Cate Campbell‘s hopes of qualifying for a fifth Olympic Games are hanging by a thread after she failed to qualify for the 100m freestyle final at Australia’s Paris 2024 trials.
The 32-year-old swimming great missed out on qualifying for the final on Friday by just 0.01 of a second.
The eighth-placed qualifier, 17-year-old Milla Jansen, posted 54.26 seconds, pipping Campbell’s 54.27.
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Campbell’s personal best is 52.03 and she is the former world record holder, while her seed time for the trials was 53.23.
Her hopes of qualifying as either an individual 100m freestyle swimmer or a 100m freestyle relay swimmer are dashed.
Her only remaining path to the Dolphins’ Paris Games team is the 50m freestyle, but she will take to Saturday’s heats of the one-lap dash as only the third seed.
Athletes will earn a spot in the Olympic 50m freestyle if they finish in the top two in the final and hit Swimming Australia’s Olympic qualification time of 24.67.
Meg Harris progressed to the 100m freestyle final as the fastest qualifier, clocking 52.52.
The eight-swimmer field will be rounded out by Mollie O’Callaghan, Shayna Jack, Bronte Campbell, Olivia Wunsch, Emma McKeon, Brianna Throssell and Jansen.
Watch Australia’s Paris 2024 swimming trials on Nine and 9Now.
The incredibly deep field will be gunning for Swimming Australia’s Olympic entry standard of 53.61.
Campbell will take a seed time of 24.10 into Saturday’s 50m freestyle heats.
McKeon is the top seed with a time of 23.99 and Jack the second seed with a time of 24.01.
Cate’s younger sister, 30-year-old Bronte, had kind words in a brief chat with reporters.
“I’m obviously really disappointed for Cate,” Bronte said.
“She’s one of our most incredible athletes we’ve ever had in this event … She was our No.1 freestyler for 10, 11, 12 years in a row. That’s a feat that’s pretty much unmatched in Australian sporting history.
“I know she was a bit ill leading into this and had a rough last few weeks.
“I’m sure she’ll be disappointed because we all know she’s an incredible athlete and can swim a lot faster than that.”
Cate Campbell will become the first Australian swimmer to contest five Olympic Games if she scrapes onto the team on Saturday.
The Malawi-born champion won four relay gold medals across the London 2012, Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
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