2024 Australian Olympic Qualifiers
With the 2024 Australian Olympic Trials fast approaching, all eyes will be on the action unfolding at the Brisbane Aquatics Centre from 10 June.
Some clear sports will have multiple Olympic hopefuls, while others will have athletes struggling to lock in Olympic qualifying times.
Men's 200m Fly
For the men, the 200m butterfly is one such event, with a tough Australian Swimming OQT of 1 minute 54.97 seconds – only one Australian swimmer has ever finished below this time.
Australia's Top 10 Men's LCM 200 Butterfly of All Time
- Nick Darcy – 1:54.46, 2009
- Matt Temple – 1:55.25, 2021
- David Morgan – 1:55.26, 2019
- Grant Irvine – 1:55.32, 2013
- Bowen Gough – 1:55.88, 2021
- Travis Nederpelt – 1:56.06, 2008
- Justin Norris – 1:56.17, 2000
- Chris Wright – 1:56.23, 2010
- Jaden Hadler – 1:56.28, 2011
- Mitchell Pratt – 1:56.41, 2014
Retired Olympian Nick Darcy He is the Australian national record holder in the two butterfly stroke, having recorded a time of 1 minute 54.46 seconds in 2009, some 15 years ago.
Since then, he has been an active swimmer. Matt Temple With a lifetime best of 1:55.25, he is the closest to matching this time. Of the top 10 fastest Australians of all time, David Morgan (1:55.26) Bowen Goff (1:55.88) remains among those still remaining in the competition.
However, Morgan's personal best was from 2019, while Goff's best was from 2021. Since then, the former has only managed times in the 1:58s, while the latter has recorded times in the 1:57s.
The 25-year-old Gough clocked 1min 57.85sec at the Open Championships in April, the main benchmark event before the Trials, so he needs to shave another three seconds off his time to get close to the 1min 54.97sec needed in Paris.
Temple also competed in the event in April and is still the favourite to win, but will have to work harder if she wants to add that time to her qualification for the 100m butterfly sprint, having finished with silver in 1:58.03 at the Gold Coast.
The good news for Temple is that in a packed qualifying schedule that includes the 100m and 200m freestyle and the 100m and 200m butterfly, she only needs to complete the 200m freestyle before taking on the 200m butterfly.
Women's 100m Chest
Tokyo relay gold medallists are candidates for the women's Olympic team Chelsea Hodges Due to injury, she suddenly announced her retirement, which not only leaves a hole in the 100m individual breaststroke event, but also raises the question of who will take over as breaststroker in the medley relay.
Swimming Australia has set the breaststroke selection standard at 1 minute 6.31 seconds, and Hodges fell below that mark with a personal best of 1 minute 5.99 seconds at the 2020 Olympic Trials in 2021.
In addition to her, active swimmers Jenna Strauch He set a personal best of 1 minute 6.16 seconds at the 2022 World Championships, making him the only swimmer to reach that time.
Top 10 Australian swimmers of all time in the women's LCM 100 breaststroke
- Raisel Jones – 1:05.09, 2006
- Sara Katsouris – 1:05.86, 2009
- Chelsea Hodges – 1:05.99, 2021
- Tahnee White – 1:06.04,2008
- Georgia Ball – 1:06.12, 2016
- Jenna Strauch – 1:06.16, 2022
- Jessica Hansen – 1:06.20, 2018
- Taylor McKeown – 1:06.64, 2017
- Kayleigh McKeon – 1:06.86, 2023 & Abby Harkin – 1:06.86, 2023
Strauch entered the trials as the top-seeded swimmer. Abbie Harkin His personal best time of 1:06.88, set in the qualifying round at last year's World Championships, earned him second place.
But Harkin improved his time in the semifinals to finish 15th in 1:07.11, and then continued his strong form at this year's World Championships, finishing 25th in 1:09.01 after qualifying.
Among the contestants was a 19-year-old Ella RamseyThe swimmer from Chandler set a new lifetime record of 1 minute 6.87 seconds at the Sydney Open last month.
Ramsay's time of 31.82/35.05 was a huge improvement over his previous career fastest time of 1:07.64, and if the Chandler ace has another similar card in the cards, he could potentially beat his qualifying time of 1:06.31.
Another possible modifier is Sienna Tooeya 15-year-old swimmer who has recently been establishing himself in the world of breaststroke.
While the youngster is yet to break the 1:07 barrier, her progress is on the right track and Australia needs someone to step up and be relied upon in this area.
finally, Tara Kinder and Matilda Smith At the Japan Open last December, a 19-year-old and a 20-year-old player respectively improved their personal bests, so the possibility is not zero.
Kinder ran a 1:08.49 and Smith ran a 1:07.72 in that meet, and Smith had never broken the 1:08 barrier in the event prior to that performance.
For the women's medley relay, Swimming Australia considered a number of scenarios relating to the weapons available to them.
Last year we Kayleigh McKeon A breaststroke swimmer, she is a multiple Olympic medalist whose best time to date is 1 minute 6.86 seconds.
Molly O'CallaghanMcKeon's phenomenal time of 58.09 seconds in the women's 100m backstroke at this year's Australian Open Championships sparked further talk of the St Peter's Western star competing in that event in McKeon's place.
Whoever takes over the breaststroke duties will have the daunting task of replicating the groundbreaking time of 1 minute, 5.57 seconds that brought Hodges gold in Tokyo. That leg was the second-fastest time in the entire Tokyo final, and was beaten by the American champion. Lydia Jacobyis 1 minute 5.05 seconds ahead of her.
