Paris Olympics 2024 women’s swimming ultimate guide: Australia’s toughest competition across every event

Australia’s current crop of women’s swimmers lay claim to being the greatest generation this country has ever produced. Yet they still may not be the world’s best. An ULTIMATE GUIDE to every women’s swimming event in Paris.

Reigning gold medallists Ariarne Titmus and Kaylee McKeown spearhead Australia’s Paris Olympic Games campaign with the superstars each having two opportunities to join Dawn Fraser as the only women to win back-to-back Olympic gold medals.

With entry lists finally confirmed for the Paris Olympic Games, chief swimming writer JULIAN LINDEN casts his expert eye over the entire field to identify the key medal events for Australia and the biggest threats that could stop the Dolphins from creating history in France.

What is clear is that between Titmus, McKeown and Mollie O’Callaghan, Australia boasts a women’s swim team of considerable strength although the United States has reloaded off the back of a stunning trials meet with the likes of Gretchen Walsh, Kate Douglass and Regan Smith ready to stand alongside Katie Ledecy as gold medal contenders.

Here is the News Corp ultimate Olympic swimming guide:

As a four-time world champion, one-time Olympic gold medallist and current world record holder, Sjostrom is the overwhelming favourite in the single-lap sprint. Now 30, the Swede finished a close second behind Emma McKeon at the last Olympics despite breaking her elbow in the lead up. McKeon did not qualify for the 50m freestyle this time. There are a handful of women capable of springing an upset or at least getting a medal. Jack (silver 2024) and Harris (bronze 2022) have both recently been on the podium at the world championships so have a real shot. Wasick was third at this year’s world titles after taking silver in 2022. With American record holder Kate Douglass opting to skip the event, Simone Manuel, the 2016 Rio silver medallist will carry US hopes.

With Tokyo gold medallist McKeon not defending her title because she only qualified for the relay in freestyle, a new sprint queen will be crowned. A two-time world champion, O’Callaghan is the favourite, ahead of Haughey, who won the silver at Tokyo and boasts the fastest time in the world over the past three years. Fast-improving Dutch sprinter Steenbergen looms as perhaps the biggest danger to O’Callaghan after winning this year’s world title in the absence of the Aussie. Sjostrom is the hidden threat. The 30-year-old had declared she wouldn’t race this event, but appeared on the entry list. She may not be able to reach her world record best, but she’ll still be in the mid to low 52s fighting for the podium. While Jack has an outside chance of a medal after pipping Meg Harris for the second Australian berth.

This looks to be a race in two between Titmus and O’Callaghan. The last time Australia won gold and silver in a women’s swimming event at the Olympics was in 1996 when Susie O’Neill and Petria Thomas went one-two in the 200m butterfly at Atlanta, the same night Kieren Perkins won the 1500m gold from the outside lane. Titmus is the defending Olympic champion and newly crowned world record holder after edging out O’Callaghan at the national trials. O’Callaghan broke the longstanding old record, set in the super suit era, when she won the world title in 2023. Canada’s teenage sensation McIntosh is the junior world record holder, and ranked third in the world, but opted not to enter this race to focus on her other events while Haughey is the current world champion, after both Aussies skipped the 2024 titles. Junxuan – one of the 23 Chinese swimmers who escaped punishment after testing positive before Tokyo – was world champion in 2022.

Titmus is aiming to become the first woman to successfully defend the 400m Olympic title since Martha Norelius in 1924 and 1928. The Australian’s epic victory over American legend Ledecky at Tokyo was an all-time classic that helped lift the nation’s spirits during the Covid lockdown and this year’s race is already being billed as one of the greatest sequels in history after the emergence of 17-year-old McIntosh, who broke Titmus’ world record in 2023. The Aussie snatched it back when she won her second world title in Fukuoka last year but might need to break it again to win gold in the first women’s swimming final in Paris.

Ledecky first won this race at the 2012 London Olympics when she was a 15-year-old making her debut. She won again in Rio and Tokyo and is now on track to join Michael Phelps as the only swimmers to win the same event at four Olympics. Ledecky owns the fastest 16 times in history for this event but her margin over the rest has slowly been closing as she gets older. Titmus won the silver behind Ledecky in Tokyo and remains her biggest threat while consistent Italian Quadrella won this year’s world title when Ledecky and Titmus stayed away.

Ledecky is even more dominant over 1500m than she is over 800m. She won the inaugural Olympic women’s 1500m at Tokyo and has racked up five world titles in the longest event in the pool. Her world record is 18 seconds – or more than half a lap – faster than any other woman has swum. Raised in surf lifesaving, Pallister has a strong chance of getting a medal while her Aussie teammate Johnson is the only Dolphin swimming both in the pool and open water events.

This also looks like a race in two. Australia’s McKeown is the defending champion and would have been a clear favourite because she hasn’t lost a major backstroke race since 2019. But that was until Smith narrowly broke her world record at last month’s US Olympic trials. The gap between the pair is about the same time as it takes a human to blink an eye so it’s impossible to pick between the pair heading into Paris. The only sure bet is that it’s going to be a must-watch race. Masse, a double world champion and silver medallist in Tokyo, is expected to battle Berkoff for the bronze.

Like the 100m, McKeown is also unbeaten since 2019 over 200m and is defending her Olympic title. The world record she set last year remains out of reach for even her closest rivals. In the last five years, no-one has come within half a second off McKeown’s second best time – from last month’s trials – let alone her fastest. Now trained by Bob Bowman, the master coach of Phelps, Smith is the obvious danger, but she also has a heavy schedule in Paris and the 200m back is not her strongest event. Masse was the silver medallist in Tokyo but her best is more than two seconds behind McKeown, who is attempting to become the first swimmer since East Germany’s Roland Matthes (1968, 1972) to complete the backstroke double at successive Olympics.

Australia doesn’t look to have a realistic chance of a medal in this event but the breaststroke leg will be pivotal to Australia’s chances in the medley relay so this will be a great test of speed. American Lydia Jacoby won the gold in Tokyo but didn’t qualify for Paris. King, the world record holder, is looking to regain the title she won in 2016. She has already said this is her third and final Olympics. The reigning world champion is Tang from China.

The world record holder Chikunova has opted to sit out the Olympics after turning down the chance to compete as a ‘neutral’ athlete, which Russians and Belarussians are required to do if they want to compete. The defending champion is Tatjana Schoenmaker, now competing under her married name Smith. She is trying to emulate Rebecca Soni as the only back-to-back winner in the event. Schouten is the reigning world champion. At her best, Strauch is in the mix. She was a silver medallist at the 2022 world championships.

McKeon won the bronze in Tokyo but has her work cut out getting a medal this time after Walsh shattered Sjostrom’s world record during the US trials to stamp herself as the favourite with the Swede opting to skip the event in Paris. Huske is currently ranked No. 2 in the world. A proven big race performer, Mac Neil is the defending champion while Zhang was runner-up in Tokyo and won the world title in 2023.

Runner-up at the 2023 world championships, the underrated Dekkers has a great chance for a medal but it is a red hot field so she will probably have to swim a personal best time. The favourite is McIntosh, who is already a two-time world champion. The defending gold medallist is Zhang, one of the nearly two dozen Chinese who tested positive to TMZ before Tokyo. Zhang was also part of the Chinese team that won gold in the 4x200m freestyle relay. Smith won the silver in Tokyo and is highly rated.

This could be one of the best races in Paris. McKeown was ranked No.1 in the world heading into the last Olympics but pulled out of the 200m medley at the last minute then watched on as Japan’s Yui Ohashi won the gold. Faster now than she was three years ago having broken Stephanie Rice’s Australian record, McKeown is again ranked No.1 (2:06.63) but interestingly didn’t use that time for her Olympic entry so has dropped to third on the entry list. She faces tougher challenges than had she raced in Tokyo because this Olympic field has more depth. The versatile Douglass has won the last two world titles while her American teammate Walsh beat McKeown to win in 2022. And then there’s the uber-talented McIntosh, who holds the junior world record holder.

If there was such a thing as a gold medal certainty at Paris, it would probably be McIntosh winning the 400m medley. She broke her own world record at the Canadian trials in May and is way out in front of her nearest rivals so something would have to go wrong for her to lose. McKeown has the second fastest time in the world this year but is not swimming the gruelling event in Paris. On their best form, the two Aussies have a decent crack at landing on the podium with the Americans Grimes and Weyant the dangers.

Originally published as Paris Olympics 2024 women’s swimming ultimate guide: Australia’s toughest competition across every event