Brianna Throssell

Brianna Throssell burst onto the swimming scene at the 2014 Youth Olympic Games, where she won seven bronze medals. Her impressive haul included individual bronze in the 200m freestyle, 100m butterfly and 200m butterfly events.

After winning the silver medal at the 2016 Australian National Championships, Brianna made her Olympic debut in Rio 2016. 

Brianna came third in both her 200m butterfly heat and semi-final, qualifying for her first Olympic final. In the final, she swam 2:07.87 to finish eighth.

Following the Olympics, Brianna went on to compete at the 2018 Commonwealth Games where she won bronze in the 200m butterfly and gold in the 4x200m freestyle relay.

The 25-year-old continue her podium streak at the 2019 FINA World Championships, winning gold in the 4x100m and 4x200m freestyle relays.

At the 2021 Australian National Championships, Brianna claimed the national title in the 200m butterfly, with a time of 2:07.20, which qualified her for her second Olympic Team.

At Tokyo 2020 she placed eighth in the final of the 200m butterfly. But it was in the relays that she shone through, winning gold in the 4x100m medley relay and bronze in the 4x200m freestyle and the mixed medley.

The talented West Australian carried her form through to 2022 when she again helped Australia to world championships, swimming as a relay alternate in the 4x100m freestyle relay. But she took her place in the Dolphins quartet for the finals of the 4x200m freestyle and 4x100m medley relays in which Australia took bronze. She also swam in the heats of the 4x100m mixed medley relay in which Australia placed second behind the USA.

At her second Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in 2022, Brianna took home bronze medals in the 100m and 200m butterfly.

Brianna was part of the Australian team that claimed gold in world record time in the 4x200m freestyle relay at the 2023 world championships in Fukuoka, Japan.

The combined time of the team – Brianna, Mollie O’Callaghan, Shayna Jack and Ariarne Titmus – of 7:37.50 lopped almost two seconds off the previous world record the Aussies set in Birmingham.

Brianna’s medal haul from the 2024 world championships in Doha brought her combined total from six world title campaigns to 18 (six gold, nine silver and three bronze).

In Doha, she won bronze in the women’s 200m freestyle as well as gold in the women’s 4x100m medley relay, silver in the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay, the mixed 4x100m freestyle relay and the mixed 4x100m medley relay and bronze in the women’s 4x200m freestyle relay.

At the 2024 Australian Open Championships on the Gold Coast, Brianna claimed silver in the 100m butterfly with a PB of 56.77, making her the fourth-best Australian woman ever.

She booked her ticket to Paris as a 4x200m relay swimmer when she finished fourth in the 200m freestyle in an impressive time of 1:55.74.

Coach Dean Boxall has described Brianna as the “unsung hero” of the Australian swimming team.

“Bri is just there … and she has always been there … for 12 years and now she [is] in a program that works really hard,” he said. “She’s a swimmer who keeps trying to push and finding a way to get better.”

Brianna was awarded an Order of Australia in the 2022 Australia Day Honours.

She has a physiotherapy degree from the University of Notre Dame in Perth.