By Terin Frodyma on SwimSwam
When Australian freestyler Lani Pallister got back onto the pool deck after failing to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, she didn’t even get in the water. Instead, she left in a pool of tears.
That day is what Pallister described as her “rock bottom” in a feature report from the Courier Mail. Since that moment, Pallister has seen a resurgence between the lane lines, including a world-record performance, topping one of swimming’s most iconic figures, and establishing herself among the best freestylers on the planet.
Pallister described 2021 as “annus horriblus” (or the year that everything that could go wrong did).
Beginning in January, she developed an eating disorder, which was triggered by a comment (that she feels was not made with malintent) about needing to return to her 2019 weight (when she set many of her lifetime best times) to achieve positive results.
That comment still carried importance, leading Pallister to hyperfixate on that message while working to qualify for Tokyo.
That limited eating affected a preexisting heart condition – Supraventricular tachycardia (SVT)—causing her heart rate to spike to 250 beats per minute.
“I became very controlled with what I was eating, particularly if I had a bad session in the pool, and then because of that, my pre-existing heart condition got worse,” Pallister said according to The Courier Mail.
She underwent catheter ablation surgery to help with the condition. Following the procedure, she experienced another slew of medical setbacks, including glandular fever, influenza, multiple vitamin deficiencies, and scabies.
By the time June came around, Pallister had failed to qualify to represent Australia in Tokyo.
“Not qualifying felt like the end of a dream for me. But I was just so sick, and my post-viral condition meant I had no energy.” Pallister said, “I remember I cried every day for weeks.”
Pallister moved home to her mother, Janelle Pallister, who has an Olympic history of her own, having competed in the 1988 Seoul Olympics in both the 400 and 800 freestyle races.
Lani & Janelle Pallister (Photo Credit: Delly Carr/Swimming Australia)
Back with her mother, father, Rick, and brother, Owen, Pallister used them to help raise her spirits in an effort to get her back in the water.
“Family is everything to me,” Pallister said. “I don’t think I would have got back in the water without them.”
Then came the time to get back in the water. Walking on the pool deck, looking at the pool, crying, turning back around, and leaving.
“I didn’t even want to get in the pool. And then it took me a while to just start feeling better, to feel … normal,” Pallsiter said.
Pallister went back to her coach, Michael “Bohly” Bohl at Griffith University on the Gold Coast. Her mother, Janelle, was an assistant coach under Bohl, and Lani had moved to the Gold Coast in 2020 to train under the Australian Coach to help take that emotionally draining weight off Pallister.
“All I remember from that time was how much fun I was having,” Pallister said.
As the next two years came and went, she steadily improved her times and qualified for the Paris Olympics in the women’s 400, 800, and 1500 free, plus the women’s 4×200 free relay.
“On the day of the opening ceremony, one of my best friends tested positive for COVID, and I’d been inseparable with her for the past three or four days, so I was like, ‘Oh no, not again.’” Pallister said.
On the third day of the competition, Pallister tested positive for COVID-19, marking the second time she had tested positive for the virus at a major international competition (after testing positive at the 2022 World Championships, which subsequently caused her to miss her 800 freestyle final).
“I just couldn’t believe it might happen again – but it did,” Pallister said.
She did not swim the final of the 1500 freestyle after already withdrawing from the 400 free and finishing 6th in the 800 free due to her unfortunately timed poor health.
“Oh my God, after the 800m I was just hysterically crying my eyes out. I mean, I was so happy for all the other girls who did so well, I genuinely was, but I was just so shocked that had happened again.” Pallister said, according to The Courier Mail. “Like I didn’t think I could ever get COVID again at a competition and twice in the space of two years. I was so, so disappointed.”
Paris was not a complete letdown; Pallister still came away with hardware in the 4×200 freestyle relay alongside Ariarne Titmus, Mollie O’Callaghan, and Brianna Throssell. And even through all the hardships, she did not want to just give up or walk away.
Australia Women’s 800 Free Relay (photo: Jack Spitser)
“I’m sure any other normal person would have stopped after Paris, like, that’s probably enough setbacks, maybe try something else?” Pallister said, “But I guess I’m not normal. Instead of making me want it less, it made me want it more.”
Pallister chose to join Coach Dean Boxall’s St. Peters Western Swimming group in Brisbane.
Dean Boxall (Photo Credit: Delly Carr/Swimming Australia)
“The first thing I said to Dean when I sat down with him was: ‘I want to go to the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028, and I want to win individual medals,” Pallister said to Boxall in their first meeting. “I also want under four minutes in the 400m, and I want under eight minutes, 10 in the 800m.”
His response was just three words, “Okay, let’s go.”
At the 2025 Australian Swimming Trials in June, Pallister achieved one of those goals, breaking 4:00 in the 400 free in a time of 3:59.72, and she also set new personal best times in the 200 free (1:54.89), 800 free (8:10.84), and 1500 free (15:39.14), setting her up for the World Championships. A month and a half later, Pallister dropped her 800 free time down to 8:05.98, finishing less than half a second behind Katie Ledecky at the World Championships and winning a surprise silver over Summer McIntosh.
Pallister, Ledecky, and McIntosh on the podium at the 2025 World Aquatics Championships in Singapore. (Courtesy of Nardia Mulkerrins)
“I’m a little crazy, I like to have fun and I am having so much fun. It might sound cliché but I am just so happy these days, and you know what they say? A happy swimmer is a fast swimmer.” Pallister said, according to The Courier Mail.
Her success did not stop in Singapore. Transitioning her focus to the short course water for the 2025 Swimming World Cup, Pallister swam a career-defining 800 freestyle that rewrote history books at the third and final stop in Toronto. Pallister obliterated Katie Ledecky’s world record mark in the event by over three seconds, touching in an all-time best 7:54.00.
“Breaking a Katie Ledecky world record makes it even more special. Katie has set the standard in distance swimming for over a decade, and to be competing in the same era is just wild.” Pallister said.
Now, Pallister will be looking ahead to Los Angeles in 2028, where she will seek to address unfinished Olympic business from both Tokyo and Paris.
Read the full story on SwimSwam: “Okay, Let’s Go”, Dean Boxall’s Three Words that Fueled Lani Pallister’s Swimming Resurgence
