Courageous Noosa athlete Kareena Lee has produced a stunning effort to capture a bronze medal in the marathon swim at the Tokyo Games.
The 27-year-old, who battled a series of health issues earlier in her career including glandular fever and chronic fatigue, claimed the best result ever for an Australian in the 10km race at the Olympics. The event dates back to 2008.
Lee was on the pace for most of the race, before finishing strongly to clock 1hr59min30sec.
After almost two hours of swimming, it came down to a thrilling sprint finish.
The Noosa Swim Club member finished within a second of Brazil’s Ana Marcela Cunha and in a photo finish with Sharon van Rouwenmdaal of the Netherlands.
“It’s just amazing, my first Olympics and coming away with a medal I’m just so stoked, it’s unbelievable,” she told Channel 7.
It was also a grand comeback for her, after being hospitalised with exhaustion after the 2015 world championships in Russia, when she missed out on qualifying for Rio.
“That race was my first qualifying even and I got pulled out of the water at the end, with dehydration. I was a bit sick and that resulted in a hospital trip.
“I missed that (Rio Games) so I knew I had to put my head down for the next one.
“Qualifying in 2019 was absolutely amazing and it’s been a two-year journey since then and I’ve been really working on my speed because I know it’s always fast at the end and you have to have that little bit left at the end.
“So, I’ve been working on that with my coach (John Rodgers), and today I was able to hold on.
“It hurt, so so bad, but you have to think everybody around you is hurting too and it’s who can hurt the most. Coming out third is incredible for me.”
She was on the phone to Rodgers post-race.
“He couldn’t travel with us so it was really special to be able to talk to him straight away. He’s so stoked and I have such an amazing community around me at Noosa and where I live in Pacific Paradise.”
It was a significant wait for the Games, for the 27-year-old who was the first athlete selected in the Australian team for Tokyo tin 2019.
“It had felt like the Olympics were such a long way away, especially when it was postponed,” she said.
“When I was selected it was meant to be a year out from the Games and I was ramping up my training, and then it got postponed (by a year) and the whole world went into lockdowns.”
She prepared as best she could, despite wondering whether the event would ultimately be held at all.
“There was uncertainty at times, even this year, but I always hoped they were going to go ahead.
Lee was fortunate to continue her training when there were restrictions.
“I was lucky, being on the Sunshine Coast, to train (off Noosa Main Beach),” she said.
She also got some race experience in the lead-up to the Games, claiming her third straight national title, at Coolum in March.
“I have also had trials for pools events (in June) and I got some of the fastest times I’ve ever had there.”
Training camps in Darwin helped her acclimatise to warmer waters, similar to Tokyo Bay.
Lee had some previous experience in warmer ocean conditions, competing in a Tokyo Olympics Test Event in 2019 (28-29C) and at a World Cup race in the Seychelles (28C).
“That was a good learning experience. It was good practice to make sure my fluids and hydration were all right. I think I can handle warmer temperatures well.”
She told sunshinecoastnews.com.au before the Games that she was aiming to claim the best marathon swim result by an Australia.
“It’s awesome just to be at the Olympics but I’ve looked back at the stats and the best Australia has finished before is 10th, so I’d really love to do better than that and if a medal comes out of that, that would be absolutely incredible,” she had said.
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Lee said marathon swimming was “very tactical”.
“The best swimmers are good at thinking on their feet.
“You have to be very smart on where you position yourself and where it’s the easiest to swim.
“The end 1km is where it is about max effort, and just towards the finish gate.”
When Lee qualified for the Games with a seventh placing at the world championships in Korea, there were about 14 competitors within about four seconds of each other at the front of the race.
Lee said competitors also need to be smart with stops around the seven-lap course.
“We can come in and have a drink two or three times during the race so that gives us a bit of a mental break and gets you back on track and it also helps you know where you are in the race, distance wise.”
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