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Isaac Cooper is blunt and to the point.

“Being sent home was the worst thing that’s ever happened to me,” he says. “The lingering effects that happened because of that, I would not wish on anybody.”

For four years, the Australian swimmer has politely brushed aside questions about one of the biggest unanswered questions in the sport.

What really happened at the Dolphins training camp in the French city of Chartres in 2022? The Olympic backstroke star is finally ready to tell his side of the story.

Isaac Cooper. Delly Carr

Our interview is four years to the day since Swimming Australia announced Cooper had been sent home just eight days before the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

“Cooper has been sent home from the Dolphins training camp following some wellbeing challenges, including the use of medication,” the statement read.

“He has acknowledged his mistakes and accepted the consequences, and Swimming Australia will continue to support him as he addresses these challenges.”

Further reporting revealed the issue involved the misuse of prescription medication, with Swimming Australia clarifying it was not Stilnox – the drug infamously taken by members of Australia’s London 2012 Olympic swim team during a bonding session.

Beyond that, little has ever been publicly explained. Those close to the incident have declined to discuss it as Cooper faced no further disciplinary action on his return to Australia.

Now, ahead of his first Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Cooper says he has made peace with what happened.

“It is a bit of a long story,” Cooper says. “It’s the truth that I know to myself, and if anyone was ever to ask me the full story, I would be more than happy to explain it.

Isaac Cooper ahead of the Tokyo Olympics. Getty Images

“There are also two sides to every story as well, so while I will say my side of the story, if you were to talk to Swimming Australia or anyone else that was on the team, they may have a different version.”

The incident

A year earlier in 2021, Cooper had arrived at the Tokyo Olympics as the youngest male swimmer on the Australian team.

The Bundaberg product had announced himself as one of the country’s brightest backstroke prospects, making his senior debut as a 17-year-old before celebrating his 18th birthday early in 2022.

That year he qualified for both the world championships and Commonwealth Games, travelling first to Spain for a pre-worlds training camp before joining the Australian team in Chartres.

Within days, he was on a flight back to Australia.

“I had gone to the team doctor to get some sleeping medication,” Cooper says. “I had already been prescribed sleeping medication and this doctor prescribed me with a different medication, which had different effects.

“I also wasn’t really aware about the rules and restrictions around how to use the medication.

“I shared some of my medication with other teammates.

Isaac Cooper has been to two Olympics. Getty

“As a result of that, it had appeared as though I had taken more medication than I actually had. When I was asked about how much medication I had actually used, I was covering for the person that I shared it with. I was never able to expose that and I would never expose that [person]. But then I had to deal with the consequences of being seen to be someone who was misusing medication.”

Why did Cooper share the medication?

“When we’re away, sleeping medication is necessary because we race so late at night and we [have] caffeine late at night,” Cooper says. “We have to race the next morning and we also have to replicate that in training. Some people seem to not have enough medication. I wasn’t aware that was illegal [to give to other people] ... I was simply just kind of fitting in as a young member on the team.

“I went along without really thinking too much about what was being asked of me and I didn’t really know what was going on.”

It quickly became clear that Cooper was not in a great state. He says the medication left him in what he describes as a “state of sleepiness while being awake”. He wandered around the team hotel talking to people, but says he has no memory of doing so.

“They could sort of tell I was under the influence of things. Then that was communicated around with everybody on the team, including the doctor,” Cooper says.

“They asked me to show them how many of the pills I had and when I showed them it seemed like I had been having more than what was needed.”

He was then summoned to a meeting with “five or six” Australian team officials.

“It didn’t seem as though anybody was really on my side,” Cooper says. “That was also quite difficult to go through because I know that I didn’t receive the support that I should have had. [I was] on the flight the next day.”

Rohan Taylor, who was the Australian team coach at the time and remains in the role today, is adamant the decision to send Cooper home, as difficult as it was, was the right one at the time.

Cooper concedes that he deserved to face consequences, but says they shouldn’t have been so harsh.

“My teammates always understood what was happening. I received a lot of support. They all felt what happened to me was an overreaction. They knew that I hadn’t really done anything wrong to be deserving of being sent all the way home.”

Asked whether other teammates he gave the medication to were affected as well, Cooper says: “I’m not really aware of what happened with anybody else. I’m only aware of what happened to me”.

The aftermath

The hardest part, Cooper says, wasn’t being sent home. It was telling his parents.

They had already booked flights to England to watch him compete at the Commonwealth Games. The trip was expensive and non-refundable, meaning they travelled to the UK while their son watched from Australia.

“The thing that really did break my heart the most was how much it affected my family,” Cooper says. “The fact my family had to stand up in the crowd at Comm Games and watch the 50-metre and 100m backstroke while I wasn’t there, knowing I was by myself at home. Also, knowing my younger brother at school was getting bullied because of some of the things that I did.

“I did get to see them for a day or two after I was home, but it was very difficult knowing they were there [overseas]. I couldn’t even imagine what my mum had to go through and my poor dad having to support her. I know it would have broken their hearts.

“I have two of the greatest parents in the world. They knew that I wasn’t fairly dealt with and they have always tried to defend me. They’ve always had my back.”

Several people, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the matter publicly, said the medication issue was not viewed in isolation, but followed a build-up of behavioural issues over the previous months.

Asked if that is a fair characterisation, Cooper says: “I think that what happened in Chartres was the thing that got me sent home. That was the way that I could get sent home.

“I had just turned 18. I was very giddy and excited to be on the Australian team and I think because I was such a big personality as well at the time, it was difficult to manage me. I’ve always believed that we’re all humans on this earth and we all have free will and that you can sort of do what you want to do. I think that this was the excuse to stop having to deal with me.”

Leadership ambitions

Four years on, Cooper’s standing within the Dolphins could hardly be more different.

He is now a member of the Australian team’s leadership group and was recently appointed an honorary member of the World Aquatics Athletes Committee.

Isaac Cooper. Delly Carr

“I didn’t think I had any chance of becoming a leader because I was so young and inexperienced,” Cooper says. “I figured that people would also be holding on to my past a little bit but I was very grateful that wasn’t the case.”

Australian head coach Taylor says Cooper has earned that respect.

“He’s grown up in himself,” Taylor says. “He’s really worked on what it means to have a positive impact on the team. I’ve got a really strong relationship with Isaac and I’m very proud of the young man he is.

“Leadership is a lonely place. I had a collection of people who really saw that this young man really needed to get some help and look after himself, and we felt that that was a priority for him. The decision was built around his wellbeing. It was also for me to be able to address … behaviours within the team.

“I think we’ve been able to build on the culture of the team. If I did it differently, maybe a sliding doors moment.”

A changed man

Cooper says the ordeal forced him to confront who he was and take a look in the mirror.

After missing those Commonwealth Games, he returned later that year for the world shortcourse championships in Melbourne and has since re-established himself as a mainstay of the team.

Cooper wants nothing more than to leave Glasgow with a gold medal, with his best chance coming in the men’s 50m backstroke. Heats begin on Friday.

“I’m not the same person that I was. That person was completely shattered,” Cooper says. “That ego was completely stripped away. I had to face a really brutal question: who am I? I would hope I can still make people laugh just as much I did before.

“The Cooper family motto is: ‘Coopers are either up or getting up’. We’re never down and even though it was an absolutely terrible thing to have to go through, I’m never going to let it get the best of me.

“I’ve had in my mind for the last four years I want to be able to go to these Commonwealth Games, stand on top [of the podium] and be able to turn everything around and have something to show for it.”

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