Nickname(s) Mad Dog, Machine Gun Weight 66 kg | Citizenship Australia Sport swimming Height 1.79 m | |
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Club St Peters Western Swim Club[*] Parents Greg Groves, Claire Brinkman Groves Similar Emma McKeon, Madison Wilson, Mireia Belmonte | ||
Madeline Groves (born 25 May 1995) is an Australian competitive swimmer. She was the Australian national champion in the 200 m butterfly event in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016. At the 2014 Commonwealth Games she was a bronze medallist in the 200 m butterfly event, and swam in the heats for the gold medal-winning Australian freestyle relay team. She was selected to represent Australia in the 100 m and 200 m butterfly, and 4 × 200 m freestyle relay events at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
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Biography
Madeline Groves was born in Brisbane, Queensland, on 25 May 1995. She has two brothers. She attended Wilston State Primary School and St Peters Lutheran College. In 2014, she was an inaugural recipient of the Georgina Hope Rinehart Swimming Excellence Scholarship to study for a Bachelor of Social Science degree at Bond University on Queensland's Gold Coast.
Groves learned to swim when she was a baby, and started competitive swimming when she was twelve years old. As a junior, she won the 100 m and 200 m butterfly and 4 × 100 m medley events, and silver in the 50 m butterfly, at the 2010 Oceania Swimming Championships in Samoa. At the Junior Pan Pacific championships in Hawaii that year she came second in the 200 m butterfly and fifth in the 100 m butterfly events. She took 2011 off, but returned to competitive swimming after she finished high school. She is coached by Michael Bohl at St Peter's Western, where Mitch Larkin, Bronte Barratt, Madison Wilson and Grant Irvine also train. She has known Bohl since 2008, and he has been her coach since 2012. She has been nicknamed "Mad Dog" and "Machine Gun".
In 2013, Groves became the national champion at the 2013 Australian Swimming Championships in the 200 m butterfly event. During 2014, Groves suffered from debilitating pain in her shoulder and neck. This was traced to a clenched jaw, which has been treated by an orthodontist. She defended her national title in the 200 m butterfly event at the 2014 Australian Swimming Championships, and the 2015 Australian Swimming Championships, and in Adelaide in April 2016 at the 2016 Australian Swimming Championships, where she was second in the 100 m butterfly.
At the 2014 Commonwealth Games she was a bronze medallist in the 200 m butterfly event, and swam in the heats for the gold medal-winning Australian freestyle relay team. At the 2015 World Aquatics Championships in Kazan, Russia, she was 9th in the 200m butterfly and 11th in the 100 m butterfly events. She swam in the heats of the medley relay, in which the Australian team went on to win.
In April 2016, Groves was selected to represent Australia in the 100 m and 200 m butterfly, and 4 × 200 m freestyle relay events at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. This was her first Olympics. She did not qualify for the semi-final in the 100 m butterfly, but qualified fastest for the final of the 200 m butterfly. She won silver, finishing just three-hundredths of a second behind Spain's Mireia Belmonte.
Tokyo 2020 Olympic withdrawal of Madeline Groves
In 2020, Australian swimmer Madeline Groves has revealed that she had complained about a man in the sport who made her feel uncomfortable a few years back. Now, in June 2021, Groves has withdrawn her name from the upcoming Olympic trials scheduled to start in Adelaide on the 12th of June. She has blamed the "misogynist perverts" in the sport for her exit in her statement posted on social media.
"Let this be a lesson to all misogynistic perverts... and their boot lickers," Groves said in a statement. "You can no longer exploit young women and girls, body shame or medically gaslight them and then expect them to represent you so you can earn your annual bonus. Time's UP," she added.
Kieren Perkins, Swimming Australia's president, however, said Groves hasn't made any official complaint against anybody in the sport. He has also invited her to have a word with him considering she must struggling through a tough time after taking such a tough decision. Kieren assured that Groves' statement on social media has raised an alarm in the Swimming Australia community. He has assured that they will investigate the matter and assure a safe environment for all its sportsperson.
On the other hand, Swimming Australia, also claimed that they contacted Groves earlier in December and November 2020 when she complained about a man who made her feel uncomfortable but she allegedly refused to give further details to their team, they said.