Bar set high for Aussie athletes
Swimmers on notice
AUSTRALIA’S elite swimmers have been put on notice they will be left off the team for Tokyo if they don’t measure up to the cutthroat standards that have been set for this week’s Olympic and Paralympic trials.
Determined to return Australian swimming to the glory days after the disappointing medal returns in London (2012) and Rio (2016), national selectors have raised the bar for everyone hoping to make the team for next month’s Tokyo Olympics.
Swimming Australia has implemented its own standards, which are considerably faster than the official Olympic qualifying times.
“We’ve got quite a lot of opportunities to be on the podium … but it’s about converting those chances,” Swimming Australia head coach Rohan Taylor said.
“We haven’t been able to do that in the last couple of Olympics but I think maybe there were some missed opportunities so we’re just hoping that what we’ve put in place over the last few years will give our guys the best chance to convert when they get there.”
The new hard line approach means there may be some events that Australia doesn’t compete in at Tokyo but the biggest change from the past is
the decision to move the trials to six weeks before the Olympics, rather than holding them months before.
At 29, Cate Campbell is still Australia’s female sprint queen as she bids to make her fourth Olympics, along with veteran backstroker Emily Seebohm.
Campbell’s younger sister Bronte is aiming for her third Olympics while Rio gold medallists Kyle Chalmers, Mack Horton and Emma McKeon are all looking to go back a second time.
McKeon is looming as Australia’s big winner in Tokyo, competing in as many as eight events, including relays, but it’s the new wave of up and coming swimmers that has most of the sport’s followers excited.
Giant-killer Ariarne Titmus upset American superstar Katie Ledecky to win the 400m freestyle at the 2019 world championships but faces a tougher task in Tokyo after suffering a shoulder injury during lockdown.