gonna do breastroke today, um, and they looked over and I was doing the froggy kick, so I was already doing breastroke kick before I even learnt how to do it so, it always came naturally to me, um, but I didn’t realise that, um, probably breastroke was my stroke, um, until I was about 11 or 12 when I actually started to look at Nationals and started looking at progressing in swimming, and I started focusing on it a little bit more and I saw the results come and I was like, oh, okay, this is, this is starting to go somewhere, um, and I found that I was really, that I was able to pick up skills quite quickly in breastroke where in other strokes I never really got it when they would say; lift your elbow more or do something like this, whereas breastroke, a lot of that made sense to me naturally.”
Training & Preparation
When you were training for the Olympics, what did a typical training day look like for you?
“So a typical day would look like getting up around 5:30 in the morning, um, and I’d have my first breakfast of the day and then I would head straight to the pool, I’d get there about half an hour before my sessions to do about half an hour of activation, do some rehab, do all that type of stuff and then I would go into the water for about a 2 hour long training session in the water, um, and then once I was finished that, I would go home, have my 2nd breakfast of the day. And then I would usually do some uni work, school work, um, or I would work, um, my nursing job, one of the 3 things. Um, and then I would have afternoon training, that’s midday, um, I’d get to the pool about half an hour beforehand to do my activation. The 2nd session would normally be a harder session, so I would normally suit up and do like a racing simulation type of session with my coach, and then I would finish that up and normally have a little bit in the gym where it was strength training or some conditioning to finish off the day. And then I would go home, have some dinner and go to sleep all before 9pm.”
How do you prepare in the days leading up to a competition?
“I think for me, I very much prioritised keeping myself relaxed, conserving energy, um, I would also never talk about swimming, so I had a rule from 2 weeks out from a competition, we don’t speak about swimming, in my house, with my family or with my, um, fiancé, never spoke about it, we just decided that, very early on, that if we spoke about it, it would use too much energy. So I would talk about the rest of my day, talk about what I was doing outside of swimming, what I was doing, what my family was doing, and we would focus more on that and then I would also, um, make sure that I’m getting enough sleep, that’s the most important thing for me, so, making sure that I was staying healthy, by getting enough sleep, and making sure I was minimising any of those external stresses. Um, and keeping myself in, in my room, in a nice comfy bed, and keeping everything as, um, normal as I could.”
Mentality & Performance
How do you handle pressure before big competitions?
“So, for me I always found if I kept distracted, I wouldn't think about the race, so I learnt very early on that I would waste a lot of energy if I focused on the race ahead and that would put, like, more pressure on myself. So I would take my time and speak to whoever I could, um, if I was at training I would speak to my friends, listen to music, think about anything other than the session I had ahead and at a race I would make sure that I would sit with people that I could speak to in the marshalling room, speak to my family, speak to my coach, keep myself distracted and then I wouldn’t let myself think about the race until I was walking behind the blocks. And that’s when I would let myself kind of feel the pressure but use it as excitement, so use my nerves as a bit of fuel for the race.”
As a competitor, what was your biggest strength?
“I was very resilient. So, as an athletes even when I was younger, unfortunately ’cause of my injuries I always had to be adaptable and find things that I could do when I couldn’t do something, um, due to injury or illness, or something else going on. So I would always kind of take any challenge thrown at me, and I was very resilient in making sure that that didn’t stop me from being able to achieve what I would like to achieve. Um, an example of that was when I missed out on the final for the individual 100m breastroke at the Olympics, I came 9th by 0.01 of a second so I missed out on the final by such a little amount, and I was really upset but I used that as energy and fuel to, um, get myself to the final spot in the 4 by 100 medley relay and then win an Olympic gold medal, so that’s something I was really good at, was really changing my perspective on things and using things and using that resilience, to get the same outcome.”
How do you recover mentally and physically after a bad performance?
“I think that’s something unfortunately because of my injuries I had to do quite a lot as an athlete, um, in my career, um, having hobbies and interests outside of the sport is really important. So for me, I studied, after school I went straight into university and I studied my nursing degree, the whole time I swam, so I had something else to look towards that wasn’t just swimming, which I found really important, and I really wanted to make sure that I had something else that I could progress towards a goal, whether that was outside of swimming or I would have another race that I used to always do once a year that didn’t, didn’t matter that I didn’t care about, so I had something else to focus on, ’cause I found that if I had a disappointing swim, I had other things I was working towards that I felt like I was still getting progress, so I wasn’t stuck in those hard swims.”
Success & Reflection
What is something that contributes to your success but is often overlooked by young athletes?
“I think your support people. I think, um, it’s very hard, um, to do, what we do, as athletes, without people there to support you. It’s almost impossible to do anything by yourself, so I think your relationship with your coaches, but not just your coaches, your family, other support people, maybe your physio, sport psychologists, your massage therapist, all the extra people that you have in your life. I found that if I didn’t have my good support with me then I wouldn’t be able to do what I did, and that’s something as a teenager I don’t think I understood as much.”
What swimming achievement are you most proud of?
“I think the Olympic gold medal is pretty up there, but I think the race I’m most proud of is probably the 4 by 50 medley relay at the Melbourne, um, 2022 World Championships, um, being able to get a world record with two of my very, very close friends that I’m still close with now outside of swimming, in front of a home crowd was pretty cool, um, and both that and at the Olympics, we weren’t really seen to win, they kind of assumed another country would always win, America, would always win, so it was a very special and meaningful team to be a part of because we still got a result when everyone didn’t really think we would be able to.”
What advice would you give to students who want to pursue sports seriously?
“Enjoy it, and have fun. I think it’s very easy to get too professional about sport and think of it as super serious, um, but it is really fun, it means you get to travel the world with your friends and do some really cool stuff so I think having fun and taking advantage of the really cool opportunities that you get to have as an athlete, and enjoying those moments, instead of taking them too seriously.”
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