Swimming Australia has announced an official 43 swimmers to their World Championship roster, with 36 of them coming in the pool and 7 of them in the open water.
That roster will be made up of 21 men in the pool and just 15 women, which is perhaps a bit of a flip-flop from expectations given the relative medal success at last year’s Olympics (though, most of those women’s medals came from a small core of swimmers.)
Of the 43 swimmers, 23 hail from the great Queensland swimming state that is home to clubs like Denis Cotterell’s Miami program as well as Southport Olympic, among others.
The home team continues to be well outnumbered in representation despite the presence of the beautiful $100 million complex that hosted this week’s events; South Australia had only a single qualifier for Worlds in Barcelona from 28-year old Sally Foster; that’s more than only the unrepresented Tasmania.
The total ranking by official state of representation:
- Queensland – 23
- New South Wales – 10
- Victoria – 6
- Western Australia – 3
- South Australia – 1
The average age of the men’s team is just 22.4 years old, and the women’s is just 21 years old (just averaging simple, whole-number ages). That’s really not that unusual for a women’s program, but highlights incredible youth in the men’s team. That’s actually a bit older than their Olympic Team was (that squad was 22.0 years old, on average), which is a bit of a surprise in itself, as usually older members of these elite national teams retire after Olympics and make room for the younger swimmers.
But when you continue to compare it to the American roster, it shows just how young it was: the average American male in London was over 26 years old.
Australia also put 19 (12 men and 7 women) on its veteran team for the IPC World Championships. The only new member of the team is 15-year old Rowan Crothers, though the absence of Jacqueline Freney, the star of Paralympic swimming going for 6 golds in 6 races, will be felt.
For full coverage of the meet, including the final day’s recaps, see our Australia and Oceania category page here.
2013 EnergyAustralia Swim Team – 43 Total (36 pool and 7 open water)
FINA World Championships – Barcelona
MEN (21 pool, 3 open water)
Matthew ABOOD (26) NSW, Ashley DELANEY (27) VIC, Tommaso D’ORSOGNA (22) WA, Thomas FRASER-HOLMES (21) QLD, Alexander GRAHAM (18) VIC, Jordan HARRISON (17) QLD, Simon HUITENGA (24) WA, Grant IRVINE (22) QLD, Jarrod KILLEY (22) NSW, Mitch LARKIN (19) QLD, Matson LAWSON (20) VIC, James MAGNUSSEN (22) NSW, Rhys MAINSTONE (22) WA, Cameron MCEVOY (18) QLD, Ned MCKENDRY (20) QLD, David MCKEON (20) NSW, Jarrod POORT (18) NSW, Brenton RICKARD (29) QLD, James ROBERTS (22) QLD, Christian SPRENGER (27) QLD, Matt TARGETT (27) VIC, Kenneth TO (20) NSW, Chris WRIGHT (24) QLD, Daniel TRANTER (21) NSW
WOMEN (total 15 pool, 4 open water)
Jessica ASHWOOD (19) NSW, Bronte BARRATT (24) QLD, Bronte CAMPBELL (18) QLD, Cate CAMPBELL (20) QLD, Alicia COUTTS (25) QLD, Danielle DE FRANCESCO (20) QLD, Brittany ELMSLIE (18) QLD, Sally FOSTER (28) SA, Melissa GORMAN (27) QLD, Chelsea GUEBECKA (14) QLD, Belinda HOCKING (22) VIC, Bonnie MACDONALD (17) QLD, Samantha MARSHALL (20) VIC, Ami MATSUO (16) NSW, Emma MCKEON (18) NSW, Megan NAY (24) QLD, Kylie PALMER (23) QLD, Melanie SCHLANGER (26) QLD, Emily SEEBOHM (20) QLD
*Italics – Qualified as an Open Water Swimmer
2013 IPC World Championship Team – 19 Total (12 men, 7 women)
MEN Tim ANTALFY (26) NSW, Blake COCHRANE (22) QLD, Matthew COWDREY (24) SA, Rowan CROTHERS (15) QLD, Richard ELIASON (25) ACT, Daniel FOX (21) QLD, Matt HAANAPPEL (18) VIC, Brenden HALL (19) QLD, Matthew LEVY (26) NSW, Grant PATTERSON (23) QLD, Rick PENDLETON (28) QLD, Sean RUSSO (22) NSW,
WOMEN Kayla CLARKE (21) QLD, Ellie COLE (21) VIC, Taylor CORRY (18) NSW, Katherine DOWNIE (17) WA, Maddison ELLIOTT (14) NSW, Amanda FOWLER 16) NSW, Tiegan VAN ROOSMALEN (22) NSW,
Key Dates:
EnergyAustralia Swim Team – Barcelona Orientation Camp – AIS Canberra – May 4-9
EnergyAustralia Swim Team – Montreal Orientation Camp – Adelaide – May 4-6
2013 FINA World Championships – Barcelona – July 28 to August 4 – www.bcn2013.com
2013 IPC World Championships – Montreal – Aug 12-18 – www.paralympic.org/Events/Montreal2013
200 free relay team will be awesome. Watch for Alex Graham – just turned 18 and is on way to 1.45!
One would think if Thorpe had have continued training he would have been into the 1 47s .
Instead he wrote some sort of mega depressive bwahmbulance treatise.
FGS Everyone – STF up. To be an elite athlete is a privilege not a burden. ( credit to Shannon Rowlands message on his whiteboard I spotted ).
Who knows what he’s swimming. The book was last year. Did you actually read it? He has clinical depression. It wasn’t like being an elite athlete made him depressed. I don’t think he has ever referred to it being a burden, except maybe dealing with Australian paparazzi. It’s good when people in the public eye speak out about mental illness.
This could be the smallest number of pool swimmers that Australia send to a major championships since 2000.
They normally send over 40 pool swimmers.
Yes but look at the qualifying times they had to swim. It was tough. I think it’s a good thing for Australia and it will pay off in the future for them.
https://assets.imgstg.com/assets/console/document/documents/2013%20FINA%20World%20Champs%20Selection%20Criteria%20-%20Athlete%20-%20FINAL%20200912.pdf
Quality over quantity.
Again, the next Australian generation on freestyle is insane! So many fast young swimmers, so much depth! I’m not impressed by most of the results in the other strokes but on freestyle it’s crazy!
Best example for me of this new fast generation on freestyle with much depth is the men’s 200 free with 9 guys all aged between 17 and 22 who are under 1.48.
In comparison, give me only one American guy aged under 22 who swims today under 1.48. I don’t know him. Jack Conger and Clay Youngquist can do it very soon but they haven’t done it yet. Either the young American freestylers swim too much in yards and are not ready for long course or the young Australian freestylers are physically mature much younger. I don’t know but it’s a mystery.
Could it be they emphasize the 200m more? Maybe this young generation grew up watching Hackett/Thorpe. Maggie appears to be one of the few 50/100 guys taking on the 200 as well. I just get a sense that the 200 is a ‘cooler’ race to swim in Aus. than USA. I can’t imagine Aussies mature faster. Phelps had his first WR younger than Thorpe (though that is just one data point). Also, for this to be true there would have to be a lot of young guys taking on the fly/IM because of Phelps. Or maybe there is a little bit of a lag. The success might intimidate those just 5 or so years younger, but inspire those 10 or… Read more »
The average age of the Australian team tells it all. I believe winds are blowing now for Australians, after the big disappointments in London. Even Muffat and Kromowidjojo are in danger of losing their prime events due to a couple of Australians.
Agree for Ranomi but for Miss Muffat I don’t see. I don’t think she’s worried about Bronte Barratt in the 200 free and in the 400 free. In my opinion she must be much more afraid of the unlimited and unknown potential of Katie Ledecky.
Ledecky will crush the competition in the 400.
To crush, I don’t think, but to win ahead of Miss Muffat, that’s what I have predicted since last year.