After a few years of battling injury setbacks, Kelsie Campbell is a different swimmer.

Campbell, who was always a staple in Jamaica’s age group teams over the years, is now older, stronger and ready to put her best stroke forward on the senior international stage.

In fact, the British-born swimmer is among those viewed as candidates to take up the mantle from retired five-time Olympian Alia Atkinson and she believes this 2022 season should give a clearer indication of that prospect.

While away from competition, Campbell used the time to fine-tune her mechanics and train her body which resulted in some fairly successful swims last year, particularly at the UANA meet, The Bahamian Nationals and the Perdue Invitational.

“My debut at the UANA event was kind of like an ice-breaking meet for me and then I kind of build from there onwards. Every other weekend we tried to find meets somewhere in Florida that we could attend and then I kind of went from strength to strength with my peak being at the Bahamian Nationals,” Campbell told the Jamaica Observer in a recent interview.

“I clocked a couple of best times and it was really exciting to be back racing long course again and to be going fast. Due to injury, I wasn’t able to run long course for about four years, so it’s exciting times, I am swimming really well and just been consistent with training and everything just seems to be coming together which is really exciting,” she added.

Though, she registered NCAA Division I B standard times of 53.61 and 53.81 in the 100-yard butterfly and backstroke in a dazzling outing last year, the Florida International University (FIU) senior didn’t pinpoint one swim as a major achievement for that season.

Instead, the 23-year-old, who is pursuing her master’s degree in epidemiology, believes it is her willpower to rise above difficult circumstances that took the prize.

“I think it was just proving to myself that I can race long course again and I can be fast and really help to keep Jamaica on the swimming map. It is proving to me that I am not done yet in the sport.That would be the biggest achievement for me last year,” Campbell declared.

She continued: “Because I think when you have been swimming for as long as I have, it’s easy to kind of get a little complacent or maybe you are not moving in the right direction or not getting better. But I am just proud of myself for sticking to my guns and believing in the process, working hard and just believing that things would come together.

“It’s a really difficult thing to maintain that belief when things are not going your way with injury and the pandemic. So I am just really proud of myself for having breakthrough swims and showing the swimming world that I am not done yet and I am here to really contend.”

By now, it is clear that Campbell started the year with enormous expectations, based on not just her accomplishments but all of the possibilities.

And though the 19th FINA Swimming World Championships (LCM) – one of her target events – has been postponed to 2023, Campbell will be looking to to feature at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in July and possibly the FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) in Kazan, Russia, in December.

“I think I can get some FINA standards; I believe that’s well within my reach, so that’s something for me to definitely strive for going forward. It is a goal of mine that is definitely doable and with some more opportunities to race I think I will definitely those,” the bubbly personality declared.

In between those events, Campbell will also be targeting a consistent showing in her final Conference USA Women’s Championships when the college season gets going in August.

“I think I am ready to really do some special things this year, I just need to keep believing in the process and keep grinding because expectations of those goals are more than realistic for me. Again one thing I think is really important for me is to keep swimming as my focus.

“I don’t like to focus too much on times, but of course, you have goals and times in mind, but I think really focusing on the day-to-day is the thing. Making sure that I am getting the work done day in, day out and then whatever the result will be is the result,” Campbell noted.

“So my focus at the moment is to stay consistent in the pool, look after my body, stay healthy, especially with everything that is going on in the world, and everything else will take care of itself where making international competitions this year is concerned.

“But I am definitely in good shape and I have been training hard so I think those goals are within my reach and I am really excited to see what happens,” she ended.