From winning a bronze medal to moving to Australia, studying and becoming a university teacher, Ellie Faulkner has accomplished a lot in her time.
(Photo: Way Funky Company)
From a young age, Ellie Faulkner knew she had the potential to competitively swim at the highest level and represent Great Britain. But since retirement we get an insight into her new life in Australia away from the pool.
As a young child, Ellie Faulkner loved the water. Her parents both made sure she got swimming lessons in her early years starting at as young as four years old.
Faulkner’s passion for swimming all started when she watched the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games and decided that she wanted to be at an Olympic Games herself.
It was only at the age of seven that she decided to pursue swimming over other activities.
“I decided to pursue swimming as a hobby choosing to continue with the sport over other activities such as brownies, guides and ballet,” Faulkner said.
Growing up in the town of Sheffield, England, Faulkner was invited to join the squads that were based in her hometown called City of Sheffield Swim Squad. This is when she knew swimming was meant for her.
“I had to do a trial to get into the squads where I was selected to join should I want to. From this point I really enjoyed what swimming was to me,” she said.
Faulkner then went on to train with the City of Sheffield Swim Squad throughout her childhood and had her first major international competition by the age of 15 at the Youth Commonwealth Games in Pune, India.
Inspirations for Faulkner as she grew up included former English competitive swimmer, Rebecca Adlington. Adlington specialised in freestyle events in international competitions throughout her career and her success included winning two gold medals at the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Throughout Faulkner’s swimming career, she soon became close with her childhood inspiration which she has found very special.
“As I became more experienced within the sport of swimming, Rebecca soon became a friend, teammate and rival as we both competed in the same events,” Faulkner said.
Ellie Faulkner (far right) has raced against some of the best including Australia's Ariarne Titmus (middle) in the Women's 400m Freestyle Final at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
Like with many professional athletes, the dream to achieve greatness at the highest level can be difficult and sometimes just too hard to achieve resulting in many many giving up on the dream. For Faulkner, there were many times where she felt like giving it all up and not fulfilling her dream of one day becoming an Olympian athlete.
However, her vision and perspective on challenges she faced was ‘with hard work, you’ll be rewarded with success.’
“I would sit with my coaches and say that I thought it just wasn’t for me. But I always used to come back the next day because I knew that the only way, I could make my dreams a reality, was by putting in the work and making it happen. It wasn’t just going to happen,” Faulkner said.
At the 2012 Summer Olympics, Faulkner competed in the women’s 800-metre freestyle, finishing in 22nd place overall in the heats, and unfortunately not advancing to the finals. Likewise, at the 2016 Rio Games, Faulkner competed in the women’s 200-metre freestyle, finishing in 32nd place overall in the heats.
However, Faulkner had more success in the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games finishing with bronze in the women's 4x 200 metre freestyle relay, as well as at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games. It was here that she finished with a bronze medal in the women's 400m freestyle, women's 4x 100 metre freestyle relay and women's 4x 200 metre freestyle relay.
Faulkner opened up on what it was like representing Great Britain at the Commonwealth Games and Olympics, highlighting the sense of pride she had with the whole nation standing by her side and cheering her on.
“It’s an absolute honour. When you compete for your country, although very nerve racking, it is amazing to stand there knowing you have been selected to represent your country out of so many people,” she said.
“You feel a sense of pride but also that you have a whole nation standing by you side to support you.”
As a professional swimmer, Faulkner has experienced many highs and lows throughout her career. From achieving personal best times to missing out on podiums.
“The highs are quite obvious so when you make it onto the podium, and you have achieved a lifetime best. Sometimes when it might have shocked you. And I think lows for me is when it just doesn’t happen for you,” Faulkner said.
She found it more common to experience the low moments but emphasised how her ‘working on the one percent’ helped her overcome these low moments.
“The lows happen more often that winning or being on the podium. But it is the way in which I dealt with these situations that brought me back out the other side and back into those top spots,” Faulkner said.
“I like to call the aim ‘working on the one percent’. When you work repetitively on the one percent difference in something, it is bound to make a change.”
Faulkner’s swimming career came with limited regrets, however after reflecting on her career, she mentioned how not always listening to coaches was her biggest mistake.
Ellie Faulkner (right) with a bronze medal after smashing her PB time in the 200m freestyle back at the British Championships in 2017.
(Photo: FFN Facebook)
“The only thing that I regret from my career, is sometimes not listening to advice when it was given,” she said.
“You have to be so driven as a swimmer, but at times I think as an adolescent you tend to think you know more than the person who is telling you something.”
Unlike many athletes within her profession, Faulkner retired from competitive swimming when she was 25-years-old. With recent success in the 2018 Commonwealth Games, Faulkner soon after called time on her career.
This decision wasn’t influenced by injuries or coaching management, but rather a personal choice from Faulkner. One of the main reasons in doing so was because she didn’t want to compete in another Olympics. Looking back at her decision, Faulkner knew the time had come.
“I just knew the time was right for me. I started to enjoy swimming for what it was. I knew that I didn’t want to go to another Olympics to place the same positions as I had done previously,” she said.
“When I had decided this, I feel it took a lot of pressure off my swimming and I finished my career on a high doing what I loved.”
Faulkner is hoping to leave her legacy behind and be an “inspiration” for other young swimmers.
“I hope that my career and the way I handled myself is not only inspiring to the next generation of athletes, but also to students. To understand that you must work hard and it pays off in the long run,” Faulkner said.
Since retirement, Faulkner made the life changing decision to move down to Australia to work for one of her swimming sponsors “Funky Trunks and Funkita Swimwear” as a brand sale representative.
However, due to unforeseen circumstances, Faulkner had to find other work and decided to head back into studies.
Faulkner is now teaching Sport Management at Latrobe University and hopes to continue doing so into the future.
(Photo: LinkedIn)
She went on to complete a Master of Business (Sport Management) at Deakin University and then maintained her studies into a PhD at Swinburne University of Technology. To this present day, Faulkner continues to teach young students and hopes to continue this pathway for her future endeavours.
“I think for me, my future direction is to hopefully set up my own consulting business one day and also maintain teaching at universities. I absolutely love it.”
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