Triple Olympian. World champion. Ten-time European champion. Commonwealth champion. British record holder.
In her own words, 70% professional athlete, 20% krispy kreme addict, 10% rockstar.
And one thing we can say with certainty is that Fran Halsall is 30 today!
The sprint freestyler will be celebrating in lockdown – no doubt with a Zoom call or two – and we thought we would mark her day with a look back at her career that she brought to an end in January 2017.
Olympic and world champion sisters Cate and Bronte Campbell also wanted to wish the “pocket rocket” a Happy Birthday.
Photo Courtesy: Daniel Shirey-USA TODAY Sports
So too European champion Lizzie Simmonds – with whom Halsall forged a close friendship after the pair roomed together from their early teens as part of the Smart Track programme – and double Olympic silver medallist Jazz Carlin.
All of them pointed to Halsall’s bubbly, effervescent personality and slight build relative to some of the women she raced that belied the heart of a lion and an athlete built for speed.
Cate told Swimming World:
“Over the years we had some great head-to-head battles. I most vividly remember the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow where she broke the 24-second barrier in the 50m freestyle – she may have been small in stature but my goodness the girl could swim.”
Bronte added:
“Fran was the best kind of competitor and I so miss having her on pool deck.”
Simmonds recalled her first memory of Halsall ahead of a training camp in 2003, her friend clad in a purple velour tracksuit and munching on Doritos potato chips before she turned and fled after learning of what training would constitute. Quite the picture.
Carlin too said:
“Fran was just an incredible, talented girl and she lights up the room and brings so much energy and lifts so many people up.”
Photo Courtesy: Gian Mattia Dalberto/Lapresse
A wealth of personal memories abound.
Serving notice of a great talent with victory in the 100 free at the 2005 European Junior Championships in 55.69 aged 15 with silver in the 50 ahead of Ranomi Kromowidjojo who would take double sprint freestyle gold at London 2012.
The 16-year-old holding off future Olympic champion Britta Steffen to anchor Great Britain to European gold in the 4x100m medley relay in Budapest in 2006. Finishing fourth in the 100 free in a race won by Steffen in world-record time, Halsall the youngest in the field by five years and racing women up to 14 years her senior.
In March the following year at the World Championships in Melbourne, Australia, and still 16, Halsall anchored the British medley relay in 53.76 – a time bettered only by four-time Olympic champion Libby Trickett and Steffen on that day – to steer them to within 0.21secs of the podium.
Former GB head coach Bill Sweetenham’s description of Halsall as “a gladiator of the pool”.
Making her first Olympic 100 free final in Beijing in 53.94 which would have been good enough for fourth and setting a new British record of 53.81 on the 4×100 free lead-off.
Photo Courtesy: Gian Mattia Dalberto/Lapresse
The simultaneous giggles and tears of happiness after winning 100 free silver at the 2009 World Championships – her first individual senior international medal – and the deal she had struck with her mother Diane for a Lhasa Apso dog if she was to win a medal and that she now planned to call Roma.
Her time of 52.87 still stands as the British record and at the time Halsall was only the third woman after Steffen and Trickett to dip inside 53 seconds.
Tales of the goldfish she had as a 14-year-old, Inge and Thorpey – named after Inge de Bruijn and Ian Thorpe – and how her mother inadvertently sent them to a watery grave. “She accidentally killed them – their scales fell off.”
How her mother would hold her breath for the duration of Halsall’s races, much to the swimmer’s amusement as she noted it was a good job she didn’t do the 800 free. Or the 25km open water.
The trips to Mexico and the USA on the Smart Track programme set up by Sweetenham and John Atkinson, now high-performance director at Swim Canada.
Being hauled out of the pool to prevent her from fainting at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India, the victim of a stomach virus before being led away to be sick by team doctor Ian Gordon.
Gordon guided her through the mixed zone, where she was propped up shivering, pale and weak, the press confronted by the health risks the athletes were facing because of the suspect quality of water. Halsall had no memory of meeting the media that night nor of standing on the podium, swaying and close to collapse.
Being the sole British medallist in the pool at the 2013 worlds in Barcelona where she won bronze in the 50 free.
The medal rush of 2014 where double gold and silver at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow were followed by three titles among five medals at the European Championships in Berlin. So too was there a world-record time in the 4x100m mixed medley relay although it was never ratified because of an admin mix-up.
Tales of the Pink Palace, the Loughborough home she shared with four-time European champion Georgia Davies, a cat called Bella and Garry the goldfish who the pair won at a fair and was initially housed in a mixing bowl before Halsall bought a fish tank – “so Garry’s pimped out in his crib,” she laughed. The menagerie was completed by a spider which went by the name of Larry – “He lives in between the fridge and the back door, he’s set up his own little space.”
Fran-tastic.
Anchoring the British 4x100m mixed medley relay to gold in 53.77 as the quartet set a new world record at the 2015 worlds in Kazan.
The only silverware missing from Halsall’s armoury is an Olympic medal.
There was desolation and bewilderment after she finished fifth and sixth in the 50 and 100 free at the 2012 Olympics in London. A home Games that had promised so much magic ended with Halsall in tears, the hurt of knowing what she had worked for for so long had not come to fruition lingering for a long time.
Her raw honesty and hurt there would have thawed the iciest of hearts.
Four years later in Rio and Halsall was fourth in the 50m free, 0.02secs off the podium as 0.06 separated the top four.
Winning bronze there was Aliaksandra Herasimenia, the Belarus swimmer who tested positive for steroid norandrosterone in 2003 before returning after a two-year ban.
Herasimenia won double sprint freestyle silver at London 2012 and was the joint 2011 100 free world champion – a race in which Halsall finished fourth.
GB head coach Bill Furniss didn’t mince his words in Rio after his squad finished with seven fourth places of which a number were behind athletes – including Sun Yang, Yuliya Efimova and Herasimenia – who had failed drugs tests.
He said: “They have done everything right and are not being looked after. Everything seems to be focused around how fair we can be to people who have not passed drugs tests. It is just not right. It sticks in my throat.”
In January 2017 Halsall announced her retirement from the pool after an international career that spanned more than a decade and brought over 30 senior long-course medals.
Photo Courtesy: Ian MacNicol
She posted her announcement on social media, the statement in full here:
“Announcing my retirement from swimming is a weird concept for me as I’ve never seen it as a career or job. It is just a hobby that I’ve loved doing and happen to be ok at.
“However I’ve done it for over a decade and there are so many people who have committed time, money, wisdom and knowledge into my journey that I will be forever thankful for.
“Stepping away from the pool is quite a scary decision for someone whose whole adult life to date has revolved around around swimming, weights, diet, peeing in a pot while someone watches, outdoor swim caps and lots of napping!
“I am very much looking forward to the next chapter of my life and the normality of eating and drinking what I want – and the only time someone watches me pee is when I leave the door open by accident and the dog comes in!
“I will miss my daily naps and choosing to do sets backstroke while training outdoors just to get an even tan! But it is time to close this chapter of my life and move on to the next.
“Swimming has taught me so much and given me so many opportunities that no other career could. So for me this is just a thank you note to everyone who has supported me for being part of a fantastic set of memories.”
The next step was setting up a coffee shop called Common Ground in Altrincham, Cheshire, with fellow Olympians Jess Varnish and Liam Phillips and marriage to rugby league star Jon Wilkin.
Sisters Of Speed Recall The ‘Best Kind Of Competitor’
Bronte, left, and Cate Campbell. Photo Courtesy of Swimming Australia
Cate Campbell has had a glittering career so far with two golds among five Olympic medals and is a four-time world champion.
The Australian recalled the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014 when Halsall won the 50 free in 23.96 as she enjoyed a medal-laden summer ahead of Cate and sister Bronte.
Cate told Swimming World:
“Fran was one of my favourite people to race against. She somehow made the call room a fun enjoyable place to be in. Her bright and engaging personality made it easy to under-estimate her, but when she stepped out on pool deck she was a force to be reckoned with.
“Over the years we had some great head-to-head battles, I most vividly remember the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow where she broke the 24 second barrier in the 50m freestyle – she may have been small in stature but my goodness the girl could swim.
“I miss having her on pool deck and we still chat about her and her antics in the call room. I love keeping up with her life after sport on Instagram and hope to make it over to her coffee shop sometime in the future.”
Bronte, winner of Olympic freestyle relay gold in Rio and the five-time world champion, added:
“Fran was a pocket rocket in and out of the pool. I remember the first final I was in with her at 2013 Worlds in Barcelona. I remember her talking and laughing a lot and just being herself. I was so nervous I could barely speak but I enjoyed having her around, it definitely lightened the mood in there.
“Over the next few years we raced together many times and I always loved racing her. Fran was always positive, always congratulated you on a good race and you always knew that you were in for a dogfight with her and that she wouldn’t let you get away with much.
“Fran was the best kind of competitor and I so miss having her on pool deck.”
Simmonds On Velour Tracksuits And Baring More Than Her Soul
Lizzie Simmonds: Photo Courtesy: Ian MacNicol
Simmonds has known Halsall since the pair were in their early teens and the pair have been close friends ever since.
Simmonds, European and Commonwealth backstroke medallist who was locked out of the London 2012 podium by one place, recalls:
“The first time I met Fran was on a British Swimming Smart Track Camp back in 2003 – she was dropped off at the Quality Inn Hotel in Loughborough wearing a very dashing purple velour tracksuit and eating a bag of Doritos. Unfortunately, I think she quickly discovered that we might be swimming over 5km per session on the upcoming camp, so she spontaneously acquired a mystery illness and was back in the car and heading home before her dad had even had time to unload her bag.
“The second round of camps had us rooming together, and we were inseparable from that point onwards, sharing victories, defeats, mishaps and mischiefs for the next fifteen years. One of my favourite memories of Fran was during the ‘shiny suit’ era of 2009, when we were holding in Sardinia for the World Champs.
“Putting on shiny suits was no mean feat, especially in the baking Sardinian heat, and 45 minutes into donning one of these suits, Fran was regretting the decision to go for a size XS. At 55 minutes she was almost there, and just as the time ticked around to the one hour mark, Fran hitched up the last centimetre only for the suit to rip down the front, exposing her to the onlooking Sardinian crowd.
“She reacted swiftly (you’d expect nothing less from a sprinter), bringing her arms round and bending forwards to cover her state of undress, only for the suit to rip in an identical manner all the way down the back.
“We put that one down to experience but I think the silver medal at those World Championships made up for any embarrassment on her behalf… Fran was an unbelievable athlete and, luckily for her life beyond sport, has a personality to match.
“Without question we bring out the very best (and very worst) in each other, and I can’t think of a better person to have shared my swimming journey with. Happy Birthday Franny xx”
Carlin On European Junior Memories And Sharing A Room And A Love Of Sleep
Photo Courtesy: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports
Carlin, who won silver in the 400 and 800m free at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, recalled her first introduction to Halsall back in 2005.
“Fran was just an incredible, talented girl and she lights up the room and brings so much energy and lifts so many people up.
“I was on my first European juniors with her and I was quite a shy young girl at 14 but Fran was in her element, she loved it.
“We were on the 4×2 team together and got my first European juniors medal getting bronze with Fran. I have been around Fran for so long and she is definitely one of the most talented, professional athletes that had so much energy.
“She was so great to be around and I shared with her a few times. We both love our sleep so we’d be sleeping all the time.
“I’ve got great memories of being on teams with Fran and sharing a room with her and then seeing her get married a couple of years ago.
“It’s really special I think and crazy to think we’re all grown up now.”