2022 Duel In The Pool Preview: Australian Depth Outmatches The Americans

2022 DUEL IN THE POOL

• Friday, August 19 – Sunday, August 21, 2022
• Sydney, Australia
• Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre (pool swimming, Aug. 20-21)
• Bondi Beach (open water, Aug. 19)
• Start Times
  • Friday – open water: 9:00 am local / 7:00 pm ET on Thursday
  • Saturday – 7:00 pm local / 5:00 am ET
  • Sunday – 7:00 pm local / 5:00 am ET
• LCM (50m)
• Meet Central

The Duel In The Pool is making its return after a seven-year hiatus, with a three-day showdown between the United States and Australia set to kick off on Friday in Sydney.

• See the full US roster here
• See the full Australian roster here

On paper, there’s little doubt that the Australians come in with a much deeper roster, particularly on the women’s side, as the Aussies bring in some of the best female swimmers in the sport, led by Emma McKeon, Kaylee McKeown and Mollie O’Callaghan.

The men’s rosters look more evenly matched, though the competition will have an extremely unique event schedule, featuring things like “mystery” IM races, “broken” 400 and 800 freestyles, “random” relay races and three-round skins events like we’ve seen in the International Swimming League.

This quirky schedule makes predicting how things will transpire virtually impossible, but we’ll do our best.

With multiple relays and skins events, having versatility across the 50 and 100-meter events figures to be the biggest determinator of success at the meet.

There are a lot of intricacies in the events and how they’re scored. Here are a few notes on some of the different races:

• “Broken” freestyle events – Swimmers stop throughout the race at certain distances to earn points. For example, the 400 free has a 200-meter race, followed by a pair of 100-meter races, with points awarded to the winner of each.
• Skins events – Like we saw in the ISL, six swimmers gets whittled down to four and ultimately two in the final in a three-round event.
• “Mystery” IM – The order of the strokes is determined at random prior to the start of the race.
• “Random” relays – Teams select two male, two female swimmers prior to the relay format being determined at random (spinning a wheel)
• Multi-Class Form-Stroke Events – These will be pre-determined staggered starts based on the 100-meter world record for each Para swimmer’s chosen stroke.

FULL EVENT SCHEDULE

Note that Para events are included (“Multi-Class”)

Day 1

• Open Water – 4x800m relay

Day 2

• Women’s 400 broken freestyle
• Men’s 100 butterfly (traditional)
• Mixed 4×50 Multi-Class freestyle relay
• Women’s 50 butterfly skins (3 rounds)
• Men’s 100 breaststroke (traditional)
• Women’s 50 freestyle (traditional)
• Women’s 50 breaststroke skins (3 rounds)
• Men’s 800 broken freestyle
• Men’s 100 freestyle (traditional)
• Multi-Class 100 freestyle (staggered starts)
• Women’s 4×100 medley relay (traditional)
• Men’s 50 backstroke skins (3 rounds)
• Mixed Multi-Class & Able-bodied relay
• Men’s 200 IM (mystery)
• Women’s 100 backstroke (traditional)
• Men’s 50 freestyle skins (3 rounds)
• Multi-Class 50 Form-Stroke Skins (3 rounds)
• Women’s 200 freestyle (traditional)
• Mixed 4×50 random relay (2M, 2F)

Day 3

• Mixed 6×50 freestyle relay (1M, 2F, each swimmer goes twice)
• Women’s 800 broken freestyle
• Men’s 200 freestyle (traditional)
• Mixed 4×100 Multi-Class freestyle relay
• Women’s 50 freestyle skins (3 rounds)
• Men’s 50 breaststroke skins (3 rounds)
• Women’s 100 butterfly (traditional)
• Women’s 50 backstroke skins (3 rounds)
• Men’s 4×100 freestyle relay (traditional)
• Men’s 100 backstroke (traditional)
• Multi-Class 50 freestyle skins (3 rounds)
• Women’s 100 freestyle (traditional)
• Men’s 400 broken freestyle
• Celebrity 4×50 relay – listed as “for entertainment”
• Men’s 50 freestyle (traditional)
• Women’s 100 breaststoke (traditional)
• Men’s 50 butterfly skins (3 rounds)
• Multi-Class 100 Form-Stroke
• Women’s 200 IM (mystery)
• 2×200 vs 4×100 freestyle random relay

According to an outline of the event rules, the “traditional” events will be raced 2v2 (two Aussie and two Americans), the skins will be 3v3, and the relays will be 1v1.

Below, find a breakdown of the top-four swimmers in each 50 and 100-meter event this year (max three per country), along with the 200 IM, to see which side will have the sprint advantage in Sydney.

Depth Chart – Men

Men’s 50 Freestyle

Men’s 100 Freestyle

Men’s 50 Backstroke

Men’s 100 Backstroke

Men’s 50 Breaststroke

Men’s 100 Breaststroke

Men’s 50 Butterfly

Men’s 100 Butterfly

Men’s 200 IM

On the men’s side, there’s no disputing that the Americans are significantly stronger in terms of the sprints. While we should note that someone like Michael Andrew can’t possibly race all of the events he’s listed in at an optimal level due to there only being two sessions, the Americans are still stronger in each stroke on the men’s side in the 50s and 100s.

Depth Chart – Women

Women’s 50 Freestyle

Women’s 100 Freestyle

Women’s 50 Backstroke

Women’s 100 Backstroke

Women’s 50 Breaststroke

Women’s 100 Breaststroke

Women’s 50 Butterfly

Women’s 100 Butterfly

Women’s 200 IM

The advantage for the women is clearly on Australia’s side, and the gap in ability in the sprint freestyle events specifically is significant. Not only will that give Australia a massive boost in the individual and skins events there, but it will also propel them to a lot of success in the relays.

Of course, there are some longer events on the schedule where some of the more distance-oriented names will do some damage.

On the men’s side, the U.S. has distance freestylers like Charlie Clark, Luke Hobson and David Johnston to lean on, while the Aussies have Mack Horton and Brendon Smith.

The American women have Bella Sims and Tylor Mathieu, and Australia has Lani Pallister, Tamsin Cook, and some mid-distance threats including Leah Neale and Madi Wilson.

So much of this is hard to predict given the format, but it’s clear the advantage the Australian women have over the men makes this an uphill climb for the U.S. squad.