In the wake of the 2022 Australia Short Course Swimming Championships, Swimming Australia has released its roster for the 2022 World Short Course Swimming Championships. Australia will send 36 swimmers to the meet, which is occurring on home soil in Melbourne from December 13 – 18, 2022.
The majority of Australia’s heavy hitters will be in on the action at Short Course Worlds later this year including Olympic gold medalists Emma McKeon, Kaylee McKeown, and Kyle Chalmers.
Of this team, Swimming Australia CEO Eugénie Buckley offered the following comments:
You only have to look at the reception our Dolphins received in Sydney last week, and the subsequent boost that passion and engagement from the fans gave them, to know how special it is to compete here in Australia,” Buckley said.
“These opportunities are few and far between in an athlete’s career and we are delighted to see this group, via their performances, take that chance with both hands. I have no doubt they will represent themselves, and our country, with pride.”
“This is a world class team set to face some of international swimming’s premier short course athletes right here in our own backyard, and I can’t think of a better way for our swimming family, and sporting fans more broadly, to finish the year than to be pool side in Melbourne cheering our Dolphins on.”
The 2022 edition will be a return for Swimming Australia to this meet after the nation opted out in 2021. While the federation didn’t send an official contingent to the meet, Holly Barratt entered and raced for the country in Abu Dhabi. In 2018, the last time Australia sent a team to Short Course Worlds, they finished 7th overall on the medal table with 2 gold, 2 silver, and 8 bronze medals.
It will be interesting to see how Australia fares in 2022 considering that the four years since 2018 has featured the rise of many of its current stars. Emma McKeon, Kaylee McKeown, Brendon Smith, Meg Harris, Mollie O’Callaghan, Se-Bom Lee, and Leah Neale are some of those swimmers who have risen in the international ranks over that time period and will be looking to disrupt the Short Course World scene.
Other Australian stars who will be in on the action include 2018 medalist Minna Atherton, 2016 Olympic gold medalist Kyle Chalmers, and 2016 gold medalist Mack Horton.
This team will also introduce 9 new swimmers to Australia’s senior international roster in Brittany Castelluzzo, Shaun Champion, Alexander Grant, Kayla Hardy, Ty Hartwell, Emilie Muir, Jamie Perkins, Mikayla Smith, and Stuart Swinburn.
Australian Roster – 2022 World Short Course Swimming Championships
| Athlete | Club |
| Minna Atherton | Bond |
| Grayson Bell | Somerset |
| Brittany Castelluzzo* | Tea Tree Gully |
| Kyle Chalmers | Marion |
| Shaun Champion* | Abbotsleigh |
| Isaac Cooper | Bundaberg |
| Lizzy Dekker | Newmarket Racers |
| Alexander Grant* | Miami |
| Kayla Hardy* | Cruiz |
| Meg Harris | Marion |
| Ty Hartwell* | Chandler |
| Chelsea Hodges | Southport |
| Mack Horton | Griffith University |
| Se-Bom Lee | Carlile |
| Clyde Lewis | Griffith University |
| Emma McKeon | Griffith University |
| Kaylee McKeown | Griffith University |
| Emilie Muir* | Griffith University |
| Leah Neale | Chandler |
| Tommy Neill | Rackley Centenary |
| Mollie O’Callaghan | St Peters Western |
| Lani Pallister | Griffith University |
| Alex Perkins | USC Spartans |
| Jamie Perkins* | St Peters Western |
| David Schlicht | MLC Aquatic |
| Brendon Smith | Griffith University |
| Mikayla Smith* | Miami |
| Flynn Southam | Bond |
| Jenna Strauch | Miami |
| Stuart Swinburn* | City of Sydney |
| Laura Taylor | Bond |
| Matt Temple | Marion |
| Sam Williamson | Melbourne Vicentre |
| Madi Wilson | Marion |
| Brad Woodward | Mingara |
| Josh Yong | USC Spartans |
* Australian Dolphins Rookie
Notably, the majority of Australia’s individual medalists from the 2018 meet, including Alexander Graham, Mitch Larkin, Thomas Fraser-Holmes, Ariarne Titmus, Holly Barratt, Emily Seebohm, and Jessica Hansen won’t be back to race four years later.
One of the biggest names who is absent from the roster is double Olympic champion Ariarne Titmus who opted out of the qualifying meet. Titmus was also absent from the 2022 World Championships in Budapest. She made her sole high-level appearance at the Commonwealth Games where she won gold in the 200, 400, and 800 freestyle, as well as the 4×200 freestyle in world record-breaking time.
Other Olympic medalists who won’t race include Cate and Bronte Campbell, Jack McLoughlin, who recently announced his retirement from the sport, 200 breaststroke gold medalist Zac Stubblety-Cook, Alexander Graham, Emily Seebohm, and Tamsin Cook.
One other interesting omission is Cody Simpson who recently made his senior international debut at the Commonwealth Games. He followed that up with a victory at the 2022 Australia Short Course Swimming Championships in the 100 IM (American Grant House was the fastest but Simpson was the top Australian) with a 52.67. That time was under the “A” cut for the meet of 52.98 but Simpson won’t race for the Dolphins in Melbourne.
Weird that Cody wasn’t chosen when he was first in 100IM and second in 100Fly and both under A cut…
He was third in 100 fly behind Temple and Champion and 100 IM isn’t a selection event. That said his trajectory in free and fly is so good that I wouldn’t bet against him making worlds next year in something.
Ah I accidentally looked at the prelims results where Cody beat Champion
It will be fascinating how swimmers prepare for this, how long of a break, how much training, and if and how fully they taper. Considering the next major meet is national champs several months later, I don’t really see much of a problem with going pretty deep for this meet. Some swimmers might be thinking longer ahead for WC’s and Paris prep and this may interrupt it, so they may forgo specific prep.
Titmus has been doing the same thing she said she needed last year at this time…a long break from swimming. I checked her Instagram account the other day. She stayed in Europe for a full month after the Commonwealth Games swimming ended, traveling around with her best friend. Lengthy stay in Paris. She just got back to Australia in the past day or two.
It seems her plan for longevity in the sport is to have plenty of breaks.
Nice and early, time to speculate on relays.
Men first:
4×50/100/200FR
I’ll put them together because they will all rely on Chalmers and whoever is best to support him, Southam should also feature prominently.
4×50/100MR
Woodward/Williamson/Temple/Chalmers, easy. Cooper/Bell maybe for the 50. Champion should be in a lot of heats.
Women:
4×50/100FR
Wilson/Harris/MOC/McKeon, enough said.
4x200FR
Trickier, Wilson/Neale/Pallister/MOC perhaps, really depends if Emma is bothered, her SC 200 free should still be great.
4×50/100MR
Now this is going to be quite dependent on results at the meet, for the 50 back it is tight between McKeown and MOC, Hodges might do both, McKeon has fly on lock, no offence to… Read more »
MOC will swim 50 back as well – her prelims time was faster than Atherton in the final. It will be very strange to not see her swim free individually.
Yes, at the time I really didn’t think much about why key swimmers were pulling out of events. Then I saw the A cut criteria, that made sense, and those two are a long way ahead of Atherton right now.
Chalmers might be preferred over Temple in the mixed 4×50 MR if his fly is on like it was in the World Cups last year.
Probably yeah, I completely overlooked his fly.
Would be interesting to see how the relays stack up for the Aussies .. being host nation I guess they have to put the best team forward possible
W4X100 has MOC, McKeon, Harris & Wilson which is close to the peak quartet
W4X200 isn’t quite as strong with Titmus & Melverton missing from the Birmingham WR quartet but MOC, Wilson, Pallister & Neale (Harris & McKeon could be co-opted) should at least be podium at minimum
W4XMED looks near to peak line-up with McKeown, Strauch/Hodges, McKeon & MOC
M4X100 looks a bit iffy. Chalmers and Southam look strong legs but otherwise hoping Lewis & Temple hold up
M4X200 looks weaker. Neill, Southam, Horton but looks like find a volunteer out of Chalmers/Lewis/Smith
Oddly SC may disguise the weakness of MXMED to some degree
Women’s relays should, almost certainly, all medal and will most… Read more »
This aligns pretty closely with my thoughts, just a few things to mention.
There are 4×50 relays of all sorts, and mixed relays are only 4×50, though I think the 50 and 100 relay lineups will be very similar.
You forgot just how good of a SCM 200 swimmer Chalmers is, he dropped a 1:40.98, just off his PB. He is vital to success for all men’s freestyle relays, and should be in all of them along with 3 individuals where is is a medal chance for all 3. In fact his potential meet is huge, he could be the swimmer of the meet.
W4x100FR – WR watch
W4x50FR – Same lineup as 4x100FR
W4x200FR – McKeon might be preferred in short course
W4x100MD – MOC could even end up on back if she’s in better form than Kaylee and Wilson on free
W4x50MD – Same lineup as the 4x100MD
M4x100FR – There’s also Yang.
M4x50FR – We’ll probably get wrecked in this but probably Chalmers/Yang/Bell/Southam or Temple
M4X200FR – Chalmers won the 200 at trials so there’s no way he skips the relay. Seems he was only retiring from the 200 in long course.
M4x100MD – Agree.
M4x50MD – Same lineup as the 4x100MD
Mixed 4x50FR – Chalmers/Bell/McKeon/Harris should be a medal contender
Mixed… Read more »
Josh Yong is a breaststroker, don’t see William Yang listed.
W4X100 WR very plausible, issue may be some lack of SC experience
Agree with W4X50 & McKeon a likely co-opt for 4X200 given lack of SC experience for some
Not so sure of MOC co-opted for back on 4XMED, maybe 4X50MED, Atherton maybe in mix
Concur re prospects of M4X50 and that was my surmisal of Chalmers 200 situation
Don’t rate Bell at all but agree he looks most likely for MXD 4X50FR
Agree with your list of suspects for MXD 4X50
Mixed relays are always lotteries … and selection foul-ups. Both should be around the medals but much will depend on how seriously… Read more »
Boxall might chuck MOC in the SC pool for a week to get her up to speed. Sadly there is no substitute to ISL/World Cup expertise.
I hadn’t even realised they didn’t select Yang. Bit of a slap in the face for him ruins the relay if Lewis doesn’t regain form.
I don’t really know any more details about Lewis’ current situation but if I remember right an injury of some sort was why he moved from IMs to free.
I’m quite surprised Jack cartwright didn’t come back for short course after going home early for world champs ..
Cartwright is still in Europe.
Don’t forget about Cooper’s inclusion and his value in a 50 or even 100 relay. The guy is a beast in 3 strokes and the shorter the race the stronger he is and he will certainly be wanting to make a statement after his last national team selection and return to base camp debacle.
Will no doubt get the backstroke leg for MXD 4X50. Was dying 1000 deaths coming home in LC 100s this year; perhaps SC may mitigate this somewhat. Looks between he and Woodward for MX100MED.
To reply to Troyy re Lewis; knew that history but did notice he won the 200IM at SC hence the question.
not sure they’ll use Emma/Meg on the 4×200 neither of them seem to really be swimming the 200 much lately and in a similar way I had thought Madi would swim the backstroke leg in the medley heats at worlds but they didn’t, also they selected Jamie Perkins too
Pallister will surely get the swim over Perkins. Perkins will swim the 800.
Harris DID swim 200 at this year’s Trials (1.56high) so possibly more the situation that the opening(s) for individual swims has come at the shorter end of her repetoire (50) rather than ditching the 200. That call may, indeed, be made at some point but will probably watch which events she swims during next AUS LC season and Trials.
May be the case with McKeon; given the 200 times Titmus and now MOC have laid down, her only potential motivation for keeping the 200 in her program to any degree would be relay related. Having said that, 200 SC is a somewhat different beast to LC and she could still be a contingency resource for this relay at this meet.
MOC beat Atherton comfortably at trials in the 100. That said, McKeown beat MOC easily!
The interesting thing will be that MOC is only swimming backstroke in individual events, not freestyle!
At LCM Nationals, yes. I wouldn’t say that McKeown beat MOC easily at SCM Nationals though.
50 back prelims:
McKeown 26.32
MOC 26.52
100 back:
McKeown 55.81
MOC 56.02
It will be very interesting to watch how a few months changes things, and MOC being in a tight set of events means she can really show her backstroke without hesitation.
I just had a look at the schedule from last year (no schedule is out for this year yet) and there’s only one event between the men’s 200 IM and the men’s 4×100 so that probably rules out using Lewis in the 4×100.
But it is possible the schedule will change because they’re adding the 1500 for women and 800 for men.
That leaves the next best options as Cooper and Neill. Both have similar 100 free PBs.
Poor Chalmers, the level of carrying he will need to perform is nearly unheard of.
Australia had actually not selected the swimmers for a M4x1000. Chalmers, Temple, Southam and ? Yang (46:87) and Simpson (47.07) were the next two fastest at trials and they are not on the team.
Next fastest at trials and in the team:
Lewis (48.05), Champion (48.48) or Cooper (48:98).
Like all other relays, they’ll select from whomever is on the team. Some “select themselves”; for others it may be a case of “least worst” or “pray and hope” when it comes to team rookies and/or areas where they’re short on high-end talent/experience.
How is the US selecting their SC worlds roster this year?
Last year USAS announced their selection criteria on the 16th of September exactly 3 months before SC Worlds. (16th December).
This year SC Worlds start on the 13th of December, so hopefully we will get the criteria in 10 days on the 13th of September.
A sign up sheet.
Think of the most bizarre and inane selection criteria you can, sprinkle on a little red, white, and blue then you’re all set.
No Shayna Jack on this roster.
Didn’t even attend the trials meet.
Maybe Kyle will swim 100 IM to “spite” Cody lol