Aussie swimmers poised to make Olympic history

Source: Australian Financial Review

Australia has a long history in Olympic swimming - two-thirds of the total number of medals won at the Summer Games have come from the sport. That's a total of 221 medals in swimming, including 71 golds.

Despite this, Australia has historically come second to a dominant US squad, and the last time the local team topped the medal tally was in 1956 in Melbourne.

Between Sydney 2000 and Beijing in 2008, Australia collected 18 gold medals - but the performance dropped significantly at the Games in London and Rio de Janeiro.

In Tokyo, the team won nine gold medals - more than it won in Melbourne in 1956, but still not as many as the US.

But the Australian Swimming Trials in Brisbane have shown promise: Ariarne Titmus and Mollie O'Callaghan both broke the 200-metre freestyle world record in their final. Kaylee McKeown, who has qualified for the 200-metre medley, 100-metre and 200-metre backstroke, almost broke the world record in each of her finals.

Dolphins head coach Rohan Taylor said this week he hoped the medal tally would fall Australia's way in Paris.

"Whatever the athletes swim here, we want them to swim either on time or improve [in Paris]," he said. "If they do that, and they're highly ranked, chances are they will get on the podium.

"If we can get a lot of highly ranked athletes there, and then they perform well, the medal tally will fall our way."

If Australia succeeds, it will partly be because of the growing list of young female stars such as McKeown, O'Callaghan, Titmus and newcomer Lani Pallister, the daughter of Janelle Elford (who competed at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, and won gold at the 1990 Commonwealth Games).

The four young women are among the 17 to have already qualified for the Games, alongside veteran Olympians Emma McKeon, Kyle Chalmers and Cameron McEvoy.

McKeon, Australia's most decorated Olympian, told Fin! Magazine she had learnt to manage the pressure she puts on herself.

"I've never gone in as the Olympic champion, so it is a different kind of pressure," she says. "I put so much pressure on myself. I have had to navigate that, and I've gotten a lot better at it as I've gotten older."

McKeon has five gold, two silver and four bronze medals. She won seven of these in Tokyo - the most medals won by a single swimmer at any Olympic edition.

She said working with a psychologist had taught her about the power of her mind. "We train our bodies for hours and hours, but it's your head that can make or break you in those situations. That's all I can control."

Rooney, who won a gold medal and broke the world record at Athens in 2004 during the 4x100-metre medley relay, said McKeon would only increase her record haul in Paris.

"We're all so lucky to be witnessing her greatness," she said.