Siobhan-Marie O’Connor Takes Her Time To Savour Rio & Recover On Road To Tokyo2020

The Rio 2016 Olympics long gone, SwimVortex continues its look at the reflections of the champions and others who stepped up on the podium at the Games in August, at the things that flowed from success and plans already made for the follow-up.

After the men’s 50m freestyle and Anthony Ervin and the 100m freestyle and Kyle Chalmers, we turned to Joseph Schooling, the US-college-based ace from Singapore, and then to the woman swimmer of the Games and generation, Katie Ledecky, and the swimmer who pressed her close over 200m freestyle, Swedish pioneer, Sarah Sjostrom, the Olympic 100m butterfly champion. We then turned to the man who goes down in history as the swimmer who made Michael Phelps think again about when his time was up, Chad Le Clos.

Next up was Adam Peaty, whose 57.13sec world record in the 100m breaststroke in Rio marked the single most outstanding performance in the pool at the 2016 Olympic Games. Today, we turn to Great Britain teammate Siobhan-Marie O’Connor, a stunning sub-2:07 short medley in the treasury with her silver from Rio.

The Power Of Pace & ‘Easy Speed’

That Siobhan-Marie O’Connor was capable of claiming Olympic silver in the Rio 200m medley back in August was never in doubt but not even she had expected to take the born-again might of Magyar to the wire.

By the close of a closer short medley than anyone had predicted, O’Connor was just 0.3sec shy of Katinka Hosszu, the Hungarian who had arrived in Rio with a two-second advantage over the closest threat on the clock, the challenger from Britain and Bath.

With a 2:06.12 victory at the World Championships last year, Hosszu’s transformation from a swimmer who had missed the Olympic podium at three Games to one seen as a cert for multiple golds in Rio at the age of 27 was complete.

The Hungarian had built such a unique profile in the sport, including shattering her personal best times on every stroke at every distance on the world-championship program  since London 2012 that she arrived in Rio with a chance of becoming the most successful woman in Olympic history in the pool at a single Games.

It was not to be and Katie Ledecky (USA) would emerge with the steeliest of outcomes in world swimming third straight year. Hosszu would not make the four golds and five medals it would have taken to match Kristin Otto (and State Plan 14:25) on single gold count at one Games nor Shane Gould (AUS) on the record number of solo medals at one Games but by the time the 200m medley came round in Rio, the Hungarian had taken gold in the 400m medley and the 100m backstroke, with the shorter medley tipped to be her biggest win.

O’Connor had other ideas. In the semi-final, she shattered the Commonwealth and British record with a 2:07.57, enough to cause the Hungarian to think twice. She withdrew from the 200m butterfly, all energies to be saved for the 200IM. Just as well, for O’Connor was not done yet when it came to making gains where lessons had been learned.

In the world-title final in 2015 she had raced “to beat Hosszu”. With teammate Jazmin Carlin among those considered for honours in the up-doing Sunday Times Sportswomen of the Year Awards, O’Connor recalls: “I’d learned my lesson. I knew in Rio that I had to swim my own race and not get caught up in what she [Hosszu] was doing. At Worlds, I tried to stick to her, I didn’t swim my own race and I paid the price. I just didn’t have enough left on the last 50m and that cost me the silver. Racing for gold had cost me the silver. I wasn’t going to let that happen again.”

Siobhan Marie O’Connor – bronze on a learning curve in 2015 – by PBK

Siobhan-Marie O’Connor – by Ian MacNicol

In Rio, O’Connor, coached by Dave McNulty at Bath University, trailed Hosszu on butterfly and backstroke, the Hungarian leading by a body length but not quite as far out ahead after the Brit’s weak link – backstroke – as had previously been the case. The challenger was a a few tenths inside her splits from the world championships on both of the first two strokes but free of the tension that accompanies effort focussed on “beating a rival not improving myself”.

Hosszu is 3sec slower than O’Connor in a solo 100m breaststroke yet managed a split on that stroke faster than the rival chasing her. The gap at the last turn: 0.77sec. Game over? Not this time. It was clear: the Hungarian’s stroke broke down on the last three pulls into the wall on breaststroke. Turning into freestyle, O’Connor sensed Hosszu’s vulnerability and chased her down with every passing stroke on freestyle.  Hosszu’s technique fell apart in the closing five metres as O’Connor drew level but the wall came a metre too soon and it was a third gold for the transformed Hungarian, 2:06.58  to 2:06.88.

Stuck on 2:08 since winning the Commonwealth title in 2014, O’Connor felt a weight lift off her shoulders when she broke the barrier in the semi-final in Rio. With Hosszu as hare to chase, O’Connor sprinted to her finest closing 50m in a 200m medley ever. She told  SwimVortex in Rio: “I didn’t think I would get that close to Katinka Hosszu. You know how she’s dominated, but coming down the final 50 I thought I might get this one.” Looking back, she says:

“It was only when I looked up and saw the time that I realised just how close it was. I thought 2:06 was uncharted territory; I didn’t think I’d get anywhere near it. People said to me after ‘another 5m and you would have got her’.”

Siobhan-Marie O’Connor with an honour on the trail of excellence – by Patrick B. Kraemer

Just one metre might have done it, in fact. Close enough to make O’Connor believe that her best is yet to come on the way to Tokyo2020. Working on weakness not just strength is how it will happen, coach and swimmer have learned in the past two seasons.

Backstroke is the weak link for O’Connor but she learned ‘easy speed on the stroke she is least comfortable with’. There was balance and pace to master, too, an art that would leave her far fresher in Rio than she was at the world championships going into the last lap. The result: 1.4sec faster in the last 50m fight for home and honour.

“Medley is such a complex event,” says O’Connor. “It’s skilful, very tricky and very rewarding. I get to do a lot of work on different strokes in training so I never get bored. I did a lot of work on my backstroke, my freestyle needed to be stronger at the end of the race and my …

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