Emily Seebohm has been crowned as the winner of SAS Australia 2026.
The Olympic swimmer, 34, completed the intense course in Morocco alongside Love Island‘s Gabby Allen and Dani Dyer.
Their joint victory followed a brutal 24 hours, during which they were put through their paces in interrogation and isolation.
Emily was reduced to tears during the emotional scenes, and she tells New Idea exactly how she managed to get through it.
“The last 24 hours were just so brutal,” she says.
“It was really, really, really hard, and it just drained you.”
Emily had a phone call with her two-year-old son, Sampson, just moments before the interrogation, which she says is the only reason she made it to the finish line.
“I got to see Sampson for the first time since we had started the show, and it’s been so long, and it was just like one of those moments where I took it all in,” she says.
“We had like five minutes to talk to them, and then he disappeared, and I put that down as the only reason I finished the course, because I could see him clearly.
“It just kept me going. I could see what he was wearing. I could see his face. I could hear his voice as I was doing the challenges on that last day.”
“If I didn’t have his face so clearly in my head, I don’t know if I would have been able to do it,” she adds.
Emily admits that she would close her eyes during the long hours in isolation and see his face, which spurred her on.
She signed up for the show because she wanted to make Sampson proud and show him that he can do anything he puts his mind to, so she was determined not to drop out.
She was surprised when hardy sportsmen Mack Horton and Ben Cohen dropped out during the final interrogation, leaving it as an all-female final.
“I couldn’t believe it when the boys left because I was like, these boys are so strong, like nothing will break them,” she admits.
“And then it was just us girls at the end.”
While her athletic background prepared her somewhat for the show, Emily says she wasn’t in peak physical fitness, nor did she need to be to succeed.
Giving advice to future celebrities signing up, she says success comes down to determination and pushing yourself to your limit, rather than being physically stronger than everyone else.
“They’re not asking for me to be stronger than what I am, they’re not asking me to be faster than what I am, they’re just asking me to keep going,” she says of her mindset.
“I was like, as long as I can remember that in my head, then that’s all that I need to do.
“I don’t need to be as fast as any of the boys, I don’t need to carry as much as the boys, I just need to keep moving constantly.
“I think that’s what kept everything in perspective for me. You don’t have to offer them more than what I had physically.
“And I think that’s what everyone’s got to remember when signing up. They’re not asking for more.”
Emily is proud of herself for making it to the finish line, and plans to show Sampson the show when he is old enough.
