She finished in sixth place before finishing in fifth in the 50m freestyle just days later.
At the time she told reporters it was “possibly the greatest choke in Olympic history” and took a break from swimming to re-discover her love for it again.
Campbell is back better than ever taking home three gold and two silver medals from the Commonwealth Games in April before breaking five Pan Pacs records for five golds last month.
But now, over two years since the Rio Olympics, she has penned an emotional letter on exclusiveinsight.com to address the “keyboard warriors” who put money on her and judged her after failing to place.
“The sure bet (as many of you have subsequently told me “I lost money on you!”), I was the all but guaranteed that Olympic gold medal,” she wrote.
“It would be another gold for the Australian medal tally, another reason to gloat to your Pommy friends, another reason to down that can of XXXX gold.
“But I was also just a person. And as it turns out, I wasn’t the sure bet. I wasn’t a contributor to Australia’s medal tally.”
The “choke” as Campbell refers it to, took a long time…
