It was a week of the almost fairytale at this year’s Australian Swimming Championship, which doubled as the selection trials for the 2012 London Olympics.
The return of some of Australia’s greatest names from the pool in recent history, in a bid to qualify for this year’s Olympic Games, provided a sense of intrigue. It got the general public watching, who for the most part would have been disinterested in these trials.
Libby Trickett was the lone ranger in the comeback stakes. She was the only big-name female returning to the pool after a self-imposed hiatus. Her aim was just to be a part of the relay team, which has claimed a gold and bronze medal at the previous two Olympic Games.
Normally selecting the first six place-getters from the 100-metres freestyle final to qualify for the final is a difficult task. With less than one second separating first and eighth Trickett stole fifth position, claiming her hard-earned spot for the London trip.
Then there were the almost-fairytales of our male swimmers.
Household names such as Ian Thorpe, Michael Klim and Geoff Huegill, the older brigade from a once-fruitful era in Australian swimming, fell short of qualifying for this year’s London Olympics.
Huegill has already tasted success in his comeback at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, claiming gold in his pet 100m butterfly event. But the allure of reaching the pinnacle of another Olympic games was ever enticing, and yet seemingly just out of reach.
Huegill’s greatest rival in previous years Michael Klim, at 34, was also throwing his hat in the ring for one last shot at the big time.
Having tasted victory, as part of relay swims at previous Olympic games, the goal for Klim was undoubtedly to have a last crack at an individual event, of which all swimmers aim for to achieve their ultimate goal.
With the enormous leap forward in depth since the 2008 Beijing games of the Australian men’s team, it was always going to be a mighty task for this once-dominating athlete to achieve his goal.
The fairytale ended for Klim this week, with the husband and father of three announcing his immediate retirement from a sport which has given him so much. In return he has given back bucket-loads.
Australia’s greatest ever swimmer, and winner of the most gold medals by an Australian athlete at the Olympics, Ian “Thorpedo” Thorpe was the main attraction of this fanfare. It was a big moment for Thorpe, given the “will he, won’t he” questions being run by the media since his return to the pool less than two years earlier.
Thorpe transformed the face of swimming 12 years ago, to a sport where if you wanted to be the best a world record swim was required on each occasion.
The Thorpedo was simply the best. Continually we saw him breaking consecutive world records – usually his own – to dominate fields in his most favoured 400 metres freestyle.
He owned that event, eclipsing a Kieren Perkins world record that many believed to be one of the greatest world records of that time. In turn, he changed the expectation of the swimming community that if you wanted to be the best, a personal best was no longer good enough. Unless, of course, you were already the world record holder.
As history will show, Thorpe failed in his comeback bid to be selected for this year’s Olympic Games in London. He was beaten by a high calibre of swimmers. The depth across the board we have never seen before, especially in the men’s team.
These swimmers were no doubt inspired by the likes of Thorpe, Hackett and Klim during the golden era for Australian swimming.
Although Thorpe has said he will continue on in his comeback to swimming, in the eyes of many his comeback has been deemed a failure.
Likewise, Thorpe himself has said it was “the fairytale that just became a nightmare”.
But in his bid to continue perhaps Thorpe himself will be inspired by a new crop of swimmers to push himself to new heights, in his quest to reach the dizzying heights of success in a sport where he has already reached the pinnacle so many times before.
Whatever the future holds for Thorpe in his comeback to competitive swimming, the Australian swimming landscape is enriched by the inclusion of this champion athlete into its world.
The results of this weeks trials show the swimming world one thing. Look out London.
If names of the ilk of Thorpe, Huegill and Klim can no longer mix it with the best in our country, having been former champions in their own right, then the rest of the world should watch out.
With our bright new stars eclipsing the glow of our past champions, it appears Australia’s swimming stocks are well equipped to tackle the rest of the world.
But our current bumper crop have the likes of Thorpe, Klim, Huegill and Trickett to thank, for paving the way and giving belief to an already proud swimming nation. They proved that we can still challenge, and win, on the world stage.
It’s a pretty good time to be a Tasmanian sports fan right now. After years in the sporting wilderness with not much to celebrate,…
World record-breaking Australian swimmers Mollie O'Callaghan and Kaylee McKeown have headlined the honours as their sport dominated the AIS Performance Awards. Swimming won six…
Kaylee McKeown has completed an extraordinary weekend in Budapest with a third race win and the title of overall women's World Cup champion bringing…
I have always enjoyed watching running and swimming global championships as my two favourite racing sports covering sprint to long distances without the aid…
Australia's Ariarne Titmus has reclaimed the women's 400 metres freestyle world record with a stunning victory at the world championships in Japan. Titmus emphatically…
The jam-packed month-by-month quiz full of 2022 sports trivia!
