2025 World Championships
- July 27 – August 3, 2025 (pool swimming)
- Singapore, Singapore
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Australian distance swimmer Ben Goedemans is the latest to be confirmed hit by gastrointestinal illness this week in Singapore at the 2025 World Aquatics Championships.
Goedemans was a late scratch from the men’s 1500 free due to what a Swimming Australia release is calling “gastrointestinal illness.”
Goedemans was the 15th seed in the event entering the meet with a 14:52.99 from Australian Trials, making him effectively the back of the main ‘peloton’ of the field on paper. That swim already was a huge drop over the 15:09 that he swam at the Olympic Trials in 2024.
Earlier in the meet in the 800 free, his better of the two distance races, Goedemans was 9th in prelims before being scratched into finals by his countrymate Sam Short, who was dealing with his own GI issues. Goedemans was able to move up one slot in the final (past yet another sick swimmer Daniel Wiffen, though his was the lingering effects of pre-meet appendicitis).
Short for his part gutted-out a 14:46.24 in the heats of the 1500 free after that 800 meter final scratch and sitting out the Australian 800 free relay on Friday evening. He battled through the lingering effects of his own sickness to qualify for the final.
“It’s been a pretty horrible week, to be honest. Started so well, 800 heat felt phenomenal, and the next, like two days after that was just horrible,” Short said.
“I just couldn’t really leave my bed, I was throwing up really high temperatures. So I did everything I could to get myself right for the relay, and I was ready to call up. Unfortunately, I didn’t (get selected).”
Short says he feels like he belonged in the 800 free relay though coaches ultimately didn’t choose him.
“I believe that I probably should have been in there. But, you know … I really proved to myself more than anyone that I was ready to go … and it’s actually the fastest heat time I’ve ever done.
“I’m just stoked to get the final. I was fully prepared to go straight from here to the pub and have lunch with my parents. And now I gotta get prepared for tomorrow night. I’ll be even better, 36 more hours to recover a bit more so I’ll be able to stop it to get more food into me.”
The final of the 1500 will be raced on Sunday evening in the last session of the meet.
Earlier in the meet, after taking silver in the 400 free, Short referred to this 1500 as “a bit of a bonus” and that he was “not really targeting that too much,” but after his 800 scratch the race gives him an opportunity to finish on a higher note.
I thought it was not wise when the swimmers who had not been sick yet were getting so close after races (for congrats/hugs/high fives) to the swimmers who were already sick. That’s probably one way this GI virus spread. It just takes one minuscule droplet of saliva or aerosolized breath droplet being exhaled from an infected swimmer to get into a healthy swimmer and they’re all inhaling and exhaling with wide open mouths after they finish racing, for obvious reasons.
It appears that it was nothing to do with food poisoning. Some of the swimmers had high fevers. Probably a virus spread by contact.
We’ve said that all week. Virus. Spreads
Hope he’s fine
Not sure we should ever hold a large sporting event here ever again
it probably wasnt singapore, it was the places they went for training camps before this
Just the one place with a couple of teams
Has nothing to do with Singapore.