Oz swimmer 'dumped' by sport she loved

Australia's Cate Campbell says she felt betrayed by swimming in the wake of her flop at last year's Rio Games, at which she was tipped to win gold in the 50m and 100m freestyle events but failed even to get onto the podium.

The former 100m freestyle world champion later remarked that it was "possibly the greatest choke in Olympic history" and broke down in tears in a televised interview.

Taking a long lay-off after Rio, Campbell has elected to skip the world championships in Budapest, Hungary, where Swede Sarah Sjostrom smashed the Australian's 100m freestyle world record with a 51:71 lead-off swim during the 4x100 relay on Sunday.

Despite winning relay gold and silver in Rio, Campbell said she felt "let down" by a sport she had worked so hard to dominate.

"It hurt me deeply, in the way like if you are in a relationship with someone. Swimming let me down," she told The Australian newspaper. "It's strange because it was 100% me [at fault], and I was in control, but I felt like I had given so much of myself to this thing and it had just really let me down and I was feeling hurt by it."

The 25-year-old Campbell added that she was too scared to return to the pool until she had a casual swim at her Brisbane training pool six weeks after the games. "I hadn't been in the water at all, I had no desire to."

Campbell, who won the 100m freestyle world title in Barcelona in 2013, has yet to commit to a full training regime but plans to ramp up her preparations for the Commonwealth Games at the Australian Gold Coast next year.