In the SwimSwam Podcast dive deeper into the sport you love with insider conversations about swimming. Hosted by Coleman Hodges, Garrett McCaffrey, and Gold Medal Mel Stewart, SwimSwam welcomes both the biggest names in swimming that you already know, and rising stars that you need to get to know, as we break down the past, present, and future of aquatic sports.
We sat down with world champion, Olympic medalist, and now Australian commentator James Magnussen, who was calling the races poolside in Adelaide at the 2021 Australian Olympic Trials. James gives us insight into what he saw from the Aussie team at Trials as well as his biggest USA vs. AUS matchups heading into the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games. Magnussen’s must-see in Tokyo is Ledecky vs. Titmus, where the two distance juggernauts will go head-to-head in 3 events: 200, 400, and 800 free. We also touch on sprinting aces Caeleb Dressel and Kyle Chalmers going at it in the 100 free and current world record-holder Kaylee McKeown racing former fastest-ever in the 100 back, Regan Smith.
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Music: Otis McDonald
www.otismacmusic.com
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Opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the interviewed guests do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints of the hosts, SwimSwam Partners, LLC and/or SwimSwam advertising partners.
Aust women trialled faster times in 9 events , The US in 7 & the Medley relay composite times are even . 7 events & 3 relay composites were World number 1. For the US it was 3 World leading times plus the composite medley time.
So Aust has a much more compact team of 18 than US 26 but stronger gold chances . Yes its theoretical but that’s it as of June 26 2021.
Someone else can do the guys .
I think Australia often goes in with stronger medal chances but rarely do we capitalise on them all. Having such a smaller population and such a smaller team puts more pressure on fewer athletes and requires some to swim 10+ races which I think hinders is performing at our best. If the Aussie women could win 9 gold that would be our best Olympics ever even if the men win nothing. It just seems too good to be true, so I think it won’t be.
Msgnussen has certainly grown up since the latter part of his swimming career where he DID sometimes have something worthwhile to say but was mainly playing media rent-a-quote/sniper.
Very little to argue with his assessments which look very reality based and I see little to quibble with.
McKeown batting 2/3, possibly 3/3. No AUS swimmer has won multiple individual golds at one Games since Rice in 2008 and before then Munich but its most certainly viable.
Fully agree with his assessments of M4X200 overall race, W4X100, AUS prospects in M4X100
Maybe a bit more optimistic on W4XMED than I am but not blindly so.
Can agree with him re Chalmers ditching 200 but whilst I can see the merits… Read more »
> No AUS swimmer has won multiple individual golds at one Games since Rice in 2008 and before then Munich.
Not sure if I misunderstood – but Thorpe won two individual golds in 2004.
You are right, I knew he definitely repeated in the 400 but wasn’t sure of the 200. Certainly remember VDHB upsetting things in Sydney and wasn’t sure about 200 in Athens. I probably crossed wires with the 4×200 who got rolled in Athens. Me bad.
The only reason you or anyone would have Ledecky as favourite over Titmus in the 400 is because the swimmer is Ledecky!!!!
If it was any other swimmer, Titmus would be favourite. In their recent respective trials, Titmus swam 5 seconds faster. Titmus is still on an up & her time was 2nd fastest in history & only Ledecky 5 years ago swam a touch faster.
Titmus beat Ledecky in their most recent 400 duel in the 2019 WC.
Saying that I also agree Ledecky is Ledecky & deserves the respect to have favouritism.
No one deserves the respect of being named the favorite. But there are a lot of people who honestly think Ledecky will win. I expect Ledecky will do much better in the Olympics than she did in the Trials. Do you expect the same for Titmus?
Bottom line analysis–Adelaide pool for AUS Trials was short/fast; Omaha pool for US Trials was long/slow. The swimmers of the respective countries know it. We’ll see what happens in Tokyo. Good luck to all.
Do you still think the earth is flat?
So many duels I’m looking forward to in Tokyo between these two countries. Being from the US, I have to root for my home country but I’ve always really respected how impressive Australia’s swim program is given their population size compared to the US.
Why are you getting so many downvotes for a reasonable, inoffensive comment? Is it just completely unacceptable not to be 100% nationalist all the time?
Yeah, there have been a number of (what I thought were) pretty benign comments getting a lot of downvotes on this thread. (Cue my comment getting a lot of downvotes?)
One thing I’ve loved about reading swimswam is getting to know swimmers around the world, which allowed me to cheer for swimmers as individuals as much as cheering for countries. (Oh, maybe *now* cue my comment getting a lot of downvotes.)
Exactly, it’s amazing that a swimmer like Ledecky & she has a poor swim at US trails in 800 metres, 10 seconds slower then WR, but the only person to better that trials time is a swimmer retired 9 years ago & Ledecky herself about over 20 times.
Milat smashing Phelps 200 fly WR, never seen anything like that swim.
Scott’s last 50 at the WC 2019 in the 4x 100 med.
I am bias & want Aussies to win but can also admire other great swimmers from other countries.
Pretty much the same, albeit probably less nation based. Whilst I do like to see AUS or RSA do well; I won’t look through such coloured lenses. If the performance was substandard, call it as such and likewise if someone makes a horse’s rear end of themselves.
I have zero issue seeing a class act from ANY country win irrespective if they beat an Aussie …. and that has certainly included Americans.
True – personally I was very excited by Natalie Coughlin… to me she is one of the greatest swimmers ever. Not just for her exploits in the backstrokes, but for her consistency in free, fly, and IMs. It shouldn’t be difficult to cheer for individuals, and still support your home country.
I’d like to just cut to the chase on comments by saying Aussie’s suck. Discuss.
ok
I’m hurt!!!!
Two common themes among a large number of comments on this site are “who cares about times, all Americans are better than everyone else always forever period” and “who cares about Australia, we know they will crumble on the day”. It’s kind of sad really.
boring. at least make it funny/interesting like smith-king-huske-manuel or mike in dallas
Is Ol’ Longhorn just “all hat, no cattle” ?
Like Maggie said aus had to taper 2 times before the olympics , let’s hope that their recent performances will show up in tokyo with trials’pushed near the OG
Love the podcasts, and can never get enough James Magnussen. Very well spoken, and fun to nerd out on the races and strategy. Will also be interesting to see how Australia handles the double taper, since it is so new to them. Any perspective on how the games and competitiveness will change with the introduction of ISL and swimmers getting to know each other, including being teammates and relay partners?
Australia had trials at the same distance from Worlds 2019 and it seemed to work well.
But Maggie, what did Susie McKeon say when you suggested Emma drop the 200 individually?