New-look Australia swim team using World Aquatics C'ships in S'pore to build towards LA 2028

Straits Times

5 days ago

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Kaylee McKeown competing in the women's 100m backstroke final during the Australian Swimming Trials in Adelaide on June 10.
SYDNEY – Seasoned campaigners Kaylee McKeown and Kyle Chalmers spearhead a young Australia squad for the World Aquatics Championships (WCH) in Singapore as the swimming powerhouse undergoes a post-Olympics changing of the guard.
Since Paris, where Australia won seven golds to the eight by the United States, several big names have either retired or are resting.
Australia's most successful Olympian, Emma McKeon, has hung up her goggles as have other stalwarts including Mitch Larkin, Brianna Throssell and Jenna Strauch.
Four-time Olympic gold medallist Ariarne Titmus – who lost her 400m freestyle world record to Canadian Summer McIntosh in June – is on an extended break.
That has opened the door for 10 debutants to make the Australia squad for the World Aquatics Championships, where the swimming events begin on July 27 at the newly built WCH Arena.
Head coach Rohan Taylor characterised Singapore as the beginning of a new cycle building to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, and a key learning experience for Australia's next potential superstars.
'I am excited by what this team can do over the next four years,' said Taylor.
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'This is the beginning of the third Olympic campaign I have been the head coach for, and this team has a strong nucleus in place.
'The end goal is LA, but to be great in LA this very young team, which boasts 10 rookies, is going to learn what is needed on the global stage in Singapore.'
Eleven of the squad are aged 20 or under.
At just 16, Sienna Toohey has Australian fans most excited after she came from nowhere to qualify for the 50m and 100m breaststroke.
Australia also have high hopes for fellow newcomers such as Hannah Fredericks (200m backstroke) and Ben Goedemans (800m freestyle), while Ella Ramsay, 21, will contest four events.
The experienced core of the squad is led by Paris Olympics 50m freestyle champion Cameron McEvoy, who will be at his seventh world championships.
His close friend Chalmers – who has won medals in the 100m free at three consecutive Olympics including gold on debut in Rio 2016 – toyed with packing up swimming after Paris, but a new coach has rejuvenated him.
He was in scintillating form at the trials, qualifying in speedy times for the 50m and 100m freestyle, and the 50m butterfly.
'I'm just trusting what I have been doing in training, listening to what my coaches are telling me, trusting that we've done the work,' said Chalmers, who has won 12 world championship medals, including five golds.
The women are headlined by McKeown, who retained her 100m and 200m backstroke titles in Paris.
The 24-year-old will also swim the 50m in Singapore – an event added to the Olympic programme in 2028 – looking to emulate the treble she won at the 2023 world championships.
Like McKeown, Olympic 200m champion Mollie O'Callaghan has been open about her struggles mentally after the high of Paris, where she achieved her dreams with three golds, a silver and a bronze.
She has refocused and is a gold-medal prospect in both the 100m and 200m freestyle.
Fast-rising teenager Olivia Wunsch is Australia's other women's 100m freestyle entrant, also qualifying for the 50m free alongside Olympic silver medallist Meg Harris.
Lani Pallister has taken giant strides since the Olympics and had a breakthrough trials.
She became only the third woman to swim under 15min 40sec in the 1,500m freestyle behind American great Katie Ledecky and the retired Dane Lottie Friis.
Pallister also shattered Titmus's 800m national record and went under four minutes for the first time in the 400m.
'I think I've shown what I can do and I'm excited to build on it – I don't think this is my limit,' she said. REUTERS