For swimmers there is the constant presence of the black line. Up and down following the black line. Not so for backstrokers.<\/p>\n
They can gaze at the sun, the moon and the stars. Or the ever-decreasing circles of a velodrome in Berlin where luckily no backstroker \u2013 using the roof as a guide – went around and around at last year\u2019s European Championships.<\/p>\n
It is a graceful stroke. Long, smooth and languid. Other than the 50m sprint, there is little splash but instead an apparent gentle glide \u2013 deceptive, though, given the power and pace that is generated.<\/p>\n
Emily Seebohm is one of the sky gazers. She became Australian champion over 100m aged just 14 in 2006 and went on to finish fourth in the World Championships the following year as well as being part of the winning 4x100m medley relay.<\/p>\n
Now 22 and an Olympic and world silver medallist, Emily trains under the warmth and glare of the Brisbane sun.<\/p>\n
She says: \u201cI train outdoors so with me being a backstroker I don\u2019t have the black line, I get to look into the sky.\u201d<\/p>\n
Why backstroke? \u201cWhen I started swimming I didn\u2019t have a favourite stroke, I did everything.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t until I got older that I started liking backstroke more because I could breathe all the time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am always working on my skills as they are so important to your race and you can always improve.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emily\u2019s sentiments are echoed by Denmark\u2019s Mie Nielsen.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe swim on our backs, not on our stomachs so we can breathe all the time.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd when swimming you watch the ceiling, not the bottom of the pool.\u201d<\/p>\n
Swimming is in Mie\u2019s blood. Father Benny won silver in the 200m butterfly at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul while her mother Lone Jensen, the first Danish woman to dip under the minute mark in the 100m freestyle, competed at the 1978 World Championships.<\/p>\n
At the age of 13, Mie\u2019s winning time at the 2010 Danish Championships was inside the cut for the European Championships but her tender years meant she was too young to compete in Budapest.<\/p>\n
Undeterred, Mie followed junior success in 2011 with a gold, silver and two bronze medals at the European Short-Course Championships in the same year.<\/p>\n
In 2014 she became a triple European champion \u2013 aged 17 – before rounding off the year with three relay medals \u2013 two of them gold \u2013 at the World Short-Course Championships in Doha.<\/p>\n
It is a sharp trajectory and she says: \u201cI just keep practicing, I listen to my coach and watch to see what other backstrokers do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Radoslaw Kawecki is a world long-course 200m silver medallist and short-course champion.<\/p>\n
The Pole puts stress on his underwater skill where he is submerged for the permitted 15 metres.<\/p>\n
For the 23-year-old, backstroke was an inevitability, not a choice.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy swimming career started when I was in Grade 4 in primary school. From the very first days of training I knew that backstroke was my stroke.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For swimmers there is the constant presence of the black line. Up and down following the black line. Not so for backstrokers. They can gaze at the sun, the moon …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1284,"featured_media":16508,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10068],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n