Unconventional training giving Olympic athlete the competitive edge

Her nickname is Red Dragon and it couldn't be more apt.

Twenty-two-year-old Olympic champion swimmer Mollie O'Callaghan has a fiery determination to dominate.

And dominate she does.

At Paris 2024, her haul of three gold medals, one silver and a bronze made her Australia's most prolific athlete.

But none of this would have happened if not for her biggest victory, which actually occurred out of the pool.

As Tara Brown finds out, O'Callaghan had to learn how to harness the crippling anxiety that attacked her every time she climbed onto the starting blocks.

She showed Tara the high-altitude tent swamping her apartment.

"It's kind of glamping, but it's an altitude tent. It's definitely a little bit different," she said.

Over the next month she's expected to spend 300 hours in it - about 10 hours a day

"It kinda simulates 3000 metres altitude," she said.

"It forces your body to actually use the oxygen in your body more efficiently to supply it to your muscles, and especially is the best for aerobic capacity."

O'Callaghan, who started swimming aged four, can be found at St Peters Western Swim Club in Brisbane daily.

And what she will do is rigorous - six kilometres in the pool before breakfast, another six after lunch.

Her first big break came in 2021 when at just 17 she made the relay squad for the Tokyo Games, the youngest athlete of our entire Olympic team.

But heartbreakingly, despite her extraordinary fast times in the heats, as the baby of the squad, O'Callaghan was made to sit out the finals.

In the lead-up to Paris, at the selection trials, O'Callaghan nearly self-sabotaged, suffering a debilitating panic attack.

At the time O'Callaghan was the world record holder in the 200m women's freestyle. It was her race to win.

"It was the worst anxiety I've ever dealt with," she said.

"That night I couldn't sleep, I couldn't breathe, I was just crying because I wanted to do the best that I could, but obviously in that final, it got the best of me and it ate me alive."

O'Callaghan lost the race and her title to fellow Australian superfish Ariarne Titmus, but she wasn't prepared to be second for long.

As the world witnessed, next time O'Callaghan was able to harness her anxiety, inching out Titmus and everyone else to win the race and break the Olympic record.

"I know nerves make me race fast. I know it's my superpower. I know that I'm going to get something good out of it," she said.

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