Original subtitles

[Peter] All right. Hey-up!

Hang on, timer's ready. Are you guys ready, team? Come on!

-[man] The last 20... -Here we go.

Yeah, hut!

[man exclaims]

There's nothing more important to a swimmer

than time.

[man cheering]

That ticking clock is a constant reminder of the pressure swimmers face everyday.

[timekeeper] Ready! Go!

[Hanson] Time has different meanings at opposite ends of your career.

[Cody] In swimming,

it's all about who can get their hand on the wall first.

It's you and the clock, and the seven others in the pool with you.

The Olympics is every 1,461 days. You don't get to pick what day it is.

You can't be sick, injured or tired.

Once every four years, you've got 30 seconds.

On that day, you have to be your absolute best.

That's the moment to achieve your goal. That's it. It's insane.

[Kyle] If I miss the team this year,

I don't get to go to the Olympics, which sucks.

But you lose your sponsors.

You don't get funded by Swimming Australia.

And there's no real transition.

"You're not on the team anymore, you're not really our priority."

[Hanson] Years can sometimes push a body out of contention.

There's periods where you wake up and it's easier to kind of go,

"Which part of my body isn't sore today?"

[Hanson] But whether you're looking at today, tomorrow,

next week, 10 years down the track, it never ever stops.

[Rohan] I want to welcome everybody here.

Nice to see you just come back as a group.

The purpose of the Event Camps when they started in the '90s

was to bring our best athletes together to connect...

Haven't seen you for a year.

[Rohan] ...and build relationships, so when you're together,

it's more of that family feel.

[Thorpe] At these Event Camps,

we do things we wouldn't normally do at home.

But there's been an emphasis on enjoyment, how social it is,

hanging out with your friends,

rather than it being individual sport where you do laps.

[Bronte] Love you. And you said, "Love you."

-Love you, Ron. -"Love you, Ron."

This is great and exactly what I need.

[all laughing]

It's probably enjoying being around each other again.

There's a real sense of, "Just great to see you."

Smile.

And then get in, do your thing.

It's like a kid seeing all his friends for the first time in a while.

I need something to look forward to when I'm in training, in that pain.

[Brett] Did you get any butter?

-Do you eat butter? -No.

What's the biggest crowd you've played to? What venue?

Buenos Aires.

-Buenos Aires? -Yeah.

We did this festival with Bieber when I was 16.

-For like 60,000 people. -Really?

-It was like... -In a stadium?

-...a soccer stadium in Argentina. -Wow.

It was ridiculous.

Were you nervous before it?

You just walk out and you can't even...

You can't even look at anyone's face.

-It's just like a sea, you know? -Really?

Yeah, I mean, there's a...

You don't have time to focus on anyone in particular?

It just looks like ants.

That's where your lack of experience in swimming

can translate from your experience in performance.

Like a lot of people in swimming are striving to gain that experience

while you already have it, all you need to do is find a way to...

-Yeah. -...connect it.

Even though you have that lack of experience

in athletic performance.

-Yeah. -Those things are exactly similar.

They translate 100%, you know?

Cody is doing better in training than what was expected.

And I don't want him to limit himself,

and get the performance out of himself when he's so close to an Olympic Games.

[Brett] And we begin.

That's better. Better.

[Cody] Coming in, I knew how difficult it was going to be.

You really do need a serious personal motivation

to be pursuing a sport like this,

especially one that's as grueling as it can be.

[Brett] I want speed, I want race.

Fast as you can, now.

We need to swim faster.

We've been training now at 53 level for the past few weeks.

[Cody grunts]

[Brett] We need to test that. He needs to prove that he can go 53.

That one tickle?

[Cody] I can just as easily psych myself up as I can out.

I find that's often a very fragile seesaw.

You know, I have to find myself in the right time

at the right moment, mentally, to be able to do what I want to do.

[Brett] We've swum the Olympic qualifying time.

He's gone 54.9, but he's still not fast enough.

He's getting trapped in the feeling of the hurt, and the pain.

And then when it's over, he's rejoicing.

You need to rejoice during the hurt and pain.

That's part of the process. That's just lack of experience.

It's not a lack of will or want.

No one loves to live in pain.

You have to learn to live in it.

[Thorpe] When lactic acid actually hits sprinters,

it's far earlier than what a middle-distance swimmer will have.

And you have to put your body on the line

and find how much you can make yourself hurt.

'Cause pain tells you not to do something for a good reason.

Set, hut!

So it's a really high intensity set. Bit of rest so the lactate builds.

It's a good chance to get 'em going head-to-head.

In a friendly, but competitive environment.

[Kyle] Hut! Ho!

Ho!

Thirty seconds. Doing a great job, girls.

So they're doing four 50s.

This will be the first wave going together.

Go!

Cate, Emma and Bronte,

these three are essentially competing against each other.

They're three of the top five female swimmers in the world.

And most countries, you're lucky to have one in the top five in the world.

Yes, we're competing as a team,

but they're still competing against each other.

It'll be a good old ding-dong battle.

[Kyle] Hey! Ho!

[Jess] What we record is their time.

[coach] Six-one, Bronte. Five-eight. And hook...

[Jess] And then we'll record their stroke rate.

That's how many arm rotations to the minute.

And then we'll also get a stroke count.

So, how many stroke cycles they're taking for the lap.

What these two things tell us,

the stroke rate and count, tells us how efficient they are.

You want a low stroke count and a low stroke rate,

means they're holding a lot of water.

If they're taking a lot of strokes really fast,

means they're spinning on the spot.

They're taking too many strokes and they're not efficient.

All right, Bronte 68.

Bronte is 688.

Cate, 62.

Ready, go!

[Simon] You're trying to maintain toughness, technique under fatigue.

-Let's move it now. -Two! One!

Remember, a 100 is often won in the last five meters

for those who can maintain posture best in the water.

[Bronte] Lactation, in a swimming context,

is basically when your cells respire anaerobically.

So without oxygen, they create a waste product,

which is lactic acid.

Which is that burning feeling you get when you're really fatigued.

And that builds up in the muscles then put in the bloodstream to clear it.

We can measure it in the bloodstream.

The goal for lactate tolerance sets are to get your lactate as high as possible.

To get yourself in enough pain and keep the speed going.

You gotta expose yourself to that high level to push further,

you gotta find your limit, the point where your muscles give up.

They've gotta be exposed to that level of pain

and waste product in them, before they can learn how to deal with it.

I lactate pretty high.

So when I first started, getting my lactate to 16 was like,

"Oh, my goodness, this is the most pain I've been in."

I couldn't ever go harder than that. I can now get my lactate above 24.

So, like... Your body adapts to it. You've gotta find the edge.

It's a good measurement of you getting better.

[coach] Ready, hut!

[Kyle] Nice job.

[people applauding]

[Kyle] Eight-eight over there.

And seven-nine-seven.

Seven-nine-seven.

-Great job. -[Bronte] Thanks, guys.

That pain is kind of addictive

and it's a great way to know that you're achieving something everyday.

[Hanson] I think the National Event Camp

can really bring the best of the best together.

To have Thorpie walk in...

Some of them would never have met Ian Thorpe.

Some of them would have got his autograph as a youngster.

I think that's part of the legacy that our greats leave.

[Thorpe] I was looking at not only what Australia's doing

in the 200 freestyle, but what everyone is doing,

and I actually think there's a lot of people swimming incorrectly.

I look at the capability of anyone that actually swims it differently

can actually win this race at the Olympic Games.

I went to the Event Camp to, one, show my support for swimmers,

but also contribute to what they're doing

and talking of what my experience had been like at an Olympic games.

What I'm calling you out on

is having another way of swimming 200 meters freestyle

where you put your body on the line and you're really prepared to hurt

so that you can get the result that you want.

From my experience, that first 50 goes easily

and you can get 50 meters of easy fast swimming

out of yourself with very little effort. It's just flowing...

[Hanson] Thorpie's technical prowess

was head and shoulders above the rest of the world.

He strove for absolute perfection.

And that made him the greatest swimmer we've seen.

[Thorpe] It's a way of swimming that is more lactic acid intensive.

That's all it is.

But you've also set your body up,

that you're starting to process lactate at the same time,

so you should be able to deliver on that last lap.

[all applauding]

Okay, thanks, guys.

[Hanson] The big question at the Event Camp,

particularly because it's so close to the Olympic Games

given the COVID cancellation of Tokyo,

is, "Will it be on? Won't it be on?"

That's the big question.

[Tessa] What are you doing...

-Yeah. -You do that.

Great.

[Tessa] And then we'll find out about the whole thing after that.

Yeah, in my mind there's so much chat about it.

-But I'm just... -I know.

Just gotta believe 100% it's going ahead. All the people that matter said that.

And they... Like, all the people that matter are saying that.

It's just frustrating when people are asking you all the time.

-[Tessa] Yeah. I know... -Yeah.

The officials say that it's going ahead, so I'm going with that,

because, what am I training for?

I'd rather be prepared for something that doesn't happen

than, like, not prepare, and then probably not even make it.

-Yeah. -And also, like,

what the fuck else are we going to be doing?

I know.

-This is it. This is what we do. -I know.

[Bronte] People want a clear answer. I have no idea what's happening.

I've got nothing to tell them anyway.

[Rohan] All right, the main focus is getting to Tokyo

and how we're going to pick our team.

We're very hopeful that trials will go ahead as normal.

But as we sit here,

we've got one state who can't come to the camp because of one case.

And if the trials were on today, that would be a problem.

We're very fortunate, we have a pretty straightforward selection process,

but we do need to prepare for contingencies.

There's three scenarios at the moment we're looking at.

If you can't make it to the trials

then we have a couple designated meets, prioritizing meets,

nationals, Sydney Open.

Say those meets, if you post a time there,

we can consider it based on the criteria, right?

Yeah, I think it's important to make sure that

you're maybe a little bit sharper at those designated meets. [laughs]

So, just to give the athletes time and coaches time to prepare.

-Come up with a plan. -Yeah.

You should let people know you're talking about it,

-'cause they're talking about it. -Yes.

We definitely need to get it out in the hands of everybody.

And this is where we're waiting on, as soon as possible,

as far as the details,

so everybody can prepare, take into account what is in front of us.

It's all about being resilient, looking back, being adaptable,

that there are scenarios we can't predict, but what we can do is prepare for it.

[Hanson] In a COVID year, you're walking on eggshells

not knowing if you're going to be able to race.

I think this group of coaches that we've got

are really, probably some of the best we've had.

Good young coaches, learning off some of the older coaches,

to prepare these athletes in a situation that they've never been in before.

Rohan Taylor is building this swim team around relays.

And the athletes absolutely love it.

They've bought into it.

They wanna be part of this. 'Cause they know there's medals to be won.

[Peter] And just with today's competition, guys, this is why we're here.

This is why we get you guys together, so we can really practice

getting our skill of our changeovers done really, really well.

[coach] This afternoon's all about re-familiarization with your changeovers.

The rules on a relay is when someone's finger touches the wall,

your toe has to be touching the blocks.

So we're trying to redial in on 0.15 of a second...

And be consistent around our sweet spot, which is...

[swimmers speaking indistinctly]

Point 0.10 to 0.15.

The reason that we go for 0.1 of a second

is when you get to competition, there's a bit more excitement,

and you're likely to go a little bit earlier.

[coach] If you're faster than that while training,

when you freshen up and you've got a few nerves at the big meet,

you can go too quick and that's what we wanna avoid.

[Peter] You'll sprint in as fast as you can, nail your finish,

give your teammate the best chance to nail their changeover,

they will then swim as fast as they can through to 15.

Here it is, boys, it's your time to shine!

Yep, yep, yep, yep!

Lane one was 0.11!

Lane two!

[Kyle] I'm a person that loves team culture.

Hut!

Come on!

[whistling]

[Kyle] I love relays with my team.

Any team work kind of thing, I love that team setting.

[Peter] Come on, guys, make the adjustments.

Make sure you're finishing well for your teammates.

I need that adrenaline flowing through me. I pride myself on that hard work.

When I can't do it...

[Peter] Come on, time to go!

[Kyle] ...I get stressed massively.

[Peter] Might have gone early.

Team one took over. That's why they wanted to be called that.

They made you guys look silly, I don't mean to be rude here.

In the right mindset, I believe I can win anything,

any distance on any given day.

It's probably not real...

it's obviously not realistic, but that's my mindset.

[Peter] Get 'em up.

Just warming up. Round one.

I was swimming well, then my shoulder didn't wanna cope.

I don't know how I'm gonna go, my shoulder's still sore.

You wanna fly kick?

-Yeah, I guess. -Fly kick under water?

[Kyle] Yeah. And it was the changeover stuff as well.

Still all right to dive? Or not?

I don't know. It's very sore.

-I can grind through... -His shoulder is sore.

We could get someone in.

He could kick, he isn't diving in.

[Craig] But if he drops in and fly kicks with fins...

[Peter] In the water? Just fly kick the fins?

Yeah. I'll lead-off?

[Peter] You lead-off, goes around twice.

-You stay in the water each time. -Yeah.

[Peter] Lane four.

Take your marks. Hut!

I could see that he was swimming solid

without really trying to wind it up too much.

And he loves to go for these things.

So once he starts mentioning that it's getting sore, then we do know.

'Cause normally, he's not gonna tell me.

[WOMAN ANNOUNCING OVER P.A.]

Make sure we are set up, mate.

[Hanson] Athletes have had major issues leading up to the Olympics.

Some of them have overcome those issues,

and that's what makes an Olympian an Olympian.

When things don't go according to plan,

you overcome that, you reach the top of the mountain.

[Kyle] I love the first few days 'cause I get to see my mates.

I haven't seen them for a year. "This is fantastic."

When my shoulder started hurting,

it changed and went, "This week is shitass."

-This one's out now. -Who's that?

-Bronte. -[Peter] Bronte's out? No good?

Is it neck or...

-[coach] Back. -...back with her?

It's a bugger.

It's nearly, it gets wound up, and things really start to tighten.

So...

It's been going on since late 2015.

The nervous system's just really reactive.

Um, I'm going to go try and get treatment today,

some physio.

Probably physio.

Or a massage if you don't get into the physio.

It's a thing with older athletes. We got to keep managing them through.

They're not as robust as they were before, you know, in their late teens.

It's more about trying to manage them

so that way we can get as many effective training days as we can.

If the Olympics were pushed back again,

it would be sad for someone like Bronte Campbell

because I don't think that her body would hold up for another four years.

Hello, Ms. Clare.

[Hanson] They won't delay it, they'll just go straight to Paris in 2024.

Yeah, we may not see her swim again.

Nice and straight. Yep.

-Yeah, that's not great. [laughs] -No, that's not great at all.

And the other way.

-The other way's better. -That's better.

-This way's... -Okay.

-The whole thing's wrapped up. -Gotcha.

I'm feeling it blocking there, but I think that bit won't move.

You're right.

I know the cost 'cause it's high highs and it's really low lows.

And it's like, I mean, for me, my body's half broken.

It's living in pain for extended periods of time.

[Simon] Generally, the thing that pulls up their careers is injury.

Most swimmers, their shoulders have a time limit.

You are like a little rock through here, young lady.

Yes.

[Simon] For the really good swimmers, we can continue to manage them through

and we like to keep them around because they add so much.

Even if they're not at the very best,

they add so much to the relays and also the development

of the level of the swimmers coming through behind them.

[Clare] One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10,

eleven, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20.

-Yeah, we beat the record by one. -[Bronte] Yay.

-[Bronte] Good on us. -Go us.

[Clare] I'm gonna leave them in for about five minutes.

[Kyle] I think we're swimming tomorrow. Let me have a look...

-We're swimming 9:00 to 11:30 anyway. -[Luke] Yeah.

-We're probably not gonna leave until... -[Luke] Yeah.

So I can swim tonight and tomorrow?

It's not gonna change what we do tomorrow. It'll be sore.

They're telling me, "Let's do this easy,

"have a recovery day to focus on tomorrow."

I'm like, "No, this is the Olympic year. Let me do what I wanna do."

All right?

[Kyle] I know they have an important part.

They need to do that 'cause otherwise I will end up in trouble again.

So what are you thinking?

[Luke] So if he does whatever he's gotta do now, and you do it tomorrow,

then he has Wednesday off, and then gets into everything on Thursday.

Yeah.

His external rotation stuff is pretty poor.

-Yeah. -And he... 'Cause his scapula's so mobile

he just defaults away from the external rotation stuff

-and just moves his scap. -Yeah.

I had to physically hold him still in the right position

for him to actually do some.

And then it was like, "That's really hard to do."

[Peter] Yeah.

He was gonna do a... You don't have to do it.

What we gotta do is do a relay tomorrow at the end of the session planned.

-Is it too much? -[Luke] Yeah.

-Go with a four. -Have to see how sore...

-Four-hundred relay? -[Peter] Yeah.

He doesn't have to go max on it, but...

Think it's too much?

With what I saw just then, he'd be better off not racing tomorrow.

-Yeah. -Yeah.

-Yeah. Yeah. -Yeah. No problems.

All right. Appreciate it, guys. Beautiful. [sighs]

[piano playing]

[Cody] As you can see, I don't play piano very well.

[playing jaunty tune]

[singing] Stir... Stir it up...

[people laughing]

[Brett] What?

Little darlin', stir it up

[Cody laughs]

Little darlin', oh

That's all I know. [laughs]

[Brett] Bob would be proud.

[Cody singing] I'm sleeping through the day

I'm trying not to fade

But every single night I've just been lying awake

'Cause I

I can't get you off my mind...

[Cody] I knew coming into this sport,

especially already as somebody that's well-known,

or a public figure, to come into swimming, which is such a cut-throat sport...

[singing] I can't get you off my mind...

...there's gonna be a lot of judgment a lot of preconceived notions and...

[singing] Give me the chance to love you

I'll tell you the only reason why

'Cause you are on my mind...

I kind of have to just figure out how to ignore,

so that I can perform at my best.

[singing] What do you see when you close your eyes?

'Cause that stuff can get in the way of your ability to swim well.

[singing] ...on my mind

You finish up on his shoulder, then put it there.

-All right. -Smell it.

-Yeah. -Can smell it from here.

Really potent.

[Hanson] Time trials are tough.

I mean, it's you, the clock and the lane.

The mental strength, talking about a time trial by itself,

it's probably the ultimate test.

Those things will be full of blood and ready to go when you need 'em.

-I hope so. -They're not gonna be waiting.

-Thank you. -[woman] You're welcome.

Usually, before you race, before you do time trials,

you clip or you buzz most of the hair off your body,

you know, chest, armpits, legs, all that stuff, so...

Figured I'd just do the top too. Feels faster.

[Brett] You want to be an Olympian, let's go right now.

Attack, man. Get it, get it, get it!

[Cody] I get really deep in my own head, and I have insecurities

or doubts as everybody has.

I don't wanna croak when it's important.

I wanna be able to thrive under that kind of pressure.

I do in other fields in my life.

Gotta figure out how to relate it to swimming.

It's like thriving under the eyeballs.

[Brett] Power, baby, power!

[supporter] Go, Cody!

[whistle blows]

[Cody] I just gotta try and focus.

I've gotta break 54 seconds.

[announcer] Take your mark.

[buzzer sounds]

[people cheering]

Go! Go! Go! Go!

[people continue cheering]

[Brett] All right, he's out. He's out, he's out. Yeah, come on!

[Cody] I knew I was going out pretty well. I started to focus on my breath.

Turned at the wall, it started to hurt, but once you see where you gotta reach,

on the way back, you gun it.

[supporter whistling]

[Brett] Finish!

[Brett] What is it? What is it?

Come on. Yeah!

-[people cheering] -Yeah, there it is!

Yes! Yes!

Started off well, mate, out in 48. That's beautiful.

53.85, that's a full second under the last time he did it.

Good job, bro.

You set that up in the first 50. It was beautiful. 48.

You know, I can't quantify

how talented he is compared to other people.

All I can do is judge him on his work ethic.

And he's got the best work ethic out of any swimmer I've ever coached.

[Brett] Really stepped forward. [Cody] Taking off half a second...

[Brett] No, you took off a full second...

[Rohan] Hey, everybody.

We're going to Tokyo. We don't know what'll happen,

we're still not sure of the conditions.

One thing we do know is it'll be different,

and it's gonna be something we've never experienced.

Ultimately, we're there to compete.

We're there to perform when it matters, we've gotta be able to do that.

We gotta do that in the morning, not at night.

We're gonna have a competition this morning.

Okay? We'll split you into two teams.

Team Green and Team Gold.

You'll be competing, it'll be point score,

Team Green will go first

and then when they're done, Team Gold can go.

Enjoy.

[Kyle] What am I gonna do? [Peter] You'll just warm-up.

[Kyle] Can I do one race?

I spoke to Luke about a race opportunity at the moment.

-and he said no. -Really?

-Yes. -What about I speak to Luke?

'Cause he told me I could do... I wouldn't do any damage.

I said, "He's in one race tomorrow. Is that gonna be good or bad?"

-And they said... -What's the race?

Relays. Four by one or something.

-Short course? -Yeah.

It's 60 meters under water.

I hear you, mate. Settle down.

Settle down.

[Kyle sighs]

[Peter] Rather you race at Trials than race here.

[Kyle] Bish is going, "Slow down, take it easy."

And I was actually quite emotional.

And I kinda just went,

"Just please stop telling me to slow down.

"This is the Olympic year. Let me swim fast."

[Kyle] I'm gonna call the doctor.

[phone ringing]

[Kyle] I so want to do it.

Those guys doing it are my rivals at the end of the day.

They're my mates and my rivals

that I'll be racing against to qualify for the Olympic Games.

Nothing.

If I can't do what they're doing now, I start getting into a bad mindset,

I start stressing out and going, "Oh, shit."

It's not good for your mind.

-[producer] He's ignoring you -I think he is.

-Bish told them, "Don't pick up." -Yeah.

If Kyle had his way, he would have swum. They love to race. That's what they do.

He was a bit disappointed. He wanted to have a crack.

There's plenty of ego around, too.

Put it in the male sprinters, that's why you have coaches.

That's why you got doctors, medical staff in this day and age to say,

"Hey, Kyle, we don't need to do this right now."

There's some cotton wool that's involved in Bronte.

"Race when you gotta race. Don't take any risks."

And I think that's probably the coach. Once again,

no better coach than Simon Cusack,

who's known the Campbell girls from day one.

He's lived and breathed the ups and downs with both of them.

He knows when to push the buttons.

That wasn't a time to push the button. That'll come in the future.

The same question I always ask, "How's your body treating you?"

Yeah, it's all right. My body's holding together.

It's held together by sticky tape and physios,

but it is still holding together, and it's got a few months left in it.

[Thorpe] Bronte's looking at this being her final games.

Putting it out there that this is gonna be the last one,

makes it harder.

-Thanks. -Thanks.

Cheers.

We might break for some photos

-with Bronte... -Hot.

On top of that,

knowing you have injuries that may impact the rest of your life.

That is one of the things you have to accept as being part of sport.

-[Russell] I went down to Sydney. -To watch?

Yeah, on the middle weekends, hang around in Circular Quay,

[Bronte] Yeah.

Bars which were set up everywhere and everyone's having beers.

Then the guys from the rowing eight, who won the silver medal...

-[Bronte] Yeah. -...come walking through.

They have a chat and a beer with you.

Yeah, they really keep you in a bubble now.

I mean, it's kind of good actually, but...

it would've been nice for the home games.

That's my goal, to go to an Olympics.

[laughs]

-No, as a... -[Russell laughs]

Not as an athlete, just as a spectator.

-How're you doing? -[swimmer] Yeah, good.

-I'm doing all my races and yours. -You don't race?

-No. My back's cooked. -I know.

-Yeah, I'm not doing anything. -[Kyle] Oh, God.

I'm at a point where I'm like, there's something actually wrong.

[Kyle] Have you had a jab in it before?

No.

Never been that big of a problem. It's just now.

-Shoulder's good though. -Good.

We've converted.

-I used to be in the back. -I know.

Now it's the shoulder.

-I'll ask... -Pleasure doing business.

-...for some back advice. -Thank you.

[Bronte] See you. Good luck.

[people cheering]

[announcer] Let's hear it for Team Gold, guys.

[all cheering]

And for Team Green.

[all cheering]

[Kyle] It's a very challenging thing to sit back and watch.

I've done it so much over this period.

People don't understand or comprehend how hard it actually is, mentally.

I'll do the other side. Backstroke and freestyle.

You know, I was a backstroker when I was little.

-You? What do you like to swim? -[girl] Pardon?

-What's your favorite events? -[girl] Breaststroke.

Breaststroke?

I cannot do breaststroke. Those are so hard.

[announcer] Quiet, guys. We have the Gold Team.

[all cheering]

[announcer 2] Take your marks.

[buzzer sounds]

[all cheering]

How are they going?

Yeah, good. Matty's winning.

Matty. Look at Matty go.

Go, Matty!

Come on, Matty!

Part of not having a chip on my shoulder is I'm pretty content.

I've done a lot.

Looking back on it gives me a lot of satisfaction.

Doesn't mean you don't want more.

[Bronte cheering]

[all cheering]

[Kyle] So going off to see Luke Eggleston, the Swimming Australia doctor.

Been here quite a few times over the last six-month period.

This is my fifth cortisone in my shoulder

just to numb the pain for a while.

The perks of being a swimmer, mate.

Just numb it, numb it.

We're race horses at the end of the day.

It's like you just get needles and jabs

and get through with pain killers and anti-inflams.

The things you do to swim laps.

I'm a person that gets my confidence from racing and things I do in training.

If I'm training well, I'm a lot more confident

and up and about, I think.

If I'm not, then I'm like, "Fuck. I've got a long way to go."

[laughs]

So Trials is obviously the big thing.

There'll be competitions to participate in.

if I can get myself right.

But I guess the major one is making sure I'm good to go in June.

Gotta qualify for the team.

It's about getting on the team. That's everyone's focus.

I could potentially miss the team.

It's that cut-throat.

You could be bloody crook as on the day and not be able to race.

You never know.

[seagulls cawing]

[Cody] I'm just kidding.

Smile.

[indistinct chatter]

[woman] Hello.

-[Cody] Hello. -[Angie] Hello.

[women whooping]

-Your live time was awesome. You stoked? -Yeah.

A full second faster than my first official ones.

I just looked it up before.

That would've been top eight in Australia last year.

[man] Yeah.

-[Angie] The fly? -Yeah.

-[Angie] That's amazing. -Yeah.

[Cody] I'm on my way to be a finalist.

Well, I love you,

[Angie] Love you, too, and I'm really proud of you.

Have a great day.

You, too.

[Cody] The real journey for me in this is like just seeing how far I can take it,

Even if I get nowhere in swimming

and I can't necessarily regain what I had as a youngster,

my gold medal may be that I gave it everything I could

and I get to live the rest of my life with absolutely no regrets at all.

[Peter] To be able to get the whole of Australia together,

to have a meet...

It's been two years since a national championship,

so it's fantastic.

[Rohan] This would be the meet that signals we're getting ready for Trials.

I always felt the Olympic Trials was more pressure than the Olympics.

Because you get a bronze medal and you don't make the team.

[pop song playing]

[Kyle] I don't wanna think about the Olympics.

My first step is Olympic Trials.

I think I've got a pretty good legacy

with what I've done over the last few years

and what I hope to continue doing over the next few.

I've ticked a lot of boxes, but if I don't qualify,

then I can't think about Tokyo.

[Cody] The last time I was in a meet this kind of size

was 11, 12 years ago now.

So almost half my life ago.

Feels like a long time, but it feels like it was yesterday, too.

I feel like I'm just coming back home.

Am I excited? Yeah, I'm excited.

It's unprecedented in my life,

you know, the amount that's changed in one year.

So I gotta try and take it all in stride and not get too overwhelmed.

Not get too nervous.

[pop song continues]

Sport is finite. Your career can be over in an instant.

The endorphins of success, the squad that's familiar,

that's there for you, disappears over time.

It's something you have to accept as part of sport.

You do your best during your career to inspire another generation of athletes,

but I think the test of kind of being a true champion of sport

is what you're willing to give back after it.

The reason I swim, it's not for the 30 seconds every four years.

It's for the little moments in between. the competitions in between,

the people that I get to meet along the way.

It's the corniest thing ever of enjoying the journey

and realizing that there is no destination.

There's no end stop to it.

I'm always trying to get somewhere, and I'm never going to get there.

And that's why I want to keep on swimming.

I'm not ready to say goodbye to all of that. Yeah.

[pop song continues]

[announcer] Take your mark.

[buzzer sounds]