The sisters already have won a gold each at Rio 2016 after powering Australia to victory in the 4x100m freestyle relay.
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Mack Horton also missed a medal, finishing sixth in the 1500m final.
Seemingly not satisfied, Cate smashed her own world record at the Brisbane Grand Prix just a month back.whopping 52.06 seconds. “Going into this week I thought the goal was obviously two golds. It’s been a massive week, really”, Horton said after the race. “It’s been on for eight days and my body’s kind of been on the edge of getting sick for the last couple of days”, he said.
“I’m hoping what I can do in Rio is give some people hope that even though there are some tough things going on in the world, you just have to keep fighting”, Manuel told TIME. “I was called a try-hard in school and I guess that I just proved all my teachers right”, she said.
Manuel, a 20-year-old Stanford student, recognizes that what she does in Rio can resonate far beyond the Olympics.
Campbell, who took Australia from fifth to second place in the last 100 metres, said it was “very satisfying” to medal, after the missing the podium in the 100 metres and 50 metres freestyle.
Of the 16 to go through to the semis, Bronte Campbell was fourth fastest, Cate seventh, and defending champion Ranomi Kromowidjojo of the Netherlands was equal eighth along with Canada’s Chantal Van Landeghem.
The silver medal went to Simone Manuel (24.09) from the United States of America with Aliaksandra Herasimenia (24.11) bagging the bronze to round out the top three.
Speaking to Channel 7 after the race Cate said “It wasn’t my best”.
“The world got to witness possibly the greatest choke in Olympic history a couple of nights ago. It hurts, but you know, maybe I’ll stick around for another four years”.
“I’ve done it under the stress, made the final, so less stress tomorrow night, the bus turns up, it will be all good”. It’s just not what you’re supposed to do.
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After having set another Olympic record when qualifying for the women’s 100m freestyle final at the Rio Games, all bets were on Cate Campbell and her sister Bronte to win the top medals on the final showdown.
