Olympic swimmer Cate Campbell who admits she ‘choked’ during the 2016 Rio Olympics has written a powerful letter to the ‘keyboard warriors’ that trolled her after the event.
The 26-year-old was tipped to win the 100metres freestyle final in Rio 2016, but instead she came in sixth place.
She also lost out on placing in the 50metres event a few days later by finishing fifth, and many online trolls hit out at the young swimmer, saying: ‘I lost money on you!’
The Olympic swimmer who admits she ‘choked’ during the 2016 Rio Olympics has written a powerful letter to the ‘keyboard warriors’ that trolled her after the event
In her letter, she calls out her ‘faceless’ critics saying that they couldn’t possibly have been more disappointed in her than she was in herself.
‘You could not have been more ashamed of me than I was of myself,’ she wrote.
‘You could not possibly have judged me harsher than I was (and to an extent still am) judging myself.’
Campbell has now heralded herself as ‘Australia’s poster girl for failing’.
‘I became the real personified version of Buzz Lightyear’s quote from Toy Story when he says ‘that wasn’t flying, that was falling with style’,’ she wrote.
‘And if I have learned anything throughout this whole experience, it’s that the flying might not be as important as the falling.’
In her letter, she calls out her ‘faceless’ critics saying that they couldn’t possibly have been more disappointed in her than she was in herself
She said that her own fear of failure was what destroyed her possibility for success, and stressed the importance of changing the way the world views failing.
It takes a whole lot of work to get to a place where failure is possible, Campbell wrote, and she said it is the same place where success is possible.
She explained that she had a long time to process what went wrong, and that there are ‘many, many’ reasons why – none of which she feels the need to justify, although she did at the time.
‘For future reference, when you see someone choking, it’s not because they don’t care – it’s because they care too much,’ she wrote.
‘And I cared.’
She continues to describe how much she cared about bringing joy to people with her performance, about reflecting the brilliance of her coach and her team, about all the sacrifices her family made and because she’d worked for and wanted this more than anything else in her life.
She said people were correct to judge her because she couldn’t take the pressure, but that they shouldn’t judge her for not caring enough.
‘I take full responsibility for my actions and performance (or lack thereof),’ she said.
To conclude, she asked people to think about whether they are ‘qualified to level the criticism or insult that is at your fingertips’, before attacking someone online.
‘And so, dear Keyboard Warriors, thank you for listening,’ she said.
‘In closing I’d just like to say: A little kindness goes a long way – but the reverse is also true.’
Earlier this month, Campbell secured a Gold medal in the freestyle final at the Pan Pacific Championships – also recording the fastest split in history.
Campbell has now heralded herself as ‘Australia’s poster girl for failing’
‘I became the real personified version of Buzz Lightyear’s quote from Toy Story when he says ‘that wasn’t flying, that was falling with style’,’ she wrote