2017 FINA WORLD SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Sunday, July 23rd – Sunday, July 30th
- Budapest, Hungary
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James Magnussen, who was a stalwart of Australia’s free relays for over four years, but who is not competing in Budapest, took public issue with the Australian coaches’ relay strategies in an interview with Fox Sports yesterday.
Today, Australian head coach Jacco Verhaeren responded to questions about Magnussen’s statements by challenging the “Missile” to qualify and compete if he wants to influence how relays are composed.
Specifically, Magnussen questioned why Australia hasn’t been leading off the 4×100 free relay with its fastest swimmers, both in Budapest, and last summer in Rio.
Last summer in Rio, the Australians led off with James Robert, whose 48.88 was the slowest leadoff leg in the final and put the Aussies in a hole, although Magnussen, Kyle Chalmers, and Cameron McEvoy were able to battle back for a bronze medal.
With Magnussen and Chalmers both not here, the Australians led off the 4×100 final this past Sunday with young Jack Cartwright, who swam a solid 48.34 that put the Australians in 4th after the first 100m. McEvoy, who apparently Magnussen thinks should have led off, split a 48.04 on the third leg, well off his personal best time, and 0.12s slower than he swam in the individual final this week.
One could argue that Magnussen’s grasping at straws here — Australia was DQ’d anyway after anchor Alexander Graham jumped early. However, there is probably a counterargument to be made that Graham may not felt as much pressure for a quick exchange had Australia been in a better position at that point in the race.
In the interview, Magnussen pointed that the two times Australia has won gold in the men’s 4×100 free a major international meet — the 2000 Olympics and the 2011 World Championships — the fastest swimmer (Michael Klim in 2000 and Magnussen in 2011) was given the lead off leg. He implied that Australia’s current coaching team was refusing to follow this good historical precedent and suggested they were trying to get “too cute” by perhaps matching Australian swimmers against other country’s swimmers.
This is is similar, in some sense, to arguments leveled against US coaches in 2013 and 2014. At the 2013 World Championships, the US led off with Nathan Adrian, presumably to match him against Magnussen. Many fans felt that Adrian, at that point the defending Olympic gold medalist in the 100 free, should have anchored the relay, especially after the relatively inexperienced Jimmy Feigen was passed by France on the final leg and the U.S. had to settle for silver. At the 2014 Pan Pacs, the US put Adrian on the second leg, again where he squared off against Magnussen, and again the US was unable to win gold.
It wasn’t until last summer in Rio, where the US led off with Caeleb Dressel and anchored with Adrian, that the Americans were able to win their first world championship or Olympic gold in the men’s 4×100 free since 2009.
Magnussen is not swimming in Budapest this week after taking a break after Rio and having opted to focus on the 2018 Commonwealth Games. You can read his full interview here (videos for Australian viewers only).
Jacco knows what he is doing. Jacco has had more relays medalgold, silver, bronze and set world records, men’s and women’s for The Netherlands AND Australia than Magnussen knows. Putting your big gun on the end is where its at- “Jason Lezak, USA… etc. Its about character. If Magnussen feels he needs to have a lead, maybe he should major in something important like mixed relays. When it comes down to crunch time you put your big gun last to bring home the gold.
And part II of the saga today was Mag responding to C1’s comments. Popcorn may be needed soon to see how this unfolds.
I ‘d like to say that ian thorpe has lodged a native title claim based on his super tan . He looks very happy so it must be going well .
The sad thing is that over the past 2 years, Magnussen’s lip has been performing at a rate exponentially faster than he has ever shown in the water !
Somehow, Australia didn’t really reload after its incredible generation that included Perkins, Hackett, Kim, Thorpe, Susie O’Neill, Libby Trickett, Petria Thomas, Welsh, Huegill, Jones… They’ve had the guns, for sure, and some great results (Women’s 400 FrR, Campbells, Horton, Chalmers, Larkin, Seebohm…), but the way they haven’t reloaded is to get these swimmers to swim well when it counted and to keep their act together.
They’ve had their issues, like the Stilnox story (and Hackett’s colossal bed-messing in the 2008 1500) and the team conduct issues in 2012. The Campbells, Larkin, Seebohm, and the men’s relays dramatically underperformed in Rio (though I’m super glad Simone Manuel won big). It’s like they can’t bring it at the right time.
Australia… Read more »
yeah there’s definitely talent here but I agree this generation of swimmers really need to race more often in their preparation. It’s frustrating cos these issues seem like they’re more to do with the higher ups in Swimming Australia
A little local perspective here …. and maybe a sobering one. Swimming competitively is now an increasingly expensive undertaking even at age group level from say early teens thus you see a major turnover every year. Thus the reality is that AUS swimming, like a number of other Olympic sports, is now drawing from an ever narrowing talent pool. Rather than being a sport of the people, you are now seeing almost all AUS representative swimmers coming from more affluent/private schools demographics. This trend has been in place for probably the last 15 years or so but now it is becoming even more stark.
AUS has NEVER had the depth and spread of talent across either male or female programs… Read more »
They have got a new set of swimmers… a huge chunk of their team are rookies and first timers. The average age of their team is around 18 years old
James really has his work cut out getting another individual spot on the team with the likes of Chalmers, McEvoy and Cartwright ahead of him now. He needs to focus on himself.
Easy to criticize from the sidelines. Maybe you should have been there to help the team out?
All excuses #TheAussieWay
Caleb Dressel led off the USA’s 4×100 freestyle relay in Rio; Michael Phelps went second (splitting 47.12).