Top Australian Swimmers to Clash With International All-Stars In One Night Duel

The Sydney Morning Herald announced today that Swimming Australia will be hosting a single night competition featuring top Australian swimmers racing against top athletes from all over the World in Australia vs The World meet.

The competition will take place on December 12th, at the Brisbane Valley Pool. Numerous top Australian athletes have already been confirmed to compete for Team Australia including Mollie O’Callaghan, Cameron McEvoy, and Kaylee McKeown.

The Dolphins will race a combined team of athletes from across the globe that features World Record holders Thomas Ceccon and Lukas Märtens.

The invitations to the meet were sent to other countries, like the United States, but the federations were not able to send swimmers due to scheduling conflicts. In the United States, the U.S. Open is running from December 3rd-6th while the Winter Junior Championships are a direct conflict, swimming from December 10th-13th.

Many athletes will also have the European Short Course Championships from December 2nd-7th in Poland.

We do not have a full meet format yet, but the event will reportedly feature skins races in 50s of strokes, as well as a 25 meter freestyle and a 400 meter freestyle (which will feature Sam Short and World Record holder Lukas Martens). It will also have mixed relays, and “mystery medley” races.

The Australian team will be led by coaches Rohan Taylor, Dean Boxall, Damien Jones, Mel Marshall, and Craig Jackson.

Taylor told the Sydney Morning Herald “We just wanted to try to get the best athletes we could get into Australia to race our guys and in a unique competition that wasn’t your traditional thing. It’s more about showcasing racing.”

The meet will be shown prime-time on Australian Channel Nine. Taylor said, “It’s an opportunity to just show our sport in a different light and have some of the best athletes in the world go head-to-head.”

Full list of confirmed swimmers:

Australia:

• Henry Allen
• Ben Armbruster
• Josh Edwards-Smith
• Hannah Fredericks
• Meg Harris
• Sienna Harben
• Jamie Jack
• Shayna Jack
• Tara Kinder
• Cameron McEvoy
• Kaylee McKeown
• Mollie O’Callaghan
• Lani Pallister
• Alex Perkins
• Jamie Perkins
• Will Petric
• Lilly Price
• Ella Ramsay
• David Schlicht
• Sam Short
• Flynn Southam
• Matt Temple
• Sienna Toohey
• Nash Wilkes
• Elijah Winnington
• Olivia Wunsch

The World:

• Thomas Ceccon (ITA)
• Lewis Clareburt (NZL)
• Caspar Corbeau (NED)
• Angharad Evans (GBR)
• Florine Gaspard (BEL)
• Isabel Gose (GER)
• Oliver Klemet (GER)
• Angelina Kohler (GER)
• Lukas Martens (GER)
• Rebecca Meder (RSA)
• Alberto Razzeti (ITA)
• Duncan Scott (GBR)
• Marrit Steenbergen (NED)
• Roos Vanotterdijk (BEL)
• Milou Van Wijk (NED)
• Abbie Wood (GBR)

More athletes will reportedly be announced in the coming days.