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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 Swimming News: Kyle Chalmers & Zac Stubblety-Cook the only two silver medalists for the Aussie Dolphins Swim Team in Day 5 at Paris La Defense Arena

by Sports Benches

Well, no gold medals on Day 5 from the Aussie Dolphins Swim Team, but at least they are still leading the Olympics swimming medal tally by just one gold medal ahead of Team USA, who currently has three in the bag with four days to go.

First of all, it wasn’t the swim both Mollie O’Callaghan and Shayna Jack wanted in the women’s 100m Freestyle Final where they finished 4th & 5th respectively. Now this is Mollie O’s first Olympics for those who wants to jump the gun on her with high expectations to walk away for the gold as she didn’t have a good start. Although she was not far towards the end of the wall when it comes to an outside shot for the Top 3, but at least nowhere near the record time ahead of everyone I guess. 

The same goes to Shayna having gone from a long, long way via her two-year doping ban before she was able to swim competitively once again a few years ago where she’s an excellent team player. She too maybe within reach at least the Top 3 at one stage especially in the 1st 50m but then she was languishing towards the back end during the last 50m half sprint.

If 1-2 medals would make you smile for the Aussies, how about “The King” Kyle Chalmers who finished 2nd in the Men’s 100m Freestyle Final sprint, as well as Zac Stubblety-Cook (also a silver medalist) in the Men’s 200m breaststroke Final.

For Stubblety-Cook, you can’t overcome winning such a strong French crowd where Leon Le Marchand won that race comfortably with the gold medal. However, at least he was within the Top 3 radar all along which wasn’t bad. The only thing he could’ve done better that Zac just couldn’t close down on the Frenchman when he was around two secs off the pace there. 

And long live King Kyle with another Olympic gold, even though he fell short to China’s Pan Zhanle who dominated this meet with the new world record time. It wasn’t an easy race when you got so many world-class swimmers alongside him, especially when he didn’t have the best of starts. He did have the best finish though where it might not be enough to catch Zhanle on time by just 1 second but boy happy to see him collect the silver.

So where to now going into Day 6? Looks like there will be two gold medal opportunities up for grabs for the Aussies in the of holding onto this Olympic swimming medal tally. One will be both Liz Dekkers and Abbey Connor in the Women’s 200m Butterfly Final and the other would possibly be the Women’s 4 x 200m Freestyle Team Relay events.

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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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The Aussie Dolphins Swim Team finished 3rd in the 2024 World Swimming Championships after they picked up two gold on the final day in Doha, Qatar

by Sports Benches

It might not have been the right time to dominate another World Swimming Championships feat like it was in Fukuoka, Japan, last year. However, we wrapped the big weekend up on a high with two gold medals on the final day from Isaac Cooper in the Men’s 50m Backstroke & the Women’s 4 x 100m Medley Relay team consisting of Iona Anderson, Abbey Harkin, Brianna Throssell & Shayna Jack.

We also collected three silver yesterday when USA’s Clare Curzan broke the Aussie hearts yet again this time to Jaclyn Barclay in the Women’s 200m backstroke, while Cam McEvoy’s bid for gold fell short to Ukrainian Vladyslav Bukhov by only 00.01 secs in the Men’s 50m Freestyle sprint final. And don’t forget we didn’t do bad in the Mixed 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay.

The Aussie Dolphins Swim Team finished 3rd in this medal tally behind China & Team USA as this is all about giving our other swimmers including Sam Williamson (got the gold in the Men’s 50m breaststroke Final) as well as a few next generation teenagers a chance to fill in some of the star names, who chose to prioritise the Olympics this year over another World Championships in very short time. Now these swimmers who were there in Doha will get the chance to test themselves v our best come the National Olympic Trials in June followed by the Olympics in Paris in July-August. The next goal awaits in topping this medal tally again but this time at the Olympic Games.

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2024 World Swimming Championships, Shayna Jack the only Aussie to take out bronze for the night on Day 6 after she came 3rd in the Women’s 100m Freestyle Final

by Sports Benches

Day 6 of the 2024 World Swimming Championships was all about Shayna Jack for the Dolphins Swim Team even though she was the only Aussie to take out the bronze for the night after she finished 3rd in the Women’s 100m Freestyle Final. Now she might be nowhere near Marrit Steinbergen from the Netherlands (52.26) and even Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey (52.86) by just a second behind these two but she didn’t do bad though where Jack managed to keep the last medal podium spot right through the end of the wall at 52.83 secs. There is a few gold medal opportunities up for grabs this weekend starting tomorrow with promising signs from Cam McEvoy who was fastest in both his heat and the overall the Men’s 50m Freestyle semi-final as he will look to take out the gold again tomorrow morning. He will be joined by Isaac Cooper in this meet as they both want to make a 1-2 for our Aussie Dolphins. Look out for Alex Perkins having been second fastest in semi-final 2 of the Women’s 50m Butterfly ahead of team-mate Brianna Throssell in 4th where they will both look to get the job done inn the final tomorrow. Don’t forget there will be another USA v Australia challenge this time in Jaclyn Barclay v Clare Curzan in the Women’s 200m backstroke & Barclay hopes it’s her moment by ending Curzan’s unreal dominance up front for the gold. And both Maddy Gough & Kiah Melverton will round out the Super Saturday golden line-up in the Women’s 800m Freestyle Final.

As said, forget about smashing the medal tally again since most of our top swimmers are going for the Olympics which is more important than just going in at another World Champs in such short time. But again, it gives some other swimmers a chance to make a name for themselves including a few teenage/juniors who are part of our next generation cohort & sure they will make that count this weekend on a high note before looking ahead at the National Olympic trials around June.

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Day 5 of the 2024 World Swimming Championships, Iona Anderson fell short again for silver in the 50m backstroke & a team bronze in the 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay

by Sports Benches

Day 5 of the 2024 World Swimming Championships saw the Dolphins pick up two medals again off the back of another good swim from Iona Anderson in the Women’s 50m backstroke for silver as well as a team bronze in Women’s 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay. First of all, good start by Brianna Throssell with the early start up to 2nd while Shayna Jack has pushed them into the lead at one stage. Now things weren’t the same when Abbey Harkin struggled to stay ahead down to 4th before Kiah Melverton hang in there well during the last shift to only regain just a spot back to 3rd. And how good was 16-year-old Anderson who got away with another silver medal. She pushed so hard following a great start into 2nd. Yes, this could’ve been her moment where she fell so short to Clare Curzan again by 0.02 secs at the end there. But again Anderson is one of the future & sure she’ll get her first gold medal sooner rather than later. There will be gold medal opportunities for the Dolphins coming up on Day 6 tomorrow with Shayna Jack in the Women’s 100m Freestyle and the Men’s 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay.

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Day 4 of the 2024 World Swimming Championships, Dolphins finally got the gold off the back of Sam Williamson’s breakthrough gold in the 50m breaststroke

by Sports Benches

The Dolphins have got the gold at last halfway through this week’s World Swimming Championships as what a moment by Sam Williamson – the 26 year old from Mount Waverley in Victoria – who wowed everybody in the Men’s 50m breaststroke sprint Final. He might have fired off the bat from behind but had a brilliant last 25m form to lock out Italian Nicole Martinenghi at the end of the wall by just 0.07 of a sec at 26.32 – how good!! This is his first World Championship gold medal as let’s hope he will kick on for more throughout this year including the Summer Olympics in Paris this July-August.

Other than that, we were also oh so close where Elijah Winnington was two seconds behind Daniel Wiffen from Ireland in the Men’s 800m Freestyle Final & also in the 4 x 100m Mixed Medley Relay Final to Team USA. Elijah was outstanding from the start with the early lead where he was on the World Record radar at one stage but just couldn’t stay ahead when he lost the lead towards the last 400m. He did get back a spot back that late towards the very end though – just not enough time to challenge Wiffen there a bit longer. Meanwhile in the Mixed Medley race, slow start but Williamson (Breaststroke) organised a great springboard for his female team-mates to bring it home from 3rd where Brianna Throssell (butterfly) & Shayna Jack (freestyle) did their best during the last half shift – even though it wasn’t possible to catch down Team USA for 2nd.

And shoutout to Throssell again with the 200m Freestyle in bronze. Now the race for gold may be out of reach by Siobhan Haughey from Hong Kong while Jack’s good start has quickly faded not far from the end down in 7th, but she too has a brilliant swim all along on what has been her first individual World Championship medal other than lots of team relays.

Another four days left to go despite the chances of topping the medal charts may be out of reach since most of our top swimmers are choosing the Olympics over this World Championships, but there will be at least 1-2 gold medal opportunities coming up tomorrow such as Iona Anderson in the 50m backstroke sprint and the Women’s 4 x 200m Freestyle Team Relay.

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Day 1 of the 2024 World Swimming Championships Review, Dolphins Swim Team collect two silver via Elijah Winnington and the women’s relay team

by Sports Benches

The first day of another unexpected World Swimming Championships from Doha, Qatar, saw the Dolphins collect all two silver medals – despite falling one short away from gold – as they sit 5th on this medal tally. Oh so close from Elijah Winnington who came back so hard to hunt the leader down in the last 100m towards the end on what has been a huge 400m Freestyle Final, but just didn’t tap the wall first under pressure to upsurge Woomin Kim (South Korea) in 2nd. Good to see him rebound though as hope he will go one better again like he did two years ago with his first gold medal, having only collected one bronze during the 4 x Men’s 200m Freestyle Relay at the last World Champs in Fukuoka, Japan, seven months ago.

Now some of our top swimmers have chosen to forego this tourney, especially with a big year ahead that early with the Olympics later this July-August. However, the female relay team did their absolute best in the 4 x 100m Freestyle Final consisting of Shayna Jack, Abbey Harkin, Alex Perkins & Brianna Throssell. Again, brilliant start by Throssell up to 2nd place while things could’ve been better when it comes to the last half dashes during the middle leg in particular with Harkin & Perkins in there, but Shayna Jack got them back up front in the best way possible where she fell so short by just 00.32 sec towards the end there to the Netherlands. Sure the second string squad will learn well from the best who are not in Doha by filling their void and push themselves towards the next level throughout this week and the months to come.

And shoutout to our Tasman neighbour Erika Fairweather who won her first ever gold medal for both herself and New Zealand after she dominated comfortably in the 400m Freestyle Final. Let’s hope despite some of them missing or sitting out, the Dolphins can do better on Day 2 tomorrow morning (Australian time) by topping the medal charts once again.

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