Aussie swimmers aiming to set tone at Games
gold coast — Twelve months out of competitive swimming after the last Olympics gave Cate Campbell a good dose of perspective ahead of the Commonwealth Games.
She knows that as a swimmer competing at a major meet in Australia, the public has high expectations. Australia is among the leading nations in the sport globally, and the swimmers don’t have a forgiving crowd.
“We do set the standard of the meet,” Campbell said Sunday before the team gathered at the outdoor Southport pool for their first look at the venue in games mode. “But I don’t think Australia has ever been beaten in the pool (at the Commonwealth Games) and I don’t think this team is going to let that record fall.”
The Australian swim team won 19 gold medals — including five of the six relays — and 57 overall at the last Commonwealth Games in Glasgow four years ago. That was double the total haul of second- place England. Canada was third was four gold and 11 overall, with South Africa, Scotland and New Zealand behind that with three gold medals apiece.
The Australians may have won the contest in the water, but England won more medals overall in Glasgow. That ended Australia’s dominating run of finishing atop the standings for six straight Commonwealth Games, and any chance of complacency coming back to the Gold Coast.
There’s a lot of emphasis on the swimmers after Australia’s belowpar performance at the last Olympics and world championships, events that forced a rethink on how the team prepares and is selected for major events. The emphasis now is on a short turnaround between trials and competition, similar to the successful US format.
Campbell, who won three gold and silver in Glasgow four years ago, didn’t compete at a high level in 2017 after an Olympic campaign in Rio that didn’t return the individual success she’d expected.
She beat a long-standing world record in the women’s 100-metre freestyle in June, 2016, but finished out of the medals in her event at the Olympics. She picked up a gold medal as part of the 4x100 freestyle relay and a silver in the medley relay.
“I’ve never had a home-crowd advantage,” she said. —