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Disclaimer: Swim of the Week is not meant to be a conclusive selection of the best overall swim of the week, but rather one Featured Swim to be explored in deeper detail. The Swim of the Week is an opportunity to take a closer look at the context of one of the many fast swims this week, perhaps a swim that slipped through the cracks as others grabbed the headlines, or a race we didn’t get to examine as closely in the flood of weekly meets.
Nineteen-year-old Australian Semra Olowoniyi had a breakout performance at last week’s U.S. Summer Championships in Irvine, winning the women’s 50 backstroke and setting a new Victorian Record in the process.
Olowoniyi came into the meet with a lifetime best of 28.29, set at the Australian Swimming Trials in June, where she placed 4th and earned her ticket to race stateside with some of America’s best, her first time competing outside of Australia.
After blasting a time of 27.99 in the 50 back prelims, dropping three-tenths from her PB and qualifying 1st into the final, Olowoniyi dropped down to 27.93 in the evening session to book the victory and chip six more one-hundredths off her lifetime best.
The swim also established a new Victorian Swimming Record, breaking the 13-year-old mark of 27.98 set by Sophie Edington in 2012.
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She now ranks 12th all-time in Austalian history in the women’s 50 back.
All-Time Australian Performers, Women’s 50 Backstroke (LCM)
- Kaylee McKeown, 26.86 – 2023
- Mollie O’Callaghan, 27.16 – 2024
- Jessica Wilson, 27.21 – 2024
- Emily Seebohm, 27.37 – 2017
- Iona Anderson, 27.45 – 2024
- Minna Atherton, 27.49 – 2016
- Sophie Edington, 27.51 – 2009
- Holly Barratt, 27.51 – 2017
- Bronte Job, 27.62 – 2022
- Madison Wilson, 27.83 – 2015
- Ainsley Trotter, 27.88 – 2025
- Semra Olowoniyi, 27.93 – 2012
Olowoniyi, who competes for the Nunawading Swimming Club in Melbourne, also produced the three fastest 100 back swims of her career at the U.S. Summer Championships, clocking 1:00.50 in the prelims, 1:00.70 in the final to place 4th, and then leading off Australia’s ‘B’ medley relay in 1:00.61. She came into the meet with a best time of 1:00.85, set at the Australian Trials in June.
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