Glasgow: When Lani Pallister touched the wall to secure Australia’s first gold medal of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, coach Dean Boxall’s reaction on the pool deck could not have been more different from the animated celebration that followed Ariarne Titmus’ Olympic triumph in Tokyo.
Comparing a Commonwealth Games and Olympics is very apples and oranges, but the contrast in “Boxall Cam” was striking.
There was no smile on Friday evening (Saturday morning AEST). No clapping. Boxall simply disappeared down the tunnel.
That’s not to say Boxall wasn’t happy behind the scenes, but his immediate reaction in public view spoke volumes about the journey he and Pallister are on.
Pallister’s textbook victory in the opening event of the swimming program, winning the 400m freestyle in 3:59.56 ahead of New Zealand’s Erika Fairweather (4:02.65) and Australia’s Jenna Forrester (4:05.25), was the first individual longcourse gold medal of her senior international career after a roller-coaster journey through the sport.
It was also the first of Australia’s six gold medals on a dominant opening night in Glasgow, with Jenna Jones (women’s 100m freestyle S13), Forrester (women’s 200m backstroke), Alex Saffy (men’s 100m butterfly S10) and the Dolphins’ men’s and women’s 4x100m freestyle relay teams also claiming victories in a near-perfect start to their campaign.
But as significant as the breakthrough was for Pallister, it did not carry the same sense of surprise or achievement as her stunning 800m freestyle silver medal at last year’s world championships, when she wedged herself on the podium between Katie Ledecky and Summer McIntosh.
Not that she was complaining.
Boxall is a demanding coach and his measured reaction may have reflected Pallister’s time as much as the result. Her mark was only marginally quicker than the 3:59.72 she swam at the Australian trials and outside her personal best of 3:58.87.
Gone was the Boxall fist pump and handrail grab that became one of the enduring images of the Tokyo Olympics after Titmus won the same event. Part of that may have been out of respect for Forrester, whom he also coaches, but it also suggested there is still plenty of work to do.
You couldn’t help but feel Boxall wanted to see a little more, which shows just how much the event has moved in the past decade given how regularly swimmers go under four minutes nowadays. Pallister is doing it regularly and has made big improvements under Boxall.
Swimmers always chase personal bests and while Pallister was pleased afterwards, this certainly wasn’t ecstasy or elation.
She knows the event was missing the two women she will ultimately be judged against at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics – Ledecky and McIntosh.
“It’s awesome to get a win for Australia on the board and the first [swim] event of the Games,” Pallister said. “It’s always one to set the tone, so happy I could do that for the whole team. It’s exciting to have a title to my name and continue the Australian legacy in the 400m freestyle, and be able to have another of Dean’s [Boxall] athletes take that title.”
Considering Pallister has overcome a barrage of setbacks in recent years – glandular fever, a heart condition, an eating disorder and COVID-19 at both the 2022 world championships and the 2024 Paris Olympics – standing atop the podium to hear Advance Australia Fair carried extra significance.
“Without all the ups and downs I wouldn’t be the person or the athlete that I am today,” Pallister said. “I’m proud of the journey that I’ve been on and I wouldn’t change it for the world, I think that’s really shaped me into a good human.”
Pallister revealed earlier on Friday she had encouraged her mother, 1990 Commonwealth Games individual bronze medallist Janelle Pallister (née Elford), to skip Glasgow and instead attend next month’s Pan Pacific Championships in the United States. It was perhaps another indication of where Australia’s leading swimmers see these Games in the broader picture.
The grand plan is undoubtedly winning in LA but given Pallister’s 400m time on Friday was more than five seconds slower than McIntosh’s world record, it underlines the scale of the challenge ahead if she is to inherit the Olympic 400m freestyle crown from Titmus, who won the event in Tokyo and Paris.
Pallister’s stronger opportunities are in the 800m and 1500m freestyle, where she could become Australia’s greatest female distance swimmer.
Everything Boxall does is for a reason. He is paranoid about showing his swimmers’ hands to anyone too early. During the race, Boxall attempted to tuck himself away in a corner of the venue, out of sight of photographers.
Whether it was a calculated poker face or simply the reaction of a coach already thinking about the next race, only he knows. But one thing was clear: winning gold was never going to be the finish line on Friday night. It is just another step towards a much bigger destination.
Meanwhile, of all the excellent Australian performances on night one, Flynn Southam’s lead-off effort in the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay could be a potentially career-defining swim. Why? The 21-year-old’s previous best time in a 100m freestyle was 47.69 seconds and he lowered that to 47.09 in a new Commonwealth record. As far as lifetime bests go, it was a significant drop that caught many by surprise.
When you consider that Kyle Chalmers’ personal best is 47.08 and Cam McEvoy’s Australian record remains at 47.04, Southam’s latest time will do him a world of good in terms of confidence. Tuesday’s 100m freestyle final against Chalmers looms as a beauty, but Southam was more pleased with Australia’s win over England by 2.2 seconds.
“I always back myself to swim as fast as I can do,” Southam said. “The numbers in training reflect that. I wasn’t looking at an individual performance, I just wanted to get Australia off to a good start.”
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Tom Decent is the chief sports writer for The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X or email.
