Bronte Campbell Calls Time on Stellar Career

Australian Golden Girl Bronte Campbell Calls Time on Stellar Olympic Career in Fast Lane

Australia’s three-time Olympic gold medallist and former two-time individual world champion Bronte Campbell has today announced her retirement from competitive swimming at the age of 32.

Campbell returned from her fourth Olympic campaign in Paris, with plans to take a break before launching a bid for a fifth Games in LA28.

But announcing today that the time was right to start the next chapter of her life.

Campbell forged an incredible career as one of the world’s finest 50 and 100m freestylers, over four Olympic Games from her debut in the 50m freestyle alongside sister Cate in London 2012 and onto Olympic 4x100m relay gold in Rio in 2016, Tokyo in 2020 and Paris in 2024.

Forging an intricate part of Australia’s freestyle relay dynasty that has dominated the international stage for the past 15 years winning the last four Olympic gold medals since London 2012.

Bronte the younger member of swimming’s famous “Campbell Sisters” who became synonymous with another golden era of Australian women’s swimming.

Everyone knew Cate and Bronte – the girls who were born in Malawi and arrived in Australia in 2001, taking swimming by storm. Bronte swimming at the Australian Youth Olympic Festival in 2009 and in 2011 she represented Australia at the FINA World Junior Championships in Peru, where she won a gold medal in the 50m freestyle.

Twelve months later the sisters were off to their first Olympics in London together. They made history as the second Australian sisters to compete in the same swimming event at the same Olympic Games – joining Karen and Narelle Moras who along with Shane Gould swam in the 800m freestyle at the 1972 Munich Games.

ALL SMILES: Bronte Campbell fell in love with the water and became one off the golden girls of a special gene pool. Photo Courtesy Delly Carr (Swimming Australia).

Bronte telling News Limited’s Stellar Magazine in an exclusive retirement announcement that London 2012 was a dream come true.

“Cate and I had always talked about going to the Olympics together with the surety of a child,” Campbell said of the siblings’ vow, which would prove to be well founded. “So to touch the wall in that (Trials) race and see Cate come first – and I’d come second – was special.”

BRONTE’S RETIREMENT sees the end of a special era in Australian swimming’s history – the last of the 4x100m freestyle golden girls from Rio to call time on the sport that has given her and the Australian sporting public so much joy.

The fifth and final member of the 2016 team, joining Emma McKeon, Madi Wilson, Brittany Elmslie and sister Cate in calling time on their careers.

Campbell leaves the sport as one of the most resilient and dominant sprint freestyle swimmers in Australian history, a foundation pillar of Australia’s world-record-breaking 4x100m freestyle relay squads.

Celebrating a career that unfolded across the next 14 years, Campbell would go on to win three Olympic gold medals (all of them in the 4 x 100m women’s freestyle relay), five Commonwealth Games golds (including individual gold in the 100m freestyle in 2018 on the Gold Coast) and five golds at the World Championships (including the 50 and 100m in 2015)

ACTION PACKED: Bronte Campbell’s style of a champion. Photo Courtesy Delly Carr (Swimming Australia).

At the 2015 World Championships in Kazan, Bronte became only the third woman in history to win the individual 50m and 100m freestyle double at a single world meet.

But revealing that post Paris, where she played her part as a heat swimmer in the 4x100m freestyle, retirement was not on her radar.

“If you’d asked me this time last year, I would have said I’m pretty certain I’ll be back in the pool,” she said, explaining that she deliberately gave herself two years off following the 2024 Paris Games.

“I mapped out the next two years of what it would look like to train between now and [the 2028 Olympics in] Los Angeles.

“Even now, I can see that vision. But I just started getting really excited about the possibilities that exist outside of sport for me, and where I want to be in my life.

“I’m not stopping because I don’t believe I can do it anymore.

“What I have to say to myself is that not everything that is possible must be done. And to do something really well, you have to chase possibilities one at a time.

TOKYO GOLD IN THE WOMEN’S 4X100M FREESTYLE: (L-R) Bronte Campbell, Meg Harris, Emma McKeon and Cate Campbell. Photo Courtesy Delly Carr (Swimming Australia).

“What I’ve always loved about swimming is converting your potential. I feel very at peace with what I’ve managed to do in the sport.

“I spent a bit of time until it felt right and when I’ve mentioned this to a few people and said, ‘I’m going to retire,’ they’ve said, ‘Is this a good thing?’ I’m like, ‘Yes!’ It’s a decision I’ve made and I’m excited. The best chapters of my life are still to come.”

Her past role as president of the Australian Swimmers’ Association from 2018 to 2023 – where she was instrumental in improving financial stability for athletes and introducing maternity leave schemes – also means Campbell leaves her sport in a better place than when she started out.

As for the future of swimming, Campbell is excited to see what our up-and-coming stars will bring to it.

“I’ve always loved being around this next generation of swimmers. They’re all different and inspiring in their own ways, and they’re going to take what we built and make it their own,” she tells Stellar.

“It’s not going to look like the carbon copy of what my contemporaries and I built. It will be their own version, and I can’t wait to see what that is.”

RIO GOLD IN THE WOMEN’S 4X100M FREESTYLE: (L-R) Emma McKeon, Brittany Elmslie, Bronte Campbell,  and Cate Campbell. Photo Courtesy Delly Carr (Swimming Australia).

“I swim in the ocean a lot, and in the saltwater pools around Sydney,” she says.

“I don’t even count my laps. I just swim until the moment, I’m freezing cold and then I get out, and that’s what it looks like.

“I still love the water. I feel so lucky to have gotten to the end of my sporting career and still really love the sport, which I’ve seen people have to leave because of injury – or they fall out of love with it,” she adds. “And that’s heartbreaking.

“It’s been such a big part of my life.

“So I feel very grateful that I’ve been able to sort of choose this on my own, still have strong love for the sport, but feel ready to say goodbye to it at the same time.”

Campbell has also been filling her days pursuing a new passion she didn’t initially realise could exist for her away from the pool. In 2020, alongside fitness entrepreneur Libby Babet and intellectual property lawyer Chris Raleigh, she co-founded athleisure brand Earthletica.

FINAL WAVE: Bronte Campbell signs off with a stellar career. Photo Courtesy Delly Carr (Swimming Australia)

The company’s mission has grown beyond its initial push for environmental sustainability to produce activewear that’s better suited for and receptive to women’s bodies.

“I’ll definitely miss competing,” she adds. “I love racing; I love standing behind the blocks; I love that feeling just before the gun goes, when your heart is racing, you can barely get your breath and your hands are shaking, and you’re just about to step up and see what you can do.

“I got to be one of the best in the world. I’m just not sure I’ll be one of the best in the world at any other one thing.

“I’m not sure I’ll get that exact feeling again,” she says. “But I think I can get similar feelings from multiple things, in multiple places, in my life.”

Bronte Campbell’s major international podium finishes across elite senior competitions include:

Olympic Games

World Championships (Long Course)

World Championships (Short Course)

Commonwealth Games

A trip down memory lanes with Bronte Campbell….photos Courtesy Delly Carr (Swimming Australia)