With a veritable clan of Gaelic sports stars on her family tree, Scotland was the natural nationality choice for Portsmouth-born Caitlin McClatchey, says Craig Lord, The Times swimming correspondent. But Scotland’s gain will be England’s loss in Melbourne
Ask a stupid question, as they say… ‘So, Caitlin, you were born in Portsmouth. Why Scotland, when you could be helping England’s girls out in the 4x200m relay in Melbourne?’ I waited for her to bash me about the head with her bagpipes. Nothing. Calm, super-composed, betraying only the merest hint of ‘here we go again’ in the corner of her eye.
‘Both my parents are Scottish and swam for Scotland and there’s Uncle Alan. When I was young you had to choose who to race for and I said Scotland and I’ve been registered there ever since,’ she answered politely in a very pleasant English accent. It’s hard to imagine her singing ‘Donald, where’s your troosers?’ or skipping about to the Gay Gordons, a sprig of heather in her blonde hair. ‘That’s nice,’ I said, nodding sagely. What I wanted to say was: Oh, come off it Caitlin, don’t give me all that Uncle Alan stuff. That’s not the half of it, is it? Not even a tenth of it? Let’s have the truth: you’re a secret weapon from swimming’s answer to the human genome project, aren’t you? Well, come on, out with it.
At which point, a straightjacket might have crossed your mind. Before you dial 999, consider this little lot: McClatchey, the first Scottish woman to win an individual medal in world championship history, with a bronze in Montreal over 400 metres, is in fact the latest link in a sporting clan that spans three centuries and ought to have an elite tartan all of its own.
We’ve all heard about Uncle Alan (Olympic bronze 1976, world silver 1975, 4x200m freestyle – and now a doctor in the Mendips) and some will know that Caitlin’s dad, John, a professor of meteorology and principal of Shetland College at the University of the Highlands and Islands, broke the British junior record at 400m freestyle when just 15 and swam in the 1970 Commonwealth Games before switching to water polo and playing for Britain, and that mum, Louise (nee Ross), finished fourth in the 100m butterfly at the world student games in Moscow in 1973, and raced over 200m butterfly for Scotland at the 1974 Commonwealth Games in Christchurch.
But, as the library shows, it doesn’t end there. Bill McClatchey, Caitlin’s paternal granddad, swam for Ireland and was on their medical team at the 1948 London Olympic Games, and her maternal great-grandfather, Walter Barron Ross, was an amateur endurance runner in Edinburgh before the First World War and caused a scandal when he turned professional.
Still with me? Now then, Jackie, Caitlin’s aunt on her mum’s side, was a Scottish junior swimmer and married Stewart McCallum, who led the field at the start of the second day of the 1974 Commonwealth Games decathlon, but injured his back in the pole vault and quit the event. He switched to hurdles, winning three Scottish titles at 110m and his Scottish record at 400m hurdles lasted from 1975 to 1996.
No wonder Caitlin says: ‘I was very conscious of upholding family honour. It’s only in recent years I’ve come to appreciate Uncle Alan’s achievements and what it meant to win an Olympic medal.’ And feel a little pressure perhaps? ‘No. My parents never pushed me,’ she says with a smile. Her mother’s job may have helped: Louise is an educational psychologist and also ‘my sports psychologist’, says her daughter.
The path to the pool was a natural one and there is no history of enforced participation, no mega-junior results to boast about. In common with many swimmers, McClatchey learned to swim young and by 12 was enjoying three club sessions a week ‘having fun and making friends’. It was only at 16, when she made the potential squad three years ago, that she thought: ‘I’m going to take this seriously.’
Her ambition coincided with the arrival at Northampton of coach Mark Perry. ‘I made a big jump to eight or nine sessions and 50km a week. It made a big difference.’ She made the Olympic team for the 4x200m relay in Athens, where she helped the British quartet finish fifth with a respectable but unspectacular 2:00.48 split. She found the experience ‘daunting’ and would have liked to have seen better team spirit. ‘Everyone looked nervous, far too serious. I felt there wasn’t enough support when you were out there racing. It’s not anyone’s fault. People had to go and prepare for their own events, that’s the Olympics. I’ll know better next time.’
A decision awaited her back home. History was her preferred subject but there was no such course at Loughborough University. Caitlin’s compromise was academic: she would join Ben Titley’s squad and read politics. Campus life and the heart of a centralised system are not to everyone’s taste but it suited this down-to-earth Anglo-Scot. ‘I go training twice a day, go to lectures, maybe at weekend go out and have a little bit of a social life but not near competitions. I’ve really enjoyed it so far,’ she says. ‘It’s a great environment. Everyone’s really supportive, like Mel, Gibbo, Liam and others, and Ben (Titley, her coach), of course. I have a lot of faith in him.
‘With Mel, it’s great to have someone alongside you who’s as fast, if not faster, than you. In Northampton, the lads were a little bit faster than me but it’s difficult and a bit demotivating when you’re always out in front. I’m doing much more training, 60km and pushing up much more than that at certain times, and I’ve started a weights programme.’
It is not all volume. Much work has gone into improving a stroke that used to be characterised by a wild, inefficient flick of the hand but is now much smoother and stylish. For that, she has quality long course training to thank.
‘I’ve been working on longer strokes, better pull in the water,’ she says. ‘It helps to be in the pool on my own sometimes. In Northampton I was having to swim in a full pool against the waves. Not to be critical of Northampton, that’s just the way it was, the way we had it and what a lot of swimmers in Britain have to cope with. Now we’re training in still water in a long course pool. It makes a huge difference.’
And how. Her world and the seascape of British women’s freestyle changed dramatically with a storming effort over 400m freestyle on June 19, 2005, in Swansea. She had shown promise before with best times in 2003 and 2004 of 4:17.33 and 4:15.23 (for 63rd on the world rankings) but no-one beyond those closest to her could have foreseen the 4:07.02 effort in which she broke Sarah Hardcastle’s 19-year-old British record. The time would have won the silver medal at any time in world championship history.
Times move on and in Montreal this past summer, she took the bronze medal in 4:07.25 in outdoor championship conditions just 0.81sec behind the gold won by the Olympic champion, France’s Laure Manaudou. It was surely a moment to celebrate. ‘Yes, sort of,’ says Caitlin. ‘At the time I just thought it wasn’t a big thing.’
Perhaps that’s why she looked so relaxed walking out to her final. No nerves? ‘I try not to think about it. What’s the point of pressurising yourself or letting other people put pressure on you. You have to go out and seek to do the very best you can do out there.’
A bronze medal was a good start. ‘Yes, now, after some time, I do look back on it and say, “Wow, I achieved something that I can look back on for the rest of my life and think that was fantastic.” It was just such a strange day. I really enjoyed it.’
Having not anticipated success in Montreal, her goal for the summer had been a great performance at the World University Games in Turkey, a chance to give something back to those who make it possible for her to juggle sport and study. ‘My course leaders understand what’s needed. They’ve been here before. Paula Radcliffe did the same degree at Loughborough.’
McClatchey could have followed even more closely in her footsteps: at 13 she was a county standard runner but opted for the pool instead. A wise move if events at the Games in Turkey are anything to go by.
Running along the side of the pool, she tripped, tumbled and broke her left elbow. Given that she could not compete, it was somewhat amusing that she won the Student Sportswoman of the Year award from The Sunday Times recently. But then, the top award at the ceremony did go to Zara Phillips for a European title ahead of five world champions from other sports. Sorry, Ma’am.
Good care, including invaluable physiotherapy by Pat Dunleavy at Loughborough, made for a relatively swift recovery for McClatchey and by the European short course Championships in Trieste, she was good enough for a Scottish record of 8:22.56 over 800m, though that looked somewhat ordinary against Manaudou’s 8:11.25.
‘I haven’t rested for this,’ said McClatchey, who celebrated the passing of her teenage years just before Trieste. At least she was on the same length as Manaudou when she finished. ‘Just about, thank God!’ she laughed. ‘Doing 8:22 is nothing special but I haven’t done many 800s and in the past I didn’t know how to swim them. I just plodded along.’
NO PLODDING
There will be no plodding at her Commonwealth Games debut in Melbourne if McClatchey is to achieve her ambition of emulating Alison Sheppard, champion in 2002 over 50m freestyle. Before Sheppard, Elenor Gordon, over 200m breaststroke in 1950 and 1954, was Scotland’s only female champion in the pool. ‘I’d love win a Commonwealth gold,’ says McClatchey.
A medal of any colour will attract huge attention north of Hadrian’s Wall for the only big occasion on which St Andrew’s flag can fly over a pool: Scotland’s highest ranked track and field athlete is Allan Scott, at sixth. McClatchey, over 200, 400 and 800m, will be in focus.
‘The 200 will be tough but the 400 is my main event and it’s wide open. It could go to anyone, Reimer, Cooke, Jackson and others. I’m really looking forward to standing up for Scotland.’
Bigger obstacles lie beyond. Budapest brings back Manaudou, who will surely challenge Janet Evans’s long-standing distance milestones this coming year. McClatchey was just two and three years old when Evans was at her peak in the late 1980s. Can she get to those amazing times? ‘I sometimes think I’m getting closer but I try not to think in those terms,’ says McClatchey. ‘I try to think about doing the very best I can. If that gets me down there, great. I have no limits or targets. I just want to progress.’
In Trieste, for once, McClatchey was able to scrutinise Manaudou from dry land. ‘She’s a fantastic swimmer but I don’t really think, “O God! that’s what she’s going to do next time.” You can’t know or help what other people might do. I know to watch out for her but I have my own races to race.’
Down the road is Beijing, via Melbourne 2007. ‘The ultimate would be winning an Olympic medal, preferably gold,’ she says, adding that Britain’s 4x200m quartet could be ready to challenge for that by 2008. Along the way there ‘will be doubts…I’m sure I’m not alone in that,’ she says. ‘There are bad days but I really enjoy swimming and when you win a medal at worlds it scraps all the bad days. You just remember the good times and look forward.’
To Beijing? ‘I don’t think about it enough,’ she says. ‘When I’m training I should think about it more and use it to drive me, to tell myself this is why I’m doing it, this is what it’s for. Whenever I find myself moaning about training or swimming, I think, “Well actually, you know, it all goes so quickly.” There’s only a small period of time in which you can make a difference.’ And the latest link in the McClatchey sporting clan intends to do just that.
Courtsey of Swimming Times magazine
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