Three years in the past in Tokyo, the Australian swim workforce had their most profitable Olympics. 9 gold, three silver and eight bronze medals within the pool, plus a bronze within the open water swimming, delivered the Dolphins a haul that surpassed the prior report that had stood for the reason that 1956 Video games in Melbourne.
The triumph in Tokyo left Australia second within the swimming medal tally, behind solely perennial rivals the US. Finally 12 months’s world championships, the workforce went one higher, topping the desk with a outstanding 13 golds.
All of which implies the Australian squad arrive in Paris this week with the burden of expectations on their shoulders. If the Australian Olympic workforce are going to higher their finest general Video games report (17 gold medals, in Athens and Tokyo), will probably be constructed off the again of robust performances within the pool.
There are even whispers of knocking the People off a perch they’ve held for the most effective a part of seven a long time. The final time Australia beat the US within the swimming medal tally was in 1956; since then, the People have solely twice didn’t win the duel within the pool, at Moscow 1980, once they boycotted, and at Seoul 1988 (crushed by East Germany who have been subsequently accused of state-sponsored doping).
“Sixty-eight years of them topping the Olympic medal tally,” stated Australian head coach Rohan Taylor at his workforce’s trials final month. “It’s like an America’s Cup kind of factor, nobody has been in a position to take them down.”
However whereas the prospect of overhauling the People in Paris is likely to be engaging for Australian followers and has acquired loads of headlines on either side of the Pacific, Taylor has been insisting his workforce’s focus is solely on the duty at hand. “We don’t speak about it internally, I can promise you that,” he stated. “We simply discuss in regards to the athletes and what they should carry out.”
For the pinnacle coach, who took over the function 4 years in the past, matching and even bettering the record-breaking efficiency in Paris is only a numbers recreation. “No matter they swim right here,” he stated at trials, “we wish them to swim both on time or enhance [in Paris]. In the event that they try this and so they’re extremely ranked, likelihood is they’ll get on the rostrum. And if we are able to get lots of extremely ranked athletes there after which they carry out effectively, the medal tally will fall our manner.”
The Dolphins’ swim meet begins on Saturday, and can stretch over 9 days till the next Sunday. It’s a packed schedule with Australia boasting medal prospects on each night of finals motion; there’s solely at some point of racing the place Australia doesn’t current a real gold medal risk.
The primary night on the pool, 24 hours after the opening ceremony, will supply up a mouth-watering style of what may comply with. Will probably be headlined by a three-way conflict within the ladies’s 400m freestyle. Defending champion Ariarne Titmus will face down American swimming nice Katie Ledecky and Canadian prodigy Summer season McIntosh in what shapes up as a defining race of the meet. Australia’s Titmus gained the occasion ultimately 12 months’s world championships comfortably, setting a brand new world report within the course of; she is going to enter as favorite, however not underestimating her foes.
The ladies’s race will comply with the opening medal occasion of the meet, the boys’s 400m freestyle. Australia convey two medal contenders to Paris within the type of 2022 world champion Elijah Winnington and 2023 world champion Sam Brief. However they face a troublesome discipline, together with Germany’s Lukas Märtens, who owns the most effective time of the 12 months up to now.
The primary night will conclude with each 4×100m freestyle relays. Barring disqualification, Australia’s ladies are overwhelming favourites to say gold – their world report breaking time ultimately 12 months’s world titles was practically 4 seconds sooner than silver medallists the US. The lads’s race is predicted to be tighter – Australia gained final 12 months’s world title, however with barely a second between them and fourth-placed China.
The anticipated golden first day will segue into eight extra days of motion for the Dolphins. Medals are anticipated within the majority of relays; Taylor had beforehand indicated a need to go “seven from seven” – win a medal in each relay (Australia completed on the rostrum in all however one of many relays in Tokyo) – though weak point in a single or two strokes will make the medley relays and combined medley relay difficult.
The showdown between Titmus and compatriot Mollie O’Callaghan will likely be obligatory viewing, after an astonishing race at trials noticed the Olympic champion Titmus dethrone 2023 world champion O’Callaghan. Kaylee McKeown will likely be seeking to enhance on her golden Tokyo meet, the place she gained two particular person gold medals, with a 3rd particular person occasion – the 4x200m particular person medley. Brief may also go for gold within the 800m freestyle, Zac Stubblety-Prepare dinner will search to defend his Olympic title within the 200m breaststroke and Cameron McEvoy will purpose to make historical past and change into the primary Australian man to win the boys’s 50m freestyle on the Video games.
All in all, it shapes as much as be a frenetic week for Australian swimming – and presumably the most effective probability in dwelling reminiscence for the Dolphins to upset their American counterparts and end atop the medal tally. “It’s going to be fascinating,” Taylor stated final month. “We’re going to do our greatest to seize what we are able to.”