Australian swimmer wins gold in event she wasn't even meant to race
Niamh Shackleton
Featured Image Credit: Michael Steele/Getty Images
An Australian swimmer made a staggering amount of cash in less than an hour after winning not one, but two medals.
Jenna Forrester recently traveled to Glasgow, Scotland, for this year's Commonwealth Games as as a 400m freestyle and individual medley swimmer.
But tragedy struck for Team Australia when Kaylee McKeown became sick the night before her race.
McKeown was supposed to do the 200m backstroke but Forrester ended up having to step in for her after she fell unwell with glandular fever.
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Forrester had missed out on a spot in the event after placing fourth at the Australian trials last month, but it's safe to say she came back with a vengeance last night (July 24) and amazingly won gold.
Speaking after her win, Forrester said (as per ABC News): "I really just went into tonight with a positive attitude."
She added: "I felt like I had nothing to lose and my family would have been really proud of me no matter what the result was. I feel like I really just took that in my stride."
And it wasn't Forrester's only medal of the night. Just 50 minutes before winning gold she'd claimed bronze in the 400m freestyle.
While athletes don't get a fee from the Commonwealth for taking part in the Games or winning medals, mining billionaire Gina Rinehart is offering cash prizes to medal-winning Australian athletes.
Reuters reports that Rinehart is giving swimmers in individual events A$20,000 for gold, A$15,000 for silver and A$10,000 for bronze, and relay swimmers will earn between A$2,500 and A$5,000 for finishing on the medal podium.
If swimmers break a world record, they'll get an additional A$30,000 bonus.
With this in mind, Forrester made herself A$30,000 (around $21,000 USD) in less than an hour. Talk about a good pay day!
Rinehart has said of the bonuses: "These bonuses are a way of Australia saying thank you and showing the appreciation our athletes deserve for bringing our country such a sense of pride and achievement.
"There is something very uplifting about seeing an Australian athlete stand on the podium while our flag is raised.
"Such exciting times make Australians proud and deserve to be celebrated."
It's not just Australia that have already bagged a gold medal, Scotland has too after Duncan Scott came first in the men’s 200m individual medley final.
The 29-year-old, an eight-time Olympic medallist, set a Games record time of one minute 56.28 seconds for Scotland’s first gold medal of the 2026 competition.
The Scot took the lead in front of a boisterous crowd on the backstroke leg and increased that advantage in the breaststroke before finishing ahead of New Zealand’s Lewis Clareburt, with Englishman Tom Dean, triple Olympic gold medallist, taking the bronze.