2021 SWIMMING AUSTRALIA OLYMPIC TRIALS
- Saturday, June 12th – Thursday, June 17th
- South Australia Aquatic & Leisure Centre
- Sole Olympic-Qualifying Opportunity
- 2021 Swimming Australia Olympic Nomination Criteria
- Meet Site
- Final Start List
The 2021 Swimming Australia Olympic Trials kick off this Saturday, June 12th at South Australia Aquatic & Leisure Centre with most of the nation’s top swimmers set to compete. We already detailed how young gun Flynn Southam would be opting out, but now an Olympic medalist from the 2016 Olympic Games has also withdrawn.
Maddie Groves, the silver medalist in the women’s 200m fly in Rio behind champion Mireia Belmonte of Spain, has announced she will no longer be competing at the Trials. With this being the sole Olympic qualifying opportunity, the 26-year-old will not be representing Australia in any event in Tokyo next month.
Per her Instagram post today, Groves stated, “I’ve made the decision to not compete at Olympic Trials in Adelaide.
“I’m so grateful to feel so supported in this decision. I feel very relieved and I’m looking forward to racing at some other competitions later in the year (yeah sorry/not sorry, you haven’t got rid of me just yet!)
“I’m so excited to watch everyone at trials (streaming on Amazon y’all) and to see who will be representing Australia in Tokyo – whatever happens I genuinely think this will be one of the fastest Australian Swim Teams ever and I encourage everyone to get on the bandwagon early.
Best of luck to everyone competing at Olympic Trials but most of all to my beautiful team.”
Groves had originally entered the Trials in the women’s 100m fly and 50m free, so repeating or improving upon her silver from Rio wasn’t on the table to begin with.
The Moreton Bay swimmer has endured some health challenges over the past few years, which came to a head in April of 2020.
As we reported, the fly ace underwent surgery to address her condition of adenomyosis, which WebMD describes as one in which the inner lining of the uterus (the endometrium) breaks through the muscle wall of the uterus (the myometrium). She also suffers from endometriosis, in which tissue similar to the tissue that normally lines the inside of your uterus — the endometrium — grows outside your uterus. (Mayo Clinic).
The Australian team will look to the likes of Elizabeth Dekkers to potentially take over the 200m fly reigns, with the 17-year-old seeded #2 behind 2016 Rio finalist Brianna Throssell for this weekend’s meet.
Let this be a lesson to all misogynistic perverts in sport and their boot lickers—You can no longer exploit young women and girls, body shame or medically gaslight them and then expect them to represent you so you can earn your annual bonus. Time’s UP.
From her Instagram.
Holy mixed metaphors, Batman!
In a subsequent social media post, Maddie Groves claims that her withdrawal is a lesson to “misogynistic perverts” (see e.g. here).
I feel there’s clearly way more to this story…
From what I’m reading based on her IG stories she’s upset that her funding got cut off while she’s undergoing treatment for her illness/condition .. and then that person/and their partner DMing her about being “brave” for pulling out of Trials .. not sure social media is the right place for all these if all we’re getting is cryptic messages
Has the under belly of Australian swimming risen to the surface again?
Check out News.com.au…..
Wow…..
What’s this drama I’m reading on news.com.au about maddie making bold statements let that be a lesson to “perverts”
Wow……
groves said that a bit cryptically when she made this announcement, so there’s more to this story than what swimswam reported on (but probably smart they didn’t report on that because it’s a bit open to speculation until she elaborates further)
Well I’m hoping this doesn’t derail the Aussie swim team for Tokyo .. just the timing of the cryptic message leaves a lot to be desired … tbh
Swimming Australia’s website is not great. Navigate here for live results: http://liveresults.swimming.org.au/SAL/2021TRIALS/
If she had remained healthy and focused on the 200BF she would have been a gold medal contender. She also would have given Australia more options in the 4X200FS. At the 2018 Pan Pacs she held off Katie Ledecky in a thriller even though she had just come back from injury and wasn’t at her best.
Sounds like there is a lot more to the reasoning behind her decision than has been explained in this story here.
Given the progress of Dekkers it is far from given she would have made the team, even at her best.
Her best is 2.04.88. Are you seriously suggesting it will not be good enough to make the team? It might even be good enough for gold in Tokyo.
Groves best was swum at the last Olympics. There have been very few appearances in between and it is highly unlikely that she would make the team if you grade her last appearance in the pool.
they said she isnt fast enough even at her best, which simply isnt true because peak groves is faster than any time swum post rio, and her nationals times from 2015/16 would be world leading right now. but the reality is that she hasnt done a good 200 fly since, sat out of 2017/19 worlds and her last good swim was her 4×200 anchor at pan pacs. she’s regressed in the 200 fly and the landscape of aus w200 free has changed significantly since pan pacs, leaving groves behind
I didn’t say she wouldn’t, I said far from given.
I wouldn’t be shocked to see either Throssel, Dekkers or both near that time.