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Roar Rookie
Joined August 2016
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Massive sports fan .. Tennis, AFL (Crows), NRL (Dragons), Baseball (Giants) EPL (QPR when they are up) and all things Olympics
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At the start of the 2016 Olympics it seemed as if four years was a long time in the Swimming world. In London 2012, the Australian swim team had produced our worst performance at an Olympics in 20 years.
Thanks for your comment! I definitely agree we do not do enough racing. Another issues with the trials being so early is that all the state championships are held prior to the trials. This leaves our swimmers with practically no racing for 4 months before the Olympics – unless they travel to world cup meets around the world.
What went wrong in Rio, and why it's time for Swimming Australia to make a change
Thanks for your comment! I definitely agree that there were some mental issues with some of our performances – Campbell and McEvoy most notably. However a number of our swimmers were full seconds outside their times at trials. This indicates to me they were simply out of form. If we held the trials closer to the Olympics they would’ve at least had some competitive racing close to the main event. We would have had athletes that were in form and battle hardened. The times required for our swimmers to make the team at trials are highly competitive and if they performed those times at the Olympics our overall performance would’ve improved dramatically.
You do raise a very valid point with regard to last years world championships. Our tally was highly inflated as the U.S did not send a full team. Many of their athletes opted not to compete at the World Championships but instead at the U.S National Championships which were held almost simultaneously.
What went wrong in Rio, and why it's time for Swimming Australia to make a change
Thanks for your comment! I definitely agree with respect to McEvoy and Campbell. They performed really well in the relays indicating no issue with form. My concern is the pure volume of our swimmers that performed were worse (69%) and by large margins. To me Seebohm seemed out of form indicated by her 200 m backstroke time – 3 seconds off that at trials. Even Hocking in the same event was 1.5 seconds off her trials time in the final .. a large distance in that event. There are many others I could mention too.
I definitely agree with regard to how they handled such disappointments!
What went wrong in Rio, and why it's time for Swimming Australia to make a change