Whoa! What to make of the past couple of days swimming?
Depending on who you read, Australia were going to win anywhere between five and eleven gold medals in the swim meet (US-based Sports Illustrated suggested 11 in case you are asking).
I personally thought six and unfortunately we won’t meet that now.
We’ve won three, and judging by current swims, will be lucky to increase that to five. The only remaining chances are the women’s 50m freestyle (where Cate Campbell is still the favourite) and the 1500m where Mack Horton may spring a surprise.
Australia going into the Olympics were zero chance of winning any breaststroke gold, nor the medley relays, and the women’s 800m. So, two more opportunities left. As always, our fingers are crossed.
For a meet that started out with huge potential and delivered in spades on night one the wheels have fallen off.
It’s not a disaster but something has indeed gone wrong. It’s not necessarily that we aren’t winning gold, it’s also that we are looking frankly non-competitive in key events that Australia were to at least podium in. Let’s leave Horton and Chalmers out of this article. They won. They set personal bests. Job done.
Sometimes you just have to accept that there are other swimmers out there that were too good on the night and deserved the gold. Unfortunately, that applies for only a handful (perhaps only even two races).
As far as I can read, two Australians have lost but set a PB: Madeline Groves in the 200m butterfly and Emma McKeon in the 200m freestyle.
The former can legitimately count herself as desperately unlucky and a fingernail or two in her race was the difference between gold and silver. She was just beaten by a marginally better swimmer.
Emma Mckeon, well, she was never going to win against Ledecky but she pulled out a fantastic swim to earn bronze.
But what Australia’s other legitimate chances?
Reigning dual world champion Emily Seebohm has had the worst meet of her life at the time she is meant to have her best. She’s 22. That is the peak age for a swimmer and has been in astonishingly poor form.
I was criticised by some for calling her out but the facts are that she has posted times miles behind her PBs, miles behind her Australian trials and in the case of the 200m backstroke, miles behind the opposition.
How has this happened? Was her training plan flawed? She is an immensely gifted swimmer, and one far better than what she is in Rio. Tp brush off her performances (seventh in the 100m, and missing the 200m final) as just bad luck would be a massive mistake.
That’s two Olympics now where she has performed below expectations. Sadly, she’s actually regressed and performed worse than in London.
Cameron McEvoy’s poor performances (and they have been poor) have been attributed to stage fright. Really? If that’s so, then the team psychologist needs to be held to account.
The fastest swimmer in the world should not be getting stage fright on their key night. Or should we be held to account? Did the Australian public and media put just too much pressure on him? I’m sure that Eamon Sullivan and James Magnussen might be quietly stewing now and almost rightfully expecting some apology. Magnussen in particular was painted as the scape goat last Olympics.
I personally think (and, hands up, I do this) we have placed far too much pressure on the representatives in the men’s 100m. Chalmers on the other hand, went under the radar by being lucky enough to finish second in the trials.
Mitch Larkin won a great silver in the 200m but was still a second outside his PB. Of course, we can’t expect everyone to set PBs at Olympics, but they shouldn’t be one second outside it. That is massive.
Was his training plan flawed? Again, did we place too much pressure on him>
Cate and Bronte Campbell swam cracking legs in the relay and then went missing on the night of the individual finals. Cate Campbell was 1.2 seconds behind her PB over 100m.
Was her training plan flawed so that she peaked too early? Is it a failure that the two fastest women failed to medal? It has to be considered that.
I would have no problem calling three gold medals a success in the pool if it transpired that Australian swimmers posted times close to or exceeding their PBs.
You can say that they performed well and we just beaten by better swimmers. But these results where not only are they not winning, but not medalling or swimming close to their PB’s means unfortunately that we’ve not progressed from London.
By no means am I saying they aren’t trying their best, it’s just that whatever the plan was, it hasn’t worked.
Exactly why is the big question. Should over-hyped fans need to assume responsibility?
Still, I’ll be proudly cheering for more and remaining optimistic that more gold (or silver and bronze) remain just around the corner!
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