SUPER back ends with phenomenal underwaters – meet Mollie O’Callaghan.

When the Dolphins topped the medal tally at the 2023 World Championships in Fukuoka, the teenage sensation had won six medals in total – five of them gold – and four of the gold in world record time.

And all this while shaking off a knee injury she had suffered just weeks before in training.

Her victory in the 100m freestyle – over the swimmer she calls her idol, Emma McKeon – came two nights after claiming the 200m freestyle title in world record time.

Which was all the more impressive given she turned in seventh place at the 50m mark and then mowed down the field to touch the wall in 1:52.85, becoming the first woman to do the 100m-200m double at a world championship.

The 200m freestyle record was the oldest standing women’s record in the program – set by Italy’s Federica Pellegrini in 2009.

Mollie had opened the meet by joining Shayna Jack, Meg Harris and McKeon to claim gold in the 4x100m freestyle relay in a world record time of 3:27.96.

Again she was the lead-off swimmer when Australia won gold in the 4x200m freestyle relay, combining with Jack, Ariarne Titmus and Brianna Throssell to post another world record, 7:37.50.

There was more gold and another world record in the mixed 4x100m relay, where she swam with Jack, Kyle Chalmers and Jack Cartwright for a time of 3:18.83. She topped if off with silver in the women’s 4x100m medley relay.

A hint of what was to come was provided in 2022 when Mollie was named Swimming World’s Female Performer of the Year.

Two gold medals at her debut Olympics in Tokyo, the year earlier, should have sounded the alarm given they both were won as a heat swimmer in the 4x100m freestyle and 4x100m medley relays.

But there was no way that the then 18-year-old’s victory in the 100m freestyle at the World Championships in Budapest could be ignored.

Nor could her efforts in winning the same event at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games in which she became the fifth Australian to win the world and Commonwealth 100m freestyle double – joining Jodie Henry, Libby Trickett and the Campbell sisters, Cate and Bronte.

More recently, at the Australian Championships on the Gold Coast in April, Mollie won gold in the 100m and 200m freestyle, gold in the 100m backstroke and silver in the 50m backstroke. 

Mollie then finished second in the 200m freestyle final at the Australian Selection Trials in Brisbane in June, where she went under her own world record but with Ariarne winning in 1:52.23 and Mollie stopping the clock in 1:52.48. 

POP POP UP STAT: The #4 100m backstroke performer of all time will not swim this event in Paris despite qualifying.

“The 100 backstroke for me it’s a fun event I don’t really train for it. To go out there and swam a 57 is just amazing,” Mollie said after clocking 57.88 at the Australian Selection Trials in June.

But the athlete boasting a matching cherry tattoo with her best mate, now retired Olympic gold medallist Chelsea Hodges,  will concentrate on her individual freestyle events and relays for Australia.