Swimming Career
Rooney's career began at age 11 at the Miami club in Queensland, where she was coached by Denis Cotterell. Training partners there included Grant Hackett and Daniel Kowalski. In 2002 Rooney moved to Melbourne, coached by Ian Pope at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre. Training partners included Matt Welsh, Michael Klim (who was also her boyfriend for two years) and Brett Hawke.
Rooney made her international swimming debut for Australia at the 1998 Commonwealth Games, where she won a gold medal in the 100 m backstroke as a 15-year-old. Rooney was also part of Australia's gold-medal winning 4 x 100 m medley relay team at the 1998 Games.
At the 2000 Olympics in Sydney Rooney won two silver medals as a part of the 4 x 200 m freestyle relay (with Kirsten Thomson, Susie O'Neill and Petria Thomas) and 4 x 100 m medley relay (swum in morning preliminary session).
In 2001 Rooney claimed the world champion title in the 200 m freestyle, winning at the 2001 Fukuoka World Swimming Championships in Japan. This event was also widely remembered for the disqualification of the Australian women's team after they jumped in the water to celebrate apparent victory in the 4 x 200 m freestyle relay: the team of Elka Graham, Petria Thomas and Linda Mackenzie joined anchor swimmer Rooney in the water to celebrate their win, but as it was before all other competitors had finished the event, they were disqualified. Furthermore, the team found out about their disqualification while they were giving a post race interview for television.
Rooney competed in her second 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, England, winning silver in the 4 x 200 m freestyle relay (with Elka Graham, Rebecca Creedy and Petria Thomas) and bronze in the 100 m backstroke.
In 2004 Rooney won a gold medal in world record time at the Athens Olympics in the Women's 4 x 100 metre Medley Relay. Rooney swam a personal best and new Australian record time of 1:01.18 to help Australia to the gold - the maiden victory by Australia in this event in Olympic history.
After the withdrawal of Grant Hackett from the 2006 Commonwealth Games due to injury, Rooney was appointed as the captain of the national swimming team. She won a silver medal behind teammate Sophie Edington in the 100 m backstroke, and qualified fastest for the 50 m backstroke. However, she was upset by Edington by 0.01s, again winning a silver medal. There is, however, conjecture about that official result with video suggesting Rooney touched first but did not activate the timing pad immediately. Rooney retired from competitive swimming after this meet.
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