After a tough Rio campaign, here are five Aussie stars set for glory at Tokyo 2020 Games
RIO is so last Olympics. Everyone is talking Tokyo these days. They are only 1433 days away, after all.If you’re Australian, the 2020 Games can’t come quick enough.
RIO is so last Olympics. Everyone is talking Tokyo these days. They are only 1433 days away, after all.
If you’re Australian, the 2020 Games can’t come quick enough.
Apart from those admirable few who snared a medal, the Rio Olympics won’t go down with Sydney and Athens as a fortnight to remember.
So in the interests of cheering ourselves up, let’s look forward. Who are our bright, shining hopes for the next Olympics in Tokyo in 2020?
Which young stars will lead the charge when Australia puts a few dusty Olympic efforts behind it and turns the corner in Japan?
As usual we start at the pool, where amidst the waves of experienced campaigners coming up short in Rio, new young heroes emerged in the form of Kyle Chalmers and Mack Horton.
Chalmers only turned 18 a few weeks before he flew to Rio and was considered a project athlete. Even he looked surprised to win gold in a stunning 100 metre freestyle swim.
Chalmers will be 22 - just - in Tokyo and most experts agree a sprint swimmer reaches their peak at around 22 or 23. Michael Phelps won eight gold medals in Beijing aged 23.
Horton will be 24 in Tokyo and he’ll still be in prime shape to defend his 200m freestyle crown.
The lanky Melburnian gained worldwide fame for his Sun Yang feud and lost in it all was the fact Horton swam a belting race to win a gold medal. In a meet where most Aussies failed to fire, Horton fired.
Maddie Groves didn’t win gold in Rio but she was damn close: finishing second in the 200m butterfly by three-hundredths of a second behind Spain’s Mireia Belmonte.
Known as Mad Dog, Groves’ signature style is going out hard and trying to hang on. It’s the sort of bold self-belief that all Olympic champs must have and we reckon in four years time, she will go out hard and finish hard too.
Up at the shooting range, 20-year-old James Willett came to Rio as world no.1 in the double-trap and shot an Olympic record in the qualification period. The pressure of the final got to the country boy but with another four years of training and competition, Willett will be in prime shape to win gold in Tokyo.
On the basketball court, the most exciting Boomers prospect is one who wasn’t in Rio.
Ben Simmons was the NBA’s no.1 draft pick this year and if all predictions are right, the 208cm forward will be a world superstar by 2020. He’ll be wearing gold in Tokyo, too.
Simmons has already played for the Boomers and is keen to represent his country.
Finally, Ella Nelson is the rarest of rare - an Australian track sprinter with the capacity to win an Olympic medal.
The 22-year-old ran a 22.50 PB in her semi-final of the 200 metres but failed to make the final by a 0.01 seconds. Nelson trains in the USA with some of the world’s best sprinters and in another four years time her rapid progress will have turned in powerful medal potential.
KYLE CHALMERS (18)/MACK HORTON (20)
The saviours of the Australian men’s swimming team in Rio, Chalmers and Horton are the gold medal guys who will be hitting their peak potential in Tokyo. Aged 18 and 20 respectively, watch for the Big Tuna and Mack the Knife to lead the fight again in 2020.
MADDIE GROVES (21)
The Queensland butterflyer has a go hard or go home mentality and it almost won her a gold in Rio. Groves won silver but come Tokyo, she’ll have four years of training under her belt and will go hard and go gold.
JAMES WILLETT (20)
Our rising star double-trap shooter who powered through the qualifiers in Rio but fell in the nerves of a final. The world no.1 is only 20 and most shooters don’t get anywhere near their best until they approach 30.
BEN SIMMONS (20)
The future NBA superstar is also going to be a future Olympic superstar. Simmons couldn’t make Rio because he’d just been the NBA’s no.1 draft pick but he is a devoted Boomers player. He’ll make Australia even stronger in Tokyo.
ELLA NELSON (22)
The best Australian sprinter since Melinda Gainsford-Taylor missed the 200m final by 0.01 seconds. But Nelson won’t be an also-ran for long. The Sydney sprinter will use four years of training in the US to improve her stars and chase the first Aussie sprint medal since Cathy Freeman.
Originally published as After a tough Rio campaign, here are five Aussie stars set for glory at Tokyo 2020 Games