2024 Australian Olympic Trials: Day 4 Finals Live Recap

2024 AUSTRALIAN OLYMPIC TRIALS

WOMEN’S 200 BACK – FINAL

GOLD – Kaylee McKeown, 2:03.30 *OLY Qualifier
SILVER – Jaclyn Barclay, 2:07.88 *OLY Qualifier
BRONZE – Hannah Fredericks, 2:08.25

22-year-old Kaylee McKeown unleashed a near-world record-setting time, ripping a winning effort of 2:03.30 to handily defeat the field en route to qualifying for her 3rd individual Olympic event.

Opening in 1:00.58 (29.08/31.50) and bringing it home in 1:02.72, (31.47/31.25) the reigning world record holder and Olympic champion just put up the 2nd-fastest 200m backstroke performance in history.

Top 5 Women’s LCM 200 Back Performances All-Time

  1. 2:03.14 – Kaylee McKeown, 2023
  2. 2:03.30 – Kaylee McKeown, 2024
  3. 2:03.35 – Regan Smith, 2019
  4. 2:03.69 – Regan Smith, 2019
  5. 2:03.70 – Kaylee McKeown, 2023

For her part, 17-year-old Jaclyn Barclay of St. Peters Western just qualified for her first Olympic Games, capturing silver in a time of 2:07.88. That easily cleared the Swimming Australia-mandated Olympic Qualification Time of 2:09.74 .

Her time was within striking distance of her best-ever outing, a result of 2:07.03 to snag silver at this year’s World Championships in Doha.

Hannah Fredericks bagged the bronze, producing a mark of 2:08.25, a new personal best by well over half a second.

Of note, 32-year-old Emily Seebohm placed 5th in a mark of 2:10.80, an impressive result less than a year after giving birth to her first child. As Seebohm missed qualification in the 100m back earlier, the veteran’s bid to appear at a 5th Olympic Games has concluded.

MEN’S 200 IM – FINAL

  • World Record – 1:54.00, Ryan Lochte (USA), 2011
  • Australian Record – 1:55.72, Mitch Larkin, 2019
  • Oceanic Record – 1:55.72, Mitch Larkin 2019
  • Commonwealth Record – 1:55.28, Duncan Scott (GBR), 2021
  • All Comers Record – 1:54.98, Michael Phelps (USA), 2007
  • Swim Australia OQT – 1:57.23

GOLD – William Petric, 1:57.54
SILVER – Brendon Smith, 1:58.12
BRONZE – Se-Bom Lee, 2:00.11

19-year-old William Petric put up the swim of his life as he roared to the wall first in this men’s 200m IM.

The Nunawading ace captured gold in a time of 1:57.54, dipping under the 1:58 barrier for the first time in his young career.

Splitting 25.58/30.39/33.03/28.54, Petric outperformed his previous personal best of 1:58.95 from last month’s Sydney Open.

His outing this evening fell just .31 shy of the Swimming Australia-mandated OQT of 1:57.23. However, it did dip under the World Aquatics OQT of 1:57.94 and his PB might just sway selectors to add him to the roster via a provisional pick depending on how the remaining events shake out.

Petric is now Australia’s 4th-fastest 200m IM performer in history. We’ll see what he has in store in the 400m IM later in the competition.

All-Time Australian Men’s LCM 200 IM Performers All-Time

  1. Mitch Larkin – 1:55.72, 2019
  2. Leith Brodie – 1:56.69, 2009
  3. Tommy Neill – 1:57.41, 2023
  4. William Petric – 1:57.54, 2024
  5. Daniel Tranter – 1:57.55, 2013

Olympic bronze medalist in the 400m IM, 23-year-old Brendon Smith was the only other racer to get beneath the 2:00 threshold.

Griffith’s Smith turned in a time of 1:58.12 to earn runner-up status while Se-Bom Lee rounded out the podium in 2:00.11.

MEN’S 100 FREE – FINAL

  • World Record – 46.80, Pan Zhanle (CHN), 2024
  • Australian Record – 47.04, Cameron McEvoy, 2016
  • Oceanic Record – 47.04, Cameron McEvoy, 2016
  • Commonwealth Record – 47.04, Cameron McEvoy, 2016
  • All Comers Record – 47.04, Cameron McEvoy, 2016
  • Swim Australia OQT – 48.06

GOLD – Kyle Chalmers, 47.75 *OLY Qualifier
SILVER – William Yang, 48.08
BRONZE – Flynn Southam, 48.11

Not to take anything away from these elite performers, but only one swimmer dipped under the 48-second barrier in tonight’s men’s 100m free final and just 6 were under the 49 threshold at an Olympic Trials affair.

25-year-old multi-Olympic medalist Kyle Chalmers took this men’s 100m freestyle out in 22.81 and closed in 24.94 to stop the clock in 47.75. That scored the sole time of the field under the OQT of 48.06 to send ‘King Kyle’ to his 3rd Olympic Games.

Although Chalmers has been faster this season, owning a time of 47.63 from April’s Open Championships, he got the job done tonight after having changed coaches from Peter Bishop to Ash Delaney.

More on Chalmers’ Coaching Change

Of note, Chalmers uncharacteristically led the field on the first 50, holding off a charging William Yang and Flynn Southam at the wall.

Less than a year after undergoing back surgery for a benign tumor, 25-year-old Yang proved his mettle with a stellar silver in 48.08.

Yang was 23.18/24.90 to the wall, painstakingly falling just .02 outside of the OQT. His result represents a new personal best, slicing .12 off the 48.20 put up in April.

He’ll be joined by 19-year-old Southam (48.11) and Jack Cartwright (48.40) on the men’s 4x100m free relay. Southam owns a PB of 47.77 but couldn’t get in that realm this evening, while 25-year-old Cartwright owns a PB of 47.84 from leading off the men’s 4x100m free relay at last year’s World Championships.

Cartwright has been bubbling under the surface for some time now and took advantage of this opportunity to qualify for his first Olympic games in the relay.

The remaining final unfolded as follows:

5th –Kai Taylor, 48.57
6th – Zac Incerti, 48.73
7th – Jamie Jack, 49.01
8th – Maximillian Giuliani, 49.17

WOMEN’S 200 FLY – FINAL

  • World Record – 2:01.81, Liu Zige (CHN), 2009
  • Australian Record – 2:03.41, Jessicah Schipper, 2009
  • Oceanic Record – 2:03.41, Jessicah Schipper, 2009
  • Commonwealth Record – 2:03.41, Jessicah Schipper, 2009
  • All Comers Record – 2:05.20, Elizabeth Dekkers, 2024
  • Swim Australia OQT – 2:07.72

GOLD – Elizabeth Dekkers, 2:06.01 *OLY Qualifier
SILVER – Abbey Connor, 2:06:82 *OLY Qualifier
BRONZE – Bella Grant, 2:08.86

20-year-old Elizabeth (Lizzie) Dekkers busted out a strong back half to take this women’s 200m fly, getting to the wall in a final time of 2:06.01.

She overtook Abbey Connor after 100m mark and didn’t look back, with Connor scoring silver 2:06.82, just off her morning swim of 2:06.43. Bella Grant collected bronze in 2:08.86.

Dekkers earned silver in this event at the 2023 World Championships, putting up a time of 2:05.46 in Fukuoka. She dropped that PB down to 2:05.20, the current All Comers Record she put on the books at this year’s Open Championships to check in as the #3 Australian performer in history.

As for Connor, her morning swim of 2:06.43 represented a new lifetime best, overtaking her previous PB of 2:06.59. Tonight’s 2:06.82 effort is just her 3rd-ever foray under the 2:07 barrier.

At one time, Connor hinted at retirement but did an about-face and came back to the pool. She just qualified for her first Olympic Games with tonight’s performance.

WOMEN’S 800 FREE – FINAL

  • World Record – 8:04.79, Katie Ledecky (USA), 2016
  • Australian Record – 8:13.59, Ariarne Titmus, 2022 & 2023
  • Oceanic Record – 8:13.59, Ariarne Titmus, 2022 & 2023
  • Commonwealth Record – 8:11.39, Summer McIntosh (CAN), 2024
  • All Comers Record – 8:11.35, Katie Ledecky (USA), 2014
  • Swim Australia OQT – 8:22.20

GOLD – Ariarne Titmus, 8:14.06 *OLY Qualifier
SILVER – Lani Pallister, 8:18.46 *OLY Qualifier
BRONZE – Jamie Perkins, 8:30.18

After a near-world record in the women’s 400m free, a new world record in the 200m free, Olympic champion Ariarne Titmus added a 3rd invidual event to her Paris lineup as she topped this 800m free podium.

The Dean Boxall-trained superstar punched a time of 8:14.06 to win decisively, with Lani Pallister also qualifying in 8:18.46.

Titmu’s effort now ranks her 3rd in the world on the season and came within half a second of her own national record of 8:13.59 clocked in both 2022 and 2023.

Pallister remains ranked 4th in the world, courtesy of the 8:15.11 notched during last year’s World Cup in Budapest.

2023-2024 LCM Women 800 Free

SummerCAN
MCINTOSH
02/08
8:11.39
2Katie
LEDECKY
USA8:12.9504/13
3Ariarne
TITMUS
AUS8:14.0606/13
4Lani
PALLISTER
AUS8:15.1110/22
5Simona
QUADARELLA
ITA8:17.4402/17
View Top 31»

In This Story

489
Leave a Reply

Subscribe
Notify of

489 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Oceanian
7 days ago

Plz drop the D5 prelims live recap soon – we got some W100free (strongest national event of any country this year?) to be talkin’ about.

Sub13
7 days ago

Ok so we’ve had mixed results this week but they’re actually not that different to Fukuoka. Of course in Fukuoka most of our swimmers massively improved from trials and we can assume that will happen again but let’s keep it in perspective.

M50 free – Solid medal contender and a gold chance although not as fast as expected.

M100 free – Kyle will need to get over that injury for any chance at a medal.

M200 free – No individual chance.

M400/800 – Winnington claims to be unrested and Short is sick. Lacklustre times this week but will depend on their form going in.

M1500 – Still to come but as above.

M100 breast – No individual chance but an… Read more »

Troyy
Reply to  Sub13
7 days ago

What time was McEvoy expected to go at trials? He didn’t peak until Fukuoka last year.

Mark69
Reply to  Troyy
7 days ago

21.41 at 23 trials, 21.06 23WC

Joel
Reply to  Troyy
7 days ago

And he’s swimming a 50 tonight too.

Sub13
Reply to  Troyy
7 days ago

Yeah maybe it’s me being too cynical but I was expecting faster

Mark69
Reply to  Sub13
7 days ago

Agree, I think 7-8 golds is likely, more are possible but need some luck and steps up from trials.

Oceanian
Reply to  Sub13
7 days ago

Tokyo was in our time-zone. We often perform better with meets held in Asia.

And sometimes we don’t in meets in Europe (hello London) or the Americas (hello Rio).

Fingers crossed for the Aussies in Paris.

Last edited 7 days ago by Oceanian
Fraser Thorpe
Reply to  Oceanian
7 days ago

Yeah think the time zone has to be taken into account for those close calls – in Tokyo it was in our favour and against those in US. That pendulum swings the other way now.

Mark69
Reply to  Oceanian
7 days ago

Agree that London and Rio were underperforms, but our team in London was nowhere near as strong as the Beijing team or the Tokyo team (or this current team, albeit this team has very weak spots). Athens was in the Euro time zone and was an overperform. I think the time zone issue is overrated – a strong team will generally perform well.

Sub13
Reply to  Mark69
7 days ago

They’re also heading over like 4 or so weeks early so Timezone shouldn’t be an issue

Andy
Reply to  Oceanian
7 days ago

London wasn’t actually an underperform despite the media hype.

In 2011 Shanghai (yes, in Asia), Australia only won 2 golds – both by Magnussen in the 100 free and relay. He went on to lose London gold by 0.01s but it’s not like anyone else was the favourite

Rio was a massive failure because 2015 Kazan (ie European time zone) was a roaring success

Sub13
Reply to  Sub13
7 days ago

Lol if it wasn’t clear I meant to say went CAN’T assume everyone will drop heaps of time again oops

Princedusang
8 days ago

Kyle is a 2nd 50 king in 100 free, i.e. consistently splitting the fastest time in the field. He has to ponder how fast it is enough for him to outswim other elite swimmers in Paris.

Out of statistical data, he doesn’t have chance against Pan, chorinedaddy or even Richards at moment, he’s still supposed to fight though.

‘Murica
Reply to  Princedusang
7 days ago

He certainly has a chance, he already did it last year.

Dressel and Chalmers hold the fastest times at a World Championships or Olympics since 2009 by a large margin. They are still the ones to beat imo

Notanyswimmer
Reply to  ‘Murica
7 days ago

Chalmers and Dressel certainly have a chance but Pan set his WR at the WCs and Popovici also went 47.13 at WCs.

Princedusang
Reply to  ‘Murica
7 days ago

Kyle does have an enviable capability that helps him edge over other super swimmers: always outdoing in barn burner finals, e.g. Olympics or WC.

However, releasing such a capacity is preconditioned by his form that I think is not his assets at moment.

Regarding Dressel, his chance on podium is even slimmer than his Aussie counterpart in 100 free. Focusing on 50 free & 100 fly may be a good idea for him.

Oceanian
Reply to  Princedusang
7 days ago

When was the last time Kyle competed in Europe?

Not trolling, just a question that appeared in my head. And know some of the experts on here will have the answer without me googling.

Princedusang
Reply to  Oceanian
7 days ago

To my knowledge, 2022 19th WCs Budapest Hungary
Kyle swam relays and 100 fly.

Last edited 7 days ago by Princedusang
Bobthebuilderrocks
8 days ago

Not to take anything away, but I’m shocked to see Sarkany committed to Indiana. IU is in the running next year more than ever

PFA
Reply to  Bobthebuilderrocks
8 days ago

Oh wow just saw that yeah that’s pretty cool to see might be the closest team battle next year in quite some time

bobthebuilderrocks
Reply to  PFA
8 days ago

I think this has to be Ray’s best team. That 2018 team was pretty good but I figure this year’s will be better than the 2017-2018 team.

snailSpace
Reply to  Bobthebuilderrocks
8 days ago

Which means the NC State negotiations went south somewhere. IU is just as good, if not a better option for him in any case.

Jozsef Nagy Acting School
Reply to  Bobthebuilderrocks
8 days ago

I mean Texas has been picking up some pretty decent transfers in addition to their pretty decent recruiting class, but sure.

bobthebuilderrocks
Reply to  Jozsef Nagy Acting School
8 days ago

You’re telling me

Anonymous
Reply to  Bobthebuilderrocks
8 days ago

Downvoted because folks should really stay on topic. Please.

Oceanian
Reply to  Anonymous
7 days ago

What does this college stuff have to do with Aussie trials?

Noddy
Reply to  Bobthebuilderrocks
6 days ago

Yawn

Swordfish
8 days ago

Kyle swam his normal pace in the finals: holding off outgo and accelerating back home.

He actually rehearsed his tactics in the swim only to race a bit slower than expected in the last 15m homestretch.

BTW, wondering the reaction times in the field while feeling a little bit backward in the live stream rewind.

Beverly Drangus
8 days ago

This may have been covered extensively already, but I missed it. Why does swimming Australia set qualifying times that their swimmers aren’t certain to hit? Their 200im qt would be the third fastest performance in Australian history. If the US set a qt like that, we wouldn’t have sent anyone in the 200IM in a decade.

IU Swammer
Reply to  Beverly Drangus
8 days ago

Australia doesn’t like taking athletes to the Olympics who are not in range to final. It’s not just swimming. I kinda understand the reasoning, but I don’t agree with it.

Astur
Reply to  IU Swammer
8 days ago

Like Japan and UK, amongst others

australiaswimsfast
Reply to  Astur
8 days ago

Polar apposite to the Canadian trials we just saw.

Meow
Reply to  IU Swammer
7 days ago

I guess there’s not really an objective way to measure this, but I wonder how this impacts the development of the younger swimmers who are on the cusp of huge breakthroughs. Surely having an Olympics under your belt when you’re 18 or 19 is going to be really helpful four years later.

Selkie
Reply to  Beverly Drangus
8 days ago

They set the harsher criteria after the London debacle resulting in the govt pulling funding from swimming and giving it to other sports. They’re now reliant on a private benefactor to fill the gap for squad development and the small govt funding won’t cover too many tickets to the other side of the world- there’s a strict quota on how many they can take

Troyy
Reply to  Selkie
7 days ago

Australia wouldn’t go anywhere near the team size limit even if they used OQTs.

Oceanian
Reply to  Troyy
7 days ago

Athletics (pre 2008?) used to set tougher marks but (thankfully) went back to everyone’s qualifying marks after. Now with World Athletics rankings runners (etc) can get called up to places even if they don’t hit the mark in a trials.

Wish that could happen in swimming. Very few athletes these days want to go to an Olympics for site-seeing.

jeff
Reply to  Beverly Drangus
7 days ago

1:57.23 in the men’s 200 IM? Phelps and Lochte were both faster than that in 2016, Andrew and Kalisz were both faster than that in 2021 (and Kieran Smith hit it exactly). On the women’s side, the top 3 in both trials were faster than the qualifying time

Fraser Thorpe
Reply to  jeff
7 days ago

I think OP means relative to the American record – it’s the equivalent of the qualifying time being MP’s 1:54.16

Edwards Miami
8 days ago

Summer has a better chance of winnning in the 800. Than un the 200 freestyle or combined

‘Murica
Reply to  Edwards Miami
8 days ago

Lmao

Genevieve Nnaji
Reply to  ‘Murica
7 days ago

It’s not far fetched.

Summer has beaten Ledecky in 800 head to head

Summer hasn’t beaten MOC and Titmus in 200 or 400.

Robbos
Reply to  Edwards Miami
7 days ago

IMO Summer is a great swimmer but at 17 years old still lacks the strength in the shorter events, hence so much better in 400IM to 200IM. This is why the endurance events are her strongest suits, 400IM, 200 Fly.
Eg, MOC swam 1.55.0 in Tokyo as a 17 year old & now at 20 swimming 1.52.4.

I think Summer has better chance in 800 than 200 this year.

Irrelevant swim productions
8 days ago

Mid times all around

swimswimaus
Reply to  Irrelevant swim productions
7 days ago

tell kaylee that

About Retta Race

Retta Race

Former Masters swimmer and coach Loretta (Retta) thrives on a non-stop but productive schedule. Nowadays, that includes having just earned her MBA while working full-time in IT while owning French 75 Boutique while also providing swimming insight for BBC.

Read More »