Bronte Campbell

Malawi born swimmer Bronte Campbell is one of five siblings and took up competitive swimming when she moved to Australia in 2001.

Bronte Campbell and older sister Cate were the first Australian sisters to compete in the same event at the same Olympics at the London 2012 Games, where Bronte finished fourth in her semi-final of the 50m freestyle to miss the final by 0.23 seconds, placing her 10th overall.

Four years later in Rio the siblings won gold together in the 4x100m freestyle relay. The relay team of Emma McKeon, Brittany Elmslie, Bronte and Cate broke the world record to be crowned Olympic Champions in a time of 3:30.65, bettering Australia's previous world-best mark of 3:30.98 set at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games.

In her individual events Bronte finished fourth in the 100m freestyle and seventh in the 50m freestyle.

Bronte was only the third swimmer in history to take the 50m and 100m freestyle double at a World Championships when she won in 2015. Bronte and Cate also became the first family to stand on a podium together as individuals in swimming history when Cate placed third in the 100m.

At the 2018 Commonwealth Games, Bronte broke two games records to earn gold in both the 100m freestyle and the 4x100m freestyle relay team.

A year later, at the 2019 World Championships, Bronte claimed gold in the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay and the mixed 4x100m medley relay, while taking silver in the mixed 4x100m freestyle relay event.

The Tokyo Games delivered not only another gold and world record in the 4x100m freestyle relay – with Bronte leading off with a sizzling leg of 53.01sec – but she also claimed the third Olympic medal of her career with a bronze in the mixed medley relay.

When she returned from Tokyo, Bronte decided to take an 18-month break from swimming to reassess and refresh.

“After the Tokyo Olympics I really needed a break, to do something different with my life other than swimming,” he says. “It was an all-consuming thing for 21 years.

"It was not just my mind that needed the break, but also my body.

"I took the 18 months, and to be honest I flipped between, 'Yeah, I can't wait to swim again' to, 'Wow, life without training every day is quite good'."

Life without training meant a 9-5 job for the first time in her life, taking on a business consulting role with Ernst & Young in Sydney and feeling like a "normal person".

There were also some television appearances – on Celebrity Apprentice Australia and the documentary Head Above Water – and she launched her own swim gear range.

But in early 2023, Bronte returned to training with a view to making the team for her fourth Olympics.

"There's still a little part of me that thought, 'I want to see what can happen if I apply everything I've ever learnt in my career and see where that gets me to’,” she says.

"That break means all my injuries are in a good state. The main driver for me, apart from the fact I love it, is the curiosity of what might happen this time around. If I didn't scratch that itch, I'd probably regret it."

After the shock of returning to early morning wake-up calls and long hours of training, she knew she had made the right call the first time she stood on the blocks.

“Love this moment, when you get up on the blocks and it all goes quiet just before the gun goes,” Bronte said on social media at the time. 
“When people ask me why I came back; it’s for this. When you get to test yourself and see what you’re capable of.”

Results have been promising. Bronte has competed in World Cup events in Hungary, Germany and Greece, winning bronze medals in 100m freestyle and 50m freestyle and gold in the mixed 4x100m medley relay and the 4x100m freestyle replay.

At the 2023 Australian National Shortcourse Championships, she won gold in the 50m freestyle and100m freestyle.

Early in 2024, she picked up a gold in the 50m freestyle at the NSW State Championships, along with silver in the 100m freestyle.

She made the final of the 100m freestyle at the 2024 Australian championships on the Gold Coast in April, then nailed down her place in Paris as a relay swimmer by finishing fourth in the 100m final at the Olympic trials in Brisbane.