The Australian team has been hit with a scare two weeks out from the 2022 World Championships in Budapest.
One of the nation’s biggest swimming stars, Ariarne Titmus, has tested positive for COVID-19, according to a report from The Australian. While Titmus has opted out of competing at Worlds, her positive test comes shortly after an Aussie team photoshoot where several members of the team scheduled to race in Budapest were present.
The other swimmers were reportedly cleared of the virus, and Titmus is said to be isolating in Brisbane after leaving the shoot early on Wednesday after feeling unwell.
The Speedo shoot, where the team’s suits for the Commonwealth Games were unveiled, featured Worlds team members such as Zac Stubblety-Cook, Mollie O’Callaghan, Mack Horton, Elijah Winnington, Lani Pallister and Joshua Edwards-Smith.
Emma McKeon, who had a record-setting Olympics last year with seven medals, was also present, though like Titmus, she won’t compete in Budapest.
Stubblety-Cook is the favorite to win the World title in the men’s 200 breaststroke, having won Olympic gold last summer and then breaking the world record at the Australian Trials last month. O’Callaghan and Winnington are also gold medal hopefuls in Budapest.
Earlier this week, we learned that British star Duncan Scott had also tested positive for COVID 17 days out from Worlds.
Titmus made headlines on Thursday when she said she wasn’t fully committed to racing at the Duel In The Pool later this year, which would likely be the 21-year-old’s only opportunity to clash with American rival Katie Ledecky in 2022.
Titmus beat Ledecky head-to-head for Olympic gold twice last summer in the women’s 200 and 400 free, dethroning the former Olympic champion in both races, and less than two weeks ago, she also broke Ledecky’s six-year-old world record in the 400 free.
Might be a pretty chill summer for me, or at least next month.
Sad news about another freestyle young star. Delfina Pignatiello retires at 22yo, just announced it on her Instagram. Will focus in other activities outside of the pool. Never recovered from the high expectations, negative comments on social media and extended quarantine that hurt her preparation for the Olympics.
What were the negative comments? She was an amazing swimmer.
Typical social media hate. But she was very active there. She started to twitch and do a lot of content for her channels a few years ago, but when she had bad results, like at the Olympics, received negative comments and deleted a lot on IG and YouTube. Many athletes don’t care, but she was very public about how that affected her.
I hope she comes back at some point, because she’ll keep swimming, just not at international level. She is a 2x world junior champion, 2x YOG medalist, 3x pan american champion, but never competed at LC worlds and her lone Olympics were bad. I’ve been following her career since she was 15 and it’s a shame to end… Read more »
She was sick and turned up at the launch..
If she’s not going to Worlds, then no one else is.
It says she started to feel sick whilst there, so then left early. You need to learn to read the whole article.
Many COVID positive are asymptomatic. We need to stop looking for it.
So you want someone who started feeling sick to not find out what illness she has? This might be the dumbest take I’ve seen here. And that’s saying something lol
A large number of athletes caught COVID at the trials or have tested positive since. Most opted not to say so as they continued to work through. Trials was a superspreader event for Covid but many Aussie’s with their typical carefree personality of “she’ll be right mate” have chosen to embrace Covid as part of every day life and soldier on. It is fortunate that the severity of covid symptoms does not appear to impact individuals health as much as earlier varieties did.
Anyone know if that’s what happened to Tom Neill?
Neill caught COVID months b4 the trials…hasn’t be able to shake the affects
That sucks. I hope I can continue to dodge it because my health can’t afford to get any worse than it already is.
My health isn’t bad but I’m still wearing two masks and have no intention of stopping. One close relative still hasn’t fully regained taste or smell after 18 months.
Geez, I read the first few words of the headline and almost choked!
Just curious; isn’t this a violation of patient confidentiality to be announcing that all these swimmers have COVID?
not if she already publicly told everyone
Most western countries, specifically relevant in this case Australia, rules about patient confidentiality apply to their medical providers. If Ariarne tells a friend that she has COVID (or all of the other members of the team who were at the photoshoot) and that someone tells the media, no laws have been violated, unless a member of the team is her doctor or psychologist or dentist or etc.
Generally, Australia’s patient confidentiality laws are not as strictly codified as American laws are under HIPAA, but medical providers are still generally bound by law to keep patient information confidential in most cases.
Impressed by the breadth of your knowledge.
Braden loves bread!
Breaden Keith
Is she Swim Swam’s patient?
Without the persons consent, yes it is. But looks like they have publicly released this information.
It’s been 3 years, can we please move on
Yea over 6.3 Million people dead and let’s just “move on”
I work in a Covid ward, and see people in their last day of life. No it is not over. Covid is jamming our hospitals, so other people cant get treatment and costing billions of dollars to Governments. Non urgent cases like knee replacements etc are banking up….we have a long way to go.
Is this still news?? Maybe we all need a few more doses.
We recognize that the current wave of COVID-19 isn’t as severe as previous variants. That being said, it’s May, and Australia has already registered roughly 8x the number of deaths from COVID-19 as they would in a typical year from the flu, contracting COVID can still disrupt a lot of training, and reporting on training disruptions by illness is not new or novel to the COVID-19 pandemic.
We reported on Emily Seebohm getting swine flu in 2011. We reported on Tyler Clary getting the flu in 2014. We’ve reported on norovirus outbreaks that have delayed collegiate championship meets on several occasions. The possibility of an outbreak of disease in the Australian team two weeks before the World Championships that could… Read more »
COOK EM BRADEN
They’re dead already
There is another issue and that is some countries won’t let you out until you test negative, Was exposed to Covid in Italy but unlike 7 of our group, I didn’t test positive until the day after I got home. The Italian government takes your passport at the airport if you test positive and hustles you off to one of their quarantine hotels where you are isloated alone until you test negative. It was unpleasant to say the least for those who had to quarantine for 2 weeks under guard.At home,I was treated with Paxlovid, which worked but I also had severe bronchitis. Seven weeks later I am about 90% but I did have the Italian version and in our… Read more »