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A striking bonus of the rivers of public funding buoying recent Olympic swim stocks is champions pairing to spawn genetic super-dynasties.
Witness not only the surging Rio-bound McKeon siblings (progeny of former Olympians Ron McKeon and Suzie Woodhouse), but also Olympic first timer Georgia Bohl (daughter of former Olympian and coach Michael Bohl), with many others in waiting.
While 17-year-old breaststroker Bohl is not strictly a member of this swimmer-to-swimmer set, mum is a former representative runner.
Will Stockwell, the 18-year-old son of LA Olympic 100-metre freestyle silver medallist Mark and his USA Hall of Famer wife Tracy (nee Caulkins), also made a spectacular elite debut. His first sub-50 Rio trials 100-metre swim had him thrashing into Sunday’s semis, against the likes of Cameron McEvoy and James Magnussen.
Given another two years to fill out to the legal catch limit, Will may well star at the 2018 Commonwealth Games his now-businessman dad helped secure for Queensland.
A fellow member of Stockwell Senior’s Mean Machine relay franchise, Greg Fasala, having similarly married swimmingly, also has teenagers knocking on the spill gates of elite success.
With the likes of Libby and Luke Trickett, and Rio triallists Melanie and Chris Wright planning or starting families, another plethora of portentous pedigrees is promised.
And this is not to mention (until now) the possibility of a romance between backstroke supremos Mitch Larkin and Emily Seebohm.
The reason all this funnelled fecundity can be linked to sport funding is not due to whacky sub-clauses requiring auto replenishment, but simply because it is now viable for swimmers to stay in their sport up to a decade longer than their historical (unrelated) forebears.
That world times have pretty much plateaued in the past decade also helps. Who better to dalliance with than someone totally forgiving of your unforgiving lifestyle, since they too, must stir to the same alarm.
When the average retirement age ended in ‘teen’, say back in the early 1970s, swimmers had no funding and no opportunity to pursue extended relationships. By the time they looked around for a suitable life mate, all their associates were in business or boiler suits, not bathing suits. And because the pickings were slim, they were far less likely to encourage their fry into the stock-replenishment business.