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Olympics News: Aussie Dolphins Swim Team finished 2nd in the swimming medal tally behind USA by only one gold medal with back-to-back silver on the final night

by Sports Benches

Yes, Team USA may have officially been crowned as the Olympic swimming champions at Paris 2024 while we were so close by a gap of one gold medal behind in 2nd at a total of 7. But so proud of our Aussie Dolphins swimmers though who put us on the map over these first eight days including two silver on the 9th & final night. Gotta say Meg Harris was so close in the Women’s 50m Freestyle Final behind Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom while Mollie O’Callaghan rescued the Aussies yet again when she anchored the Women’s 4 x 100m Medley Final for freestyle from 4th to 2nd in the last swimming race of Paris 2024 at Paris La Defense Arena.

We start with our best freestyle specialist Mollie O’Callaghan whose finishing ability was world-class that can wow everyone out of nowhere as we’ve seen in the 200m Freestyle Final including several other team relay races that won her a few gold medals plus the final night Women’s 4 x 100 medley relay silver in her first Olympics campaign. 

So does our Queen of Backstroke Kaylee McKeown who successfully defended the 100 and 200m Final races of her specialist discipline while she wasn’t bad when it comes to both team relays as well as medley & individual medley races.

We also can’t forget our best middle distance swimmer Ariarne Titmus when she made us proud on the first day after she defended the 400m Freestyle Final from Tokyo 2020, and last but not least Cameron McEvoy – who defied all odds with his breakthrough 50m Freestyle sprint Final performance – that won finally him an Olympic Gold Medal on top of his World Championship win at the ripe age of 30.

Plus, we can give shoutouts to so many more like Meg Harris where she’s not just an excellent team player but also did really well in the 50m Freestyle sprint earlier this AM in 2nd. And last but not least, Emma McKeon & Shayna Jack whom they are also excellent team players that won them Olympic team relay gold medals. Jack has came back from a long way while things won’t be the same without McKeon after her decorated career.

Where to now for our Aussie Dolphins Swim Team? Their message to Team USA is well played but our battles ain’t over when we can go dominate the World Championships once again next year and 2027, as well as the long-awaited 2026 Pan Pacs and the next Olympics on their home turf come 2028 in Los Angeles.

For now, merci & au revoir Paris as the our Aussie Dolphins are on their way back home.

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Olympics News: Ariarne Titmus & the Aussie Dolphins Swimming women’s relay quartet dominated Night 1 with two gold in Paris

by Sports Benches

Wow!! The Aussie Dolphins Swim Team are flying high at the Paris La Defense Arena’s Olympic built swimming pool on night one with two gold & two silver medals as we are currently first on the swimming ladder with eight days to go.

Hats off to Ariarne Titmus on what has been a stunning swim for gold in the Women’s 400m Final, having kept herself ahead for this whole time – even if her competitors aren’t far away within her reach. Now Team USA’s Katie Ledecky might have not been a threat this time around but at least Arnie did enough to hold off 17-year-old Canadian sensation Summer McIntosh towards the end of the wall. There’s no better way to celebrate other than coach Dean Boxall’s signature moves/celebrations every time he sees their swimmers collect that gold medal as Arnie once again is the defending 2 x Olympic champion in that meet.

Not only that, our women’s relay swim team also done well in the 4 x 100m Freestyle Final consisting of Mollie O’Callaghan, Shayna Jack, Emma McKeon and Meg Harris. Yes, they may have fired off slowly against the likes of China and Great Britain. However, the way Mollie O finished off her first stint has helped the Aussies take over the lead before the rest of her team stabilised it up front, which was enough to bring it home with another gold medal for the Aussies.

Wow!! Can you believe it Mollie O’Callaghan? She can finish it off from out of nowhere who is 100% established as the queen of freestyle sprints! Message sent Arnie with more to come between these two sometime next week. As said, she gave a great opportunity for her team-mates to get the job done and yet they’ve done it through the very end. Also, what a moment for Emma McKeon as well who is now the all-time Olympic gold medallist of 6 gold, 2 silver & 4 bronze for Australia!

And over in the men, another gold or two would’ve been great. However, we still have a long way to go before we can beat Team USA for the overall Olympics swimming honours like it was at the World Champs in Fukuoka, Japan last year.

Shoutout to Elijah Winnington who finished 2nd behind Germany’s Lukas Mertens the Men’s 400m Freestyle Final & so does the Men’s relay team quartet of Jack Cartwright, Flynn Southam, Kai Taylor & Kyle Chalmers in the 4 x 100m Freestyle Final. We wished they can get over these fast starts but at least the last two shifts by Taylor and Chalmers was enough to bring themselves home into silver behind the winners of this race Team USA.

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2024 Australian Olympic Swimming Trials Day 6: The stage is set for the Dolphins Swim Team ahead of Paris after a few night qualification moments in Brisbane tonight

by Sports Benches

The sixth and final night of the 2024 Australian Olympic Swimming Trials finished off with a few more first time moments that punched their ticket to Paris while a few others had to miss out. Now the final Dolphins Swim Team Squad is all but set for lift-off to France ahead of their first swim in six weeks time where the next set of gold medal and world record moments will be made at the Paris La Defense Arena, which will have a built-in pool on top of a rugby pitch just for this one-off special event.

Great to see Shayna Jack win that Women’s 50m Freestyle Final sprint with Meg Harris joining her in 2nd and although Cate Campbell couldn’t get what she wanted in 5th, but she had an illustrious career in the pool though for half of her life since age 15 as wish we her all the best on life after the pool. The same can be said for Cody Simpson when he couldn’t make it to Olympics selection after Matt Temple dominated the 100m Butterfly Final. But glad he made the career switch to do what he loves that challenges him well physically and mentally after a great last decade singing songs & acting a bit on TV.

Meanwhile, we saw another few first time moments other than Jack as said with her previous doping ban – such as Brendan Smith (Kaylee McKeown’s boyfriend) and Will Petric (2nd) in the Men’s 400m Individual Medley, Jenna Forrester (2nd) in a similar women’s 400m IM Final event behind 17-year-old Ella Ramsay & Moesha Johnson (2nd & will also compete in the Women’s 10km open water race) in the Women’s 1500m Freestyle Final (last event of the program) behind Lani Pallister.

So there we have it, we’ve now got our best Dolphins Swim Team assembled that is ready to send the message to the world’s best – the message is that we’re on and we are ready to smash both lots of gold medals and new world records too. Bonjour Paris, here we come that’s going to last the last first week’s Olympic sports schedule before the Athletics/Track and Field events take over to wrap things up and it all starts on Saturday July 27th 2024 – one day after the Opening Ceremony.

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2024 Australian Olympic Swimming Trials Day 5: Mollie O’Callaghan’s win in the Women’s 100m Freestyle sprint alongside a few first time Olympic qualifiers sums up Day 5 of 6

by Sports Benches

The second final night of the 2024 Australian Swimming Olympic Trials is full of competition, race wins and another few first-time Olympic qualifying moments all happening at the Brisbane Aquatic Centre. First of all, Joshua Yong had a great swim behind Zac Stubblety-Cook in the Men’s 200m breaststroke final. He’s had a really good week in this discipline having also finished 2nd from the opening night during the 50m sprint behind Sam Williamson, so congrats on his official ticket to Paris.

Same goes to 17-year-old Ella Ramsay who beat the experienced Jenna Strauch (she didn’t qualify in that category when she was a second off the qualifying time) in the last half distance by a comfortable margin of around two seconds in the women’s 200m breaststroke Finals meet. So great to see these swimmers to bounce back with a point to prove ahead of their first rodeos in Paris. Can’t promise what specific goals they should look to get over the line when you got heats and then the semi-finals to begin with, but it’s all about being at their best so they can go from there over the next 3-5 years by looking at Top 3 & then the gold at future events – such as the next Australian Swimming Champs, World Champs, Pan Pacifics and Olympics.

Yes, nothing much has happened to set the world alight over in the other men’s races. However, we did see a fantastic women’s 100m freestyle dash where Mollie O’Callaghan still held on with the win despite no new world record. Joining her on the trip to Paris are Shayna Jack – who will finally be on her way there for the first time – after she finished behind Mollie in 2nd off the back of her doping issues that forced her to sit out for a while (2019-21). Then you’ve got Meg Harris (3rd) joining in to back them up in the women’s relay team alongside Bronte Campbell as this is going to be her 4th straight Olympics campaign at age 32. How good is that as she’s not done racing in the pool just yet!! Five days done, one more to go before we wrap things up to finalise our best Dolphins Swim Team before they head off to Paris in the head up towards July 27.

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One silver by the 4 x 100 Women’s Medley Relay Team and Meg Harris’s joint bronze in the 50m Freestyle Final wraps up Australia’s run in 2nd at the 2022 World Swimming Championships

by Sports Benches

The Dolphins may have collected just the silver and bronze on the final day of this year’s World Swimming Championships, but they still finished 2nd on this medal tally alone with six gold, nine silver and two bronze at a total of 17 medals.

Nice seeing Meg Harris share the joint bronze medal with Team USA’s Erika Brown at 24:38 in the Women’s 50m Freestyle Final. She was 3rd fastest overall from start to finish – including a great start in her heat & also she finished 2nd in the 2nd semi.

Then we saw the 4 x 100 Women’s Medley Relay Team wrap up 2nd after a fantastic start earlier yesterday in the heats. Yes, they couldn’t nail down Team USA on time for the gold when building an early lead would’ve gave them an extra edge towards their arch rivals. However, the girls swam really well within the Top 3 nonetheless from Kaylee McKeown, Jenna Strauch, Brianna Throssell & Mollie O’Callaghan.

Overall, it’s great to see our Dolphins finish off 2nd. We have a few of the world’s fastest swimmers that is developed & produced right here with freestyler Mollie O’Callaghan, backstroker Kaylee McKeown, and breaststroker Zac Stubblety-Cook. Although Elijah Winnington’s opening day gold in the Men’s 400m Freestyle Final may not have translated everywhere else, but surely he can bounce back next time.

And we have plenty of bright and talented youngsters coming through the ranks who is tipped for massive potential. They are ready to make history in collecting gold medals like O’Callaghan, McKeown & Stubblety-Cook – before they look to hopefully end Team USA’s long-running dominance up top & take over the world themselves regardless if its the WC and/or Olympic medal tally.

Thanks to Budapest, Hungary, for being such a great host once again for the second time that goes back to five years ago in 2017. For now, bring on the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England, next month, as well as renewing our arch-rivalry with Team USA back home in Sydney this August.

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Kaylee McKeown’s first WC gold in the Women’s 200m backstroke & the 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay team’s outstanding race secured another two gold medals for Australia on Day 7 of the 2022 World Swimming Championships

by Sports Benches

One day to go of this year’s World Swimming Championships and the Dolphins Swim Team have once again snatched another two gold & one silver medals on Day 7 in Budapest, Hungary.

It’s good to see Kaylee McKeown back to her best in the Women’s 200m backstroke final, having finally secured her first World Championship gold. She fired off well inside the Top 3 that allowed her ample time to stay in the mix before McKeown capitalised on top spot going into the last 50m that helped her lock up both Team USA swimmers towards the finish line.

Then we saw Kiah Melverton swam her way to 2nd alongside a personal best in the Women’s 800m Freestyle Final at 8:18:77. Yes, it was a race where Team USA’s Katie Ledecky was too good all along as she’s one of the world’s best out there for over a decade. But she did so well nonetheless with a full swim performance – especially when she closed down the rest of the field just in time for her silver medal.

And a big pat on the back to our 4 x 100 Mixed Freestyle Relay Team – including Jack Cartwright, Kyle Chalmers, Madison Wilson & Mollie O’Callaghan. Not only they took home another gold but also smashed the new world record time of 3:19:38. We love Cartwright finish off his best in Stage 1 – even though his shoulders were tired after a hard fought 100m dash – before Chalmers took over & took the most credit that sent Australia into the lead by the time he handed over to Wilson & O’Callaghan at the halfway mark. The team effort & communication Cartwright & Chalmers built here has set up an easy finish for the girls where they have swam proud on the run home for them.

The door may be closed for the Dolphins for 1st behind Team USA on the medal tally, but they can finish off on a high in 2nd with plenty of gold up for grabs. There’s Meg Harris in the Women’s 50m Free, Isaac Cooper Men’s 50m backstroke & two 4 x 100 medley relays in both men’s & women’s races. Plus, Jenna Forrester in the Women’s 400m Medley if she can get past Heat 2 tomorrow.

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Aussie Dolphins Swim Team off to a great start with two gold medals from the 4 x 100 freestyle women’s relay team & Elijah Winnington on Day 1 of the 2022 FINA Swimming World Championship

by Sports Benches

It’s been a great start for our Australian Dolphins Swim Team in 2nd right now behind Team USA following the opening day of this year’s FINA World Championships with the swimming at Duna Arena in Budapest, Hungary.

The women’s 4 x 100 freestyle relay team’s performance was simply outstanding throughout today in both heats (3:33:74) and finals (3:30:95) where they dominated the entire pool, even though they well just short of world record time (3:29: 69). They all did it without the Campbell sisters in Bronte and Kate – currently both taking time away from the pool, as well as Emma McKeon – who chose to focus solely on next month’s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England.

But again they have an amazing line-up of swimmers to assemble that can do the job without them, especially to Shayna Jack back in action after she recently finished serving her two-year doping ban. Brianna Throsell and Leah Neale also both filled in during the heats earlier on before the Dolphins threw in two amazing youngsters who smashed it in the final – Meg Harris & Mollie O’Callaghan. And Madison Wilson knows all about relay experience too well as any team-mate got the best out of her presence every time Wilson is competing poolside, having just picked up her 4th world championship gold medal that all comes from team finals swims.

Then we look at the men’s team where Eijah Winnington took out his first world championship gold medal in the 400 m freestyle final. What a breakthrough it has been by the 22-year-old who hails from the Gold Coast, with many more moments like this to come.

Speaking of 400m, how good was Kyle Chalmers in the freestyle relay – especially when his team-mates were out of the Top 3 for the majority until he jumped in & made a huge difference that helped them secure the silver in 2nd at 3:10:80 – just over a second behind the comfortable victors from USA (3:09:34).

We’re tied with them at two gold now in the medal tally going into Day 2 later tonight if you exclude the silver and bronze.

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