Groves was recently cleared of a third “strike” against her name for failing to appear at a designated location and time for a drugs test by WADA staff. The strike could have led to an instant two-year swimming ban for the rising Brisbane star, ruling her out of the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games. But at a hearing in October, FINA ruled the drug-testers didn’t make enough of an effort to locate her at the San Diego university where she was temporarily based. Groves was in her dorm, the testers were in the carpark. They waited a short time, then left. Madeline takes up the story …

TESTING HER RESOLVE

It was very stressful when it happened. I’d made this decision to go to the US. It was this big, exciting opportunity for me. About three weeks into it is when I got this email saying that the week beforehand or whatever it was, that I had missed a drug test. I had no idea what was going on. I had no idea they even tried to come to the facility. It was confusing at the time, but thankfully I had a really good support network around me and we were able to get on our feet quickly and get on top of it.

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THE GAME PLAN

At times I felt completely fine, because I knew I had done nothing wrong, and I expected to get off. Then that kind’ve doubt can creep up on you. The whole process took about eight months; there was certainly time during it all to over-think. I wanted to prepare myself as well. You don’t want to be going into these situations blindly, so I felt I had a very confident plan going forward. I guess that’s what kept me calm. And then obviously that huge relief at the end when it did go my way.

It was a bit stressful being away from my family and my coach and everything that’s familiar to me at home. I was actually over there training at San Diego at the time with a big group of American national team members and coaches. I was really enjoying that.

SUPPORT NETWORK

After all of that, I went over to Charlotte in North Carolina to David Marsh and his club Swim Mac Elite. Thankfully I did already have some friends over there, so I wasn’t completely alone. It was quite a nice distraction to be over there. I had things to do every day and a whole bunch of new people to befriend and train with and everything. Even though I did have this stressful thing going on in the back of my mind, I still felt like I had a really good time last year and I really got a lot out of it.

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WHY BUTTERFLY?

All the different strokes, even between events, you have to do specific work; for the 200m butterfly usually that just means doing … quite a lot of butterfly. You can do special dryland exercises, do things like pilates and whatever, but at the end of the day you have to be in there doing those laps and laps of butterfly; and be willing to do it. It’s always been my favourite stroke; even when I was younger. I’ve always been pretty good at it. You always enjoy the things you’re good at. I like that it’s a difficult event. I like that not many people feel like they can do it. Doing a lot of butterfly training makes you feel pretty tough sometimes! My shoulders and arms have had a lot of maintenance; it’s taken a lot to look after them, but I’ve been lucky with injury.

As told to James Smith, Inside Sport magazine

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