After winning a silver at the 800m freestyle National Age Championships in Perth, the following morning she swam the 5km ocean event. She won a silver medal again but disliked the quantity of jelly fish that much she’d said she’d never swim the event again.
When you’re 16, or any age for that matter, it isn’t that much fun swimming through jelly fish.
It was the ocean waters off the WA coast where the 5km Open Water Swim was taking place.
SA’s Caroline South had entered the 800m freestyle in the 2004 National Age Championships in Perth, swam the final, won the silver medal, then the following morning took to the ocean for the 5km event.
She won a silver medal again but claimed immediately after that she would never repeat that event because the concentration of jelly fish in the sea continually caused her to stop.
Who could blame her? Afterall, bites can cause immediate pain ranging from mild irritation to intense, burning pain. They can also leave whip-like marks and welt marks.
But Caroline returned to Adelaide from Perth, not with welt marks, but showing great promise after winning gold in the 400m individual medley, & silver in the 400m & 800m freestyle.
And she was also true to her word in that all her competitive swimming thereafter remained in the pool.
The following year, 2005, was a big one. She won bronze in the 1500m freestyle at the Hawaiian Junior Pan Pacific Championships, then moving into senior ranks, she placed 4th in the 800m at the FINA World Cup in Sydney.
That outstanding result meant selection in the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne for the 800m freestyle. In the final, she finished 7th.
Caroline South has been inducted into Swimming SA’s Hall of Fame.
