Paris Olympics: Lani Pallister Overcomes COVID 'Roller Coaster' to ...

Paris Olympics: Lani Pallister Overcomes COVID ‘Roller Coaster’ to Win Gold, Qualify For 800 Free Final

She arrived in Paris fully expecting a career week. Lani Pallister withdrew from the 400 freestyle to place her focus on the 800 and 1500-meter distances, both events in which she entered ranked among the top-six in the world, and contributing to an Australian 800 free relay team that was heavily favored to win gold. “I’ve worked so hard, and if I pulled out my logbook and showed you sets and what I’ve done, in my mind, it’s unbelievable,” Pallister said.

Then COVID happened. Pallister — and everyone else — assumed these Olympics would be free of concern for the disease after the highly-restrictive Tokyo Games three years ago, but the 22-year-old Sydney-native quickly learned otherwise Monday evening when she tested positive. Pallister’s initial instinct was to swim on despite the diagnosis, but her coach, Michael Bohl, talked her through the long game: give up the 1500 and ensure preparedness for the relay and 800.

“Bohly called me when I tested positive for COVID, and he was like, ‘We’re going to have to have a chat about the 1500,’ and I just shut it down straight away,” Pallister said. “Losing that opportunity to really showcase the way I prepared hurt, but also turning around and knowing I had a shot to be an Olympic gold medalist in that relay was special.”

For the better part of two days, Pallister isolated and rested, hopeful but nervous about her status for the remaining two events. Her thoughts even shifted back to the 400 she dropped since that event had taken place before she became ill. Her relay status was in doubt until lineups were submitted for Thursday’s preliminaries, but her inclusion signaled that the Australian coaches were comfortable with her health and racing status.

Pallister could have recorded a split several seconds off her best time, with the Aussies owning plenty of wiggle room when they scored the top qualifying mark by more than six seconds, but instead, her 1:55.74 leadoff leg was less than two tenths off her best time. Pallister had coveted a spot on the finals quartet, having not gone fast enough to earn the nod at last year’s Worlds, and despite the COVID hiccup, that prelims leg clinched it.

“I think the forefront of the mind was the 4×2,” Pallister said of her mentality during her isolation. “I kind of just parked the 8 for a bit anyway because to be in the Australian 4×2 is probably one of the hardest teams to make in the world. You’ve got the world No. 1, world No. 2 and the two of us that ended up being in the final, we would have made the final here. I think that was the first step, and then when Dean told me yesterday morning, I cried again. Very emotional. And then just had a job to do.”

Just like in prelims, the Australians did not need to be perfect in the ifnal, not with 200 free Olympic champion Mollie O’Callaghan leading off the team and 200 free world-record holder Ariarne Titmus handling anchor duties. So after O’Callaghan handed her a lead, Pallister expanded on it during the second leg as Australia pulled away to win by 2.78 seconds over the United States, and she became an Olympic champion for the first time.

Pallister returned to the pool Friday for the 800 free prelims, and she cruised to a win in her heat to secure lane six for the final and a spot in the heart of medal contention. Katie Ledecky and Titmus are the strong favorites for gold and silver, but Pallister will contend for bronze with Paige Madden and the two swimmers who reached the podium in the 1500 final that went off without her, France’s Anastasiia Kirpichnikova and Germany’s Isabel Gose.

Watching that 1500, Pallister deliberately avoided thinking about the time she could have posted if not for her illness. “I would have had to swim a PB to be near that, but in my mind as well, I know I’m capable of much more than my best time,” Pallister. “So I definitely don’t think you can bank on ‘what-ifs’ and that sort of thing. I’m incredibly happy for all those girls. All of us have worked so hard this year. As hard as it was to sit and watch, I’m so glad that some of those girls got to live out their Olympic dream.”

Now, she will have a chance in the 800, set to utilize much of that training that helped her feel so ready for the 30-lap race that never materialized. And she will race with the newly-earned title of Olympic champion.

“I think everyone says the Olympics is a roller coaster. Mine has been probably the biggest roller coaster in the world. I don’t think anybody can really anticipate getting COVID, pulling out of your first-ever individual event at the Olympics,” Pallister said. “I definitely had to compartmentalize and come back this morning. I knew I had a job to do in the 800. I was pretty keen to just heat-swim it, book my spot into the final tomorrow, then stand up and give it a red-hot crack.