Australian superstar swimmer Mollie O’Callaghan is recovering after dislocating her left knee last Saturday, she told SwimSwam. The injury was suffered by the opposite knee from the one she dislocated in 2023 while stretching ahead of the World Championships.
O’Callaghan, who confirmed the injury to SwimSwam, says that she’s taking it “step by step and focusing on healing.”
“I’ll be out of the water for a bit and sticking to modified training for now,” she said. “Luckily, my team and I have experience from my last injury, so we should have a good rehab plan set in place.”
O’Callaghan says that her knee’s structure combined with hypermobility makes her more susceptible to this kind of injury.
O’Callaghan injured her other knee in June of 2023 and at the World Championships in July still won five gold and one silver medal, including individual wins in the 100 and 200 free. The 200 free was a new World Record, indicating that at the time the knee didn’t hinder her.
Since the latest injury, O’Callaghan has been wearing a large brace. She says that she will be “out of the water for a bit and sticking to modified training for now.”
O’Callaghan, only 20, already has a career’s worth of international medals. Her 8 Olympic medals includes 5 gold, winning the 200 free individually at the Paris Games. Only five Australian athletes in history, all swimmers, have more Olympic medals than her.
She also has 8 World Championship gold medals in long course, 3 in short course, and 19 total World Championship medals; 5 Commonwealth Games gold medals; and a World Junior Championships silver from a relay in 2019.
