Members of Millicent’s Seebohm clan again cheered on family member Emily Seebohm on  Sunday night as she qualified as a backstroke swimmer at next month’s Tokyo  Olympic Games.

Emily’s time of 58.59 seconds over the 100-metre course at the Olympic trials in her home town of Adelaide meant the 29-year-old will compete in her fourth  consecutive Olympic games.

Only fellow Olympic gold medal swimmer Leisel Jones has a comparable record  in the elite event.

Family matriarch Pat Seebohm spoke with pride at the latest achievement of one of her 13 grandchildren.

“I am pleased and excited for Emily after her challenges of the past two years,” Pat Seebohm said.

“I am worried about the overseas travel with COVID about.

“We heard from our son John after the trials on Sunday night.

“He said his daughter Emily was amazing and tough.” It has been a momentous few months for Pat Seebohm with her husband Noel turning 90, their daughter Kathy getting married and the imminent arrival of their 13th and 14th great grandchildren.

In her published post-race comments, Emily Seebohm could barely  contain her delight.

“A lot of people said that I was not going to do it,” she said. “I was too old.

I needed to lose weight, I needed to look different.

“I guess I just stuck to my guns and stuck to what I knew would work best for me.

“I knew this was going to be super-tough to make this (Tokyo) team  and I really wanted to go to a fourth Olympics, that was my dream.

“I did not want to finish my career, I do not want to say not finishing on top, but I wanted to get back close to my best.

“I am just really happy that I have got this opportunity to get to  my fourth Olympics and compete against the best in the world again because that is why we do it, that is why we work so hard.” Her toughest competition for a gold medal in the Japanese capital is set to come from her Australian team mate Kaylee McKeown who swam a  new world record time of 57.45seconds in the same selection trial.

Now based in Queensland, Emily’s  paternal aunts are Millicent residents Anne Hughes, Kathy Webber  and Lynne Lambert.

Emily has a number of first, second and third cousins scattered about Millicent and district.

Her father John Seebohm left his  home town of Mt Burr almost 45  years ago to make his way in his football career.

As a 17-year-old, he had topped the Mid SE goal-kicking with 117 in Mt Burr’s premiership-winning season in 1976.

Seebohm (senior) went to play more than 300 games with Glenelg and represented South Australia.

For the past 30 years he has donated the medal which bears his name to the best-on-ground in the MSE Junior Colts grand final.

He is set to watch Mount Burr host Kongorong on Saturday.

His daughter was born in Adelaide in 1992 and has been competing in the Australian swimming team for the past 14 years.

She has been an Olympic and  Commonwealth Games gold medallist and been awarded an OAM.

Footnote: Millicent athlete Graham Boase represented Australia as a triple-jumper when the Olympic Games were last staged in Tokyo in 1964.

His triple jump record set at Millicent High School in 1957 stands to this day.