Australian swimmers get Olympic medal boost as part of sport overhaul for Los Angeles and Brisbane Games

Australia’s medal hopes a massive boost as part of a radical overhaul of the Olympic program with a number of new sports and events added to the schedule.

A radical overhaul of the Olympic program for Los Angeles Games in 2028 has given Australia’s medal hopes a massive boost while raising the prospect of teen running sensation Gout Gout teaming up with our fastest Aussie women sprinters in a first ever mixed gender race and golf’s super siblings Min Woo Lee and his sister Minjee Lee joining forces on the fairway.

But the biggest winners of all could be Australia’s champion swimmers who will have an additional six new events offering a wave of opportunities to scoop up even more medals.

As previously revealed by this masthead a year ago, World Aquatics has been negotiating behind the scenes to persuade the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to add 50 metre races for backstroke, butterfly and breaststroke to the Olympic program.

The proposal has now been approved by the IOC Executive Board and will come into play as early as the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, taking the total number of gold medals up for grabs in swimming to 41.

The additional swimming races were just part of a huge raft of changes to the program for Los Angeles, which will feature a record total of 351 medal events, 22 more than at Paris last year.

For the first time in history, all team sports will have at least the same number of women’s teams as men’s teams with a number of key alterations.

Five new sports are joining the program for LA: baseball/softball, cricket, flag football, lacrosse and squash.

Returning to the Olympics for the first time in over a century, the T20 cricket competition will.

The total number or quota of athletes for Los Angeles will be 10,500, the same as Paris, but for the first time, there will be more spots for female athletes (5,333) than men (5,167).

“All of the events and the finalisation of the athlete quotas were done with a clear consideration about adding value to the games,” IOC Sports Director Kit McConnell said.

The changes, which will almost certainly flow through to Brisbane in 2032, will be a huge boost to the Dolphins, who won 19 medals in the pool at last year’s Paris Olympics.

Australia’s swimmers came back from Paris with plenty of gold. Picture: Oli Scarff/AFP

Until now, the only 50m swimming event at the Olympics has been freestyle but it makes complete sense to add 50m backstroke, butterfly and breaststroke because they are already on the program at the world championships and Commonwealth Games so many top swimmers already specialise in the sprint races.

One of the big winners could be superstar Kaylee McKeown, who won the 100m-200m backstroke double at the last two Olympics, becoming the first Australian to win four individual gold medals in any sport.

Kaylee McKeown stands to benefit from the addition of the 50m backstroke. Picture: AFP

With the 50m stroke events already on the world championships’ schedule, McKeown completed the backstroke treble in 2023 and currently holds the world record for the single-lap dash.

Plenty of other Aussie swimmers could also benefit from the schedule change.

Mollie O’Callaghan is a world-class backstroker but didn’t enter the 100m in Paris because it clashed with her other events but she may be tempted to have a crack at the 50m.

Mollie O'Callaghan competes in the women's 50m backstroke heats during the 2022 FINA World Short Course Swimming Championships. Picture: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

Australia’s men could also cash in.

Sprint specialist Isaac Cooper is the reigning world champion in 50m backstroke while fellow Aussie Sam Williamson won the 50m breaststroke world title in 2024. Neither made the semis in their 100m stroke events in Paris.

“Today marks an incredible, amazing change in the world of swimming. The 50m form strokes have officially been added to the Olympics!” Cooper said on social media. “Could sit here forever and tell you about how good this is for the sport, the athletes, the spectators but I would be here forever.

“I’m just going to be grateful that I was wrong and that this change has happened during my career and I get to be a part of it.”

Even freestyle sprint legend Kyle Chalmers might be persuaded to throw his hat in the ring for the 50m butterfly, an event he’s always wanted to race at the highest level.

The American swim team, and the Chinese, will benefit most from the swimming changes because they have more depth than Australia, but the expansion was part of an ambitious plan to make swimming the number one sport at the Olympics.

Kyle Chalmers could chase gold in the 50m butterfly. Picture: Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images

The crowd figures and television ratings from Paris smashed all records but LA promises to be even bigger and better after the IOC agreed to hold the swimming events in SoFi Stadium, the same sprawling suburban venue that has been used to stage the Super Bowl and Taylor Swift’s Era Tour concerts.

While SoFi Stadium typically seats 70,000 spectators for NFL games and up to 100,000 for pop concerts, the state of the art facility will be reconfigured to hold about 38,000 fans for Olympic swimming.

SoFi Stadium for women's football friendly between USA and Brazil, in April 2025. Picture: Robyn Beck / AFP

To accommodate the venue change because SoFi Stadium is also hosting the Opening Ceremony on July 14, 2028, the swimming competition, which normally starts the day after, will be pushed back to the second week, with track and field flipping to week one.

This will mean Australia’s swimmers will finally get the chance to march at the Opening Ceremony, when they are normally tucked up in bed because they have to race the next day.

British breaststroke world record holder Adam Peaty, who won two gold and a silver in 100m, said he would shelve plans to retire so he could race the 50m in Los Angeles, posting on social media: “Huge, huge, huge news, I’ll be there.”

Originally published as Australian swimmers get Olympic medal boost as part of sport overhaul for Los Angeles and Brisbane Games