Commonwealth Games champion, Emily Seebohm collapses at Australian meet

Australian swimmer, Emily Seebohm has withdrawn from other major events at the Commonwealth Games Championship meet after collapsing Saturday.

The Daily Telegraph said that Seebohm passed out and fell on the hallway minutes after finishing the 100-meter backstroke event at Sydney Olympic Park aquatic center.

The swimmer’s coach, Matty Brown claimed that the Australian swimmer turned red and was seen struggling to breathe as fell flat on the floor.

"Basically she has pretty much exhausted herself to the point where she just collapsed at the end of the race," Brown said, according to the Daily Telegraph.

He added, “The whole face, the whole body, was absolutely red and just blown out, when you look at the history of say the last four or five weeks, she's not in great nick.”

In an interview after regaining consciousness, the Commonwealth Games champion recalled the last thing she saw before she totally lost her consciousness.

“I couldn’t remember too much apart from being on the ground and I had a massive headache and I had an oxygen mask on me,” Seebohm was quoted as saying by the Daily Telegraph.

She added, “Then a wheelchair came. My mum was in tears, that’s about all I remember. I think the first thing I said was: ‘Can I go get my medal now?’.”

Seebohm then expressed her satisfaction over her performance before she collapsed, forcing her to officially withdraw from the rest of the tournament.

She said, “ I am happy to have a silver medal. I am happy with the time I did with such a bad preparation. I just really want to get back in the pool and have a really solid prep leading into Shanghai.”

The Daily Telegraph noted that the swimmer was already back on her feet after 45 mins. She even attended the award giving ceremony and collected her silver medal. Her rival, Belinda Hocking brought home the gold at 59.55 seconds, beating her time recorded at 1:00:08.

Her coach, Matt Brown said that the incident reflected that his swimmer is determined to be part of the team competing in Shanghai.

Seebohm has reportedly participated in the Australian Commonwealth Games Championship in hopes to get her ticket to Shanghai , with her eyes set on competing in six major events.

After the incident, Seebohm was able to qualify only in one event, and was qualified to the Australian team bound for China, that will compete for the 100-m backstroke.