CATE CAMPBELL 'IT'S A BLESSING & A CURSE'

Depression doesn't discriminate, as the decorated Olympic athlete reveals

- Carolyn Hiblen

She's one of Australia's most successful swimmers - a four-time Olympic gold medallist and current world record holder in the short course 100m freestyle. Yet, while Cate Campbell should have been riding high, living out her childhood dreams on the world stage, behind the scenes, she was waging a private war with depression that threatened to consume her.

It was at the height of her career that Cate first began struggling with depression - a diagnosis she says she felt she didn't "deserve".

"I felt at that time that I had such a good life. And I do, I really do. I have the most extraordinary life, and it is beyond my wildest dreams," she opens up to Woman's Day.

"And yet, for a period of a couple of years through 2020 and 2021, I was really, really struggling, and I think that I didn't feel like someone with my level of privilege, I use the word 'deserve' to get depression, as in, I didn't have anything to be depressed about."

A CRY FOR HELP

The moment of clarity that Cate needed help came in June 2020, when she unexpectedly broke down over a minor inconvenience.

"I was trying to make myself a hot chocolate before bed," she explains. "I turned on the kettle and the power tripped and all the lights went out. I went and turned the switch back on, all the lights came on, I came inside, turned on the kettle again, and it did the same thing. And something inside me broke.

OLYMPIC SWIMMERS' BATTLES

IAN THORPE