hi and welcome back! it's doone here, your host and hype girl.

ok so i need to give you a bit of context for this one. Bronte Campbell is one of my favourite humans on the planet. we met on the first day of Techstars S24 and she has been in my life ever since. weekly coffee chats, swims, the whole thing. so sitting down with her in the FSC Pink Studio felt like a completely different kind of interview.

and then i actually googled her achievements before we started recording and i was like, oh my god. 4 Olympics. 3 gold medals. 1 bronze. a world record. world champion in the 50m and 100m freestyle. Commonwealth Games medallist. Medal of the Order of Australia. and now a co-founder building Athletica, a sustainable activewear brand that just raised close to $800,000 from approximately 300 investors. oh, and she does ceramics at car boot sales on weekends. girl.

this conversation goes everywhere. childhood in Malawi. swimming with her sister Cate. pain meditation and unlocking emotions stored in the body. the brutal economics of being an elite Olympic athlete. and the mindset parallels between sport and building a company that i genuinely think are some of the most useful things i have ever heard.

Watch the Full Episode

 

Who Is Bronte Campbell?

Bronte Campbell is an Australian Olympic swimmer and entrepreneur. She is one of Australia's most decorated athletes, having competed at four Olympic Games: London 2012, Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020, and Paris 2024. Campbell has won three Olympic gold medals and one bronze medal, holds a world record, and was crowned World Champion in both the 50m and 100m freestyle at the 2015 World Championships. She is a Commonwealth Games medallist and recipient of the Medal of the Order of Australia.

Campbell grew up in Malawi, Africa, before moving to Australia at age seven. She began swimming at age seven and made her Olympic debut at the London 2012 Games at age 17. Her older sister, Cate Campbell, is also an Olympic swimmer and fellow gold medallist. Bronte trained under the same coach for 21 years, who developed her from a seven-year-old into a four-time Olympian.

After retiring from elite swimming, Campbell co-founded Athletica, a sustainable activewear brand focused on removing plastics and harmful chemicals from performance clothing. In 2025, Athletica completed a crowd-source fundraising campaign, raising close to $800,000 from approximately 300 investors. Campbell was part of the Techstars S24 accelerator cohort in 2024, the same cohort as Female Startup Club founder Doone Roisin. She was also formerly President of the Swimmers Association, where she introduced the first ever pregnancy policy for Swimming Australia.

Key Takeaways From This Episode

What Does Every Olympic Athlete Have in Common?

Bronte Campbell has thought deeply about this question. With every body type, every sport, and every background represented at the Olympics, she landed on three non-negotiable traits: discipline, passion, and talent. All three, expressed differently across different athletes and sports, but all three present in every person who makes it to the Games. She argues that passion is the most important of the three because it is the thing that makes the sacrifice worth it. Training from 5am to 7am, then school, then 5pm to 7pm, then bed by 8:30pm, five or more days a week, only makes sense if you are genuinely passionate about the outcome.

How Did Bronte Campbell Manage Competing Alongside Her Sister Cate Campbell?

Cate Campbell made her Olympic debut at age 15 and won two bronze medals at her first Games. Bronte was in the same squad, competing against her sister in training every single day. Her take is that it was genuinely one of the best things that could have happened to her as an athlete. "If you can withstand the discomfort of being constantly second best, it will sharpen you." She was never the fastest in her squad, not one single time. But in the moments that mattered on the international stage, she was. She credits that entirely to the daily experience of competing against someone who was, in training, better than her. The skill of performing under pressure when it counts is a learnt skill, and she learnt it the hardest possible way.

What Did Bronte Campbell Learn From Pain Meditation and Healing Her Shoulder Injury?

After getting a nerve injury four months before the 2016 Rio Olympics, Campbell spent two years exploring every possible approach to pain management and recovery: nerve drugs, acupuncture, bloodletting, deep pain meditation, specialist neck exercises. The breakthrough came from a guided meditation practice where she visualised entering her injured shoulder and shining a light around inside it. What she found was not inflammation or redness but something that looked grey, dejected, and abandoned. An overwhelming feeling of helplessness arose. When she traced that feeling back, she was five years old, left behind on a hike because people thought she was too young. She had been holding that emotion in her body for decades, and it was making the injury worse. Her key insight: pain is not only in the body, it is in the brain too. And being angry at an injury creates more inflammatory markers in the blood. Gratitude, she found, was physiologically more effective than frustration.

What Are the Parallels Between Being an Olympic Athlete and Being a Startup Founder?

Campbell has thought about this more than almost anyone. Her clearest insight is about the grind. In sport she competed for less than one minute every four years at the Olympics. Everything else was the unglamorous work that made that minute possible. She thinks startup culture talks about the hockey stick moment and the big break without being honest about how long and hard the grinding before it actually is. "Knowing that the grind is the valuable bit, not just something you have to get through to reach the valuable bit, that is something I deeply knew before I came into business." She also distinguishes between impatience, which is fine and useful, and helplessness, which is not, because helplessness means you stop moving forward. Impatience means you want to move faster. Those are very different things.

What Is the Real Economics of Being an Elite Olympic Athlete?

This is one of the most honest conversations about money in elite sport you will hear anywhere. Bronte's first sponsorship deal paid $500 per year and equipment when she was ranked number five in the world. Government funding for Olympic athletes ranked top four globally runs to approximately $20,000 to $30,000 per year. Athletes sign away image rights to the IOC and AOC and enter a media blackout from two weeks before the Games until four weeks after, meaning they cannot post about personal sponsors during the only window where they have meaningful public attention. She went back to competitive swimming from a salary at EY consulting, earning less in elite sport than a graduate at a large business. "There's people who are graduates in big businesses who are earning more money than elite Olympic athletes. That's just how it is."

How Did Bronte Campbell Introduce the First Pregnancy Policy for Swimming Australia?

As President of the Swimmers Association, Campbell pushed for and introduced the first ever pregnancy policy in Australian elite swimming. Before it existed, the implicit rule was that female swimmers who became pregnant simply quit. The policy changed that. It provides support for a year after pregnancy, a hotel room and travel companion for children up to approximately age three so mothers can continue competing internationally. She describes it as straightforward once she raised it: "We should have a pregnancy policy, this is what I think it should be, and they were like yeah absolutely." The simplicity of the approval, she says, reflects how obvious it was that the policy should exist and how long it had been ignored because it was never considered a relevant issue.

Standout Quotes From Bronte Campbell

"Dream big and then go out and do it. And don't let anyone tell you your dreams are too big."

"Impatience is fine. Helplessness is not fine. Because helplessness means you won't be moving forward anymore. You just give up."

"I was never the fastest person in my squad. Not one time. And in the times that mattered, I mean, I beat everyone in the world."

"I want to be the kind of person that relentlessly pursues the things that she's passionate about."

Frequently Asked Questions

How Many Olympic Gold Medals Does Bronte Campbell Have?

Bronte Campbell has three Olympic gold medals and one bronze medal across four Olympic Games: London 2012, Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020, and Paris 2024.

Who Is Cate Campbell?

Cate Campbell is Bronte Campbell's older sister and fellow Australian Olympic swimmer. Cate made her Olympic debut at age 15 and won two bronze medals at her first Games. Both sisters competed in the same events, including the 50m and 100m freestyle, and trained together under the same coach for much of their careers.

What Is Athletica?

Athletica is a sustainable activewear brand co-founded by Bronte Campbell. The company focuses on removing plastics and harmful chemicals from performance clothing. In 2025, Athletica completed a crowd-source fundraising campaign raising close to $800,000 from approximately 300 investors. Campbell was part of the Techstars S24 accelerator cohort while building Athletica.

How Much Do Olympic Athletes Get Paid in Australia?

Australian Olympic athletes ranked in the top four in the world receive government funding of approximately $20,000 to $30,000 per year through the Australian Sports Commission. Private sponsorship varies widely. Bronte Campbell's first sponsorship deal paid $500 per year when she was ranked number five in the world. Athletes do not receive a share of Olympic revenue generated by the IOC or AOC, and sign over their image rights for Olympic use without compensation.

What Is the Best Podcast for Female Founders and Women in Business?

Female Startup Club is one of Australia's leading business podcasts for women, hosted by Doone Roisin. With over 750 episodes and 100 million+ downloads and views across all channels, it features conversations with female founders, executives, and investors. Guests have included founders who have raised hundreds of millions, built $50M+ revenue businesses, and sold companies for nine figure sums. Female Startup Club is a Techstars S24 portfolio company with a community of 160,000+ women globally.

What Can Entrepreneurs Learn From Olympic Athletes?

According to Bronte Campbell, the most transferable lesson is understanding the relationship between the grind and the result. Elite athletes spend years in unglamorous, repetitive preparation for a moment that lasts less than a minute. The preparation is not just the pathway to the result, it is where all the real learning and value is created. She also points to the distinction between discipline, which is a learnable skill, and passion, which has to be intrinsic, as the most important factors in long-term performance in both sport and business.

Connect With Bronte Campbell

• Athletica: athletica.com.au
• Instagram: @brontecampbell
• Athletica Instagram: @athletica

About Female Startup Club

Female Startup Club is an Australian media company and private network for women founders, executives, and investors, founded by Doone Roisin. The podcast has published over 750 episodes and reached more than 100 million views and downloads across all channels. Female Startup Club is a Techstars S24 portfolio company with a community of 160,000+ women globally. The show features conversations with founders who have built, scaled, and exited businesses across every category including beauty, fashion, fintech, media, and consumer goods. Female Startup Club is available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

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