There was some sweet karma directed at a member of the Australian swim team. Cate Campbell, 32, went viral for her epic trashing of the US Swim Team during the 2023 World Championships. We’ll get into what she said in a bit, but it infuriated Michael Phelps, who admitted that he would use her words for motivation if he were still competing, hoping to make every Australian swimmer eat them, too. Well, for Campbell, she ate it first.
To be fair, Campbell is one of Australia's greatest swimmers. She’s had a great career, but her criticism of the US team returned to haunt her. She failed to qualify for the 2024 Olympics in Paris and ended up retiring from the sport (via People):
Team USA will not have a chance to face Australian Cate Campbell at the upcoming Paris Summer Olympics after the swimmer failed to qualify for the Games over the weekend.
The Australian swimmer, who earned the ire of 23-time American gold medalist Michael Phelps last week for bragging about beating Team USA at the 2023 World Championships, finished seventh place in the 50m freestyle at the 2024 Australian Swimming Trials on Saturday, June 15.
[…]
"This is the end and it's a perfect way to exit the pool,” she said, confirming the end of her competitive career.
"I would have loved that fairytale ending more than anything else, but I can now sit back and reflect on a wonderful career, I can leave the sport with my head held really high," Campbell continued. "I came back to try something that no one's done before and I gave it a really good crack. My God, I gave it a really good crack."
[…]
In the interview, Campbell had complained that her U.S. rivals were “such, such, sore losers” after Australia won more gold medals at the World Championships.
“Australia coming out on top is one thing, but it is just so much sweeter beating America,” Campbell said in the 2023 interview. “There were a couple of nights, particularly the first night of competition, where we did not have to hear the ‘Star Spangled Banner’ ring out through the stadium and I cannot tell you how happy that made me. If I never hear that song again it will be too soon. Bring on Paris, that’s all I have to say. U.S., stop being sore losers.”
For Campbell, there’s no “bring on Paris” moment.
Phelps’ reaction was what you’d expect.
“If somebody said that to me, I would lose it,” he said. “I would make them eat every word they just said about me. Well, the good news is the Olympics will be here shortly and we’ll be able to see what the results are,” he added.
Even with Campbell gone, Team USA should still look to crush Australia and anyone else.