.jpg) Madeline Groves in June 2016 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Nickname(s) | Mad Dog | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 25 May 1995 (age 29) Brisbane | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Occupation | swimmer | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 179 cm (5 ft 10 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 66 kg (146 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | swimming | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Discipline | butterfly stroke | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Coached by | Michael Bohl | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Madeline Groves (born 25 May 1995) is an Australian competitiveswimmer. She was the Australian national champion in the 200 m butterfly event in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016. At the2014 Commonwealth Games she was a bronze medallist in the200 m butterfly event, and swam in the heats for the gold medal-winning Australian freestyle relay team. She was selected to represent Australia in the 100 m and 200 m butterfly, and 4 × 200 m freestyle relay events at the2016 Summer Olympics inRio de Janeiro.
Madeline Groves was born inBrisbane,Queensland, on 25 May 1995.[1] She has two brothers.[2] She attended Wilston State Primary School andSt Peters Lutheran College.[3] In 2014, she was an inaugural recipient of theGeorgina Hope Rinehart Swimming Excellence Scholarship to study for aBachelor of Social Science degree atBond University on Queensland'sGold Coast.[4]
Groves learned to swim when she was a baby,[2] and startedcompetitive swimming when she was twelve years old.[5] As a junior, she won the 100 m and 200 mbutterfly and 4 × 100 mmedley events, and silver in the 50 m butterfly, at the2010 Oceania Swimming Championships inSamoa. At the Junior Pan Pacific championships inHawaii that year she came second in the 200 m butterfly and fifth in the 100 m butterfly events.[2] She took 2011 off, but returned to competitive swimming after she finished high school.[3] She is coached byMichael Bohl at St Peter's Western, whereMitch Larkin,Bronte Barratt,Madison Wilson andGrant Irvine also train.[3] She has known Bohl since 2008,[5] and he has been her coach since 2012. She has been nicknamed "Mad Dog" and "Machine Gun".[3]
In 2013, Groves became the national champion at the2013 Australian Swimming Championships in the 200 m butterfly event.[1] During 2014, Groves suffered from debilitating pain in her shoulder and neck. This was traced to a clenched jaw, which has been treated by anorthodontist.[3] She defended her national title in the 200 m butterfly event at the2014 Australian Swimming Championships, and the2015 Australian Swimming Championships,[1] and in Adelaide in April 2016 at the2016 Australian Swimming Championships,[6] where she was second in the 100 m butterfly.[3]
At the2014 Commonwealth Games she was a bronze medallist in the200 m butterfly event,[3] and swam in the heats for the gold medal-winning Australian freestyle relay team.[7] At the2015 World Aquatics Championships inKazan, Russia, she was 9th in the200m butterfly and 11th in the100 m butterfly events.[3] She swam in the heats of themedley relay,[8] in which the Australian team went on to win.[9]
In April 2016, Groves was selected to represent Australia in the 100 m and 200 m butterfly, and 4 × 200 m freestyle relay events at the2016 Summer Olympics inRio de Janeiro.[10] This was her first Olympics.[3] She did not qualify for the semi-final in the100 m butterfly,[11] but qualified fastest for the final of the200 m butterfly. She won silver, finishing just three-hundredths of a second behind Spain'sMireia Belmonte.[12]
In June 2021, she announced she was withdrawing from the Australian trials for the2020 Summer Olympics in protest over "misogynistic perverts in sport and their bootlickers," stating that her decision was "the culmination of years of witnessing and 'benefitting' from a culture that relies on people ignoring bad behaviour to thrive."[13] In December 2020, she had made a post on social media revealing that she had made a complaint to Swimming Australia after a coach made an inappropriate comment towards her.[14]
Media related toMadeline Groves at Wikimedia Commons
