Recently, it was announced that Australian Olympic gold medalists Ariarne Titmus, Ian Thorpe, and Giaan Rooney would be joining the Channel 9 broadcasting team to “provide expert insight” at the 2022 Short Course World Championships on the pool deck. The meet set to take place from December 13 to 18, 2022 in Melbourne, Australia.
While Rooney has an established career in sports commentary and Thrope has called races before, Titmus’s appearance on Channel Nine will mark her first-ever experience in the world of sports broadcasting.
“I’m thrilled to be joining Nine’s Wide World of Sports for the short-course World Championships in Melbourne. I’m excited to experience racing from a new perspective and challenge myself in a new role on pool deck,” Titmus said of joining Channel Nine. “Thorpey has always been a hero of mine and Giaan is one of the best swimming broadcasters anywhere in the world, so to be alongside them is something I’m really looking forward to, and it’s a fresh challenge for me.”
“Channel 9 has an absolutely outstanding history in broadcasting swimming, and considering their audience probably watched me winning World Championships, or breaking world records, it’s going to be great to share my knowledge now with viewers,” Thorpe said. “I’m particularly excited to be working alongside Giaan, who I grew up with, and it’s also fantastic to see Ariarne, another Olympic champion, come on board to give her understanding of the sport. I love discussing the intricacies of swimming and sharing those insights, which hopefully educates more people about our sport.”
Titmus is also the only swimmer out of the aforementioned trio that is still actively competing. She, however, did not race at the 2022 Australian Short Course Swimming championships this summer, which was the qualification meet for short course worlds. Her last competition was the 2022 Commonwealth Games, where she won gold medals in the 200, 400, and 800 free, and helped Australia break the world record in the 4×200 free relay. Earlier this year, she also broke Katie Ledecky’s world record in the 400 free at the 2022 Australian Trials, swimming a 3:56.40.
However, Titmus will be racing in the next few coming weeks, being entered in the 50/100/200/400/800/1500 free at the 2022 Queensland Championships taking place from December 10 to 16, 2022.
Titmus, Thorpe, and Rooney will be alongside Wide World Of Sports Commentator Mat Thompson, who will call the races live, and sports broadcaster Tony Jones, who will host Chanel Nine’s coverage of Short Course Worlds from his hometown.
Titmus should be in the pool swimming in front of hometown people not commentating. Still have been given no clear reason why . Rooney is useless she forgets stuff .
Are you her parents? If not, really not your call and the reason is not your business.
On a side note: a bunch of entries have been posted on the FINA website but a few events are still missing and some events are missing countries that I know are entering swimmers.
Peaty is entered in the 200 which is a surprise.
Kaylee is in the 200IM despite skipping the final at trials.
They weren’t required to swim finals at trials to be selected. The criteria was fastest time from heats or final.
Oh I didn’t realise that. Is that true for all Australian trials or was that just for these ones?
Peaty is gonna scratch the 200 probably
Depends who turns up. It will be a weak field and he can do a decent 200 SCM.
Official entries up at Omegatiming:
https://www.omegatiming.com/File/0001170003FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF20.pdf
Giaan is a terrible race caller- I hope she is just doing interviews.
She’s certainly better as an interviewer. If she’s alongside someone who is actually calling what is happening in the pool, then she can actually be OK. Unfortunately for much of the past decade, she was put alongside an ignorant fantasist called Basil and went along with it.
Titmus must be gonna miss the first couple of days or maybe she’ll scratch the 1500 and just miss the first day.
Giaan is a terrible race caller- I hope she is just doing interviews.
I assume the people downvoting you didn’t read the article and misunderstood you were talking about a different meet.
I’m kind of disappointed that she’s doing the QLD championships when she could win four golds in Melbourne.
It’s lame. How many chances to swim an international meet on home soil in a career?
It’s Shortcourse. AUS doesn’t care about Shortcourse.
I think Arianne will be great at this – have heard podcasts with her and she is very articulate. QLDers don’t give a shit about scm lol