James Magnussen: Why Australia’s swim stars would benefit from a year in between Paris 2024 and LA Olympics
In Australia we have always expected our swimmers to be at every big meet, peaking every single time and swimming fast at trials. It’s time to question that thinking, writes JAMES MAGNUSSEN.
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It will be really interesting to see how some of Australia’s best swimmers balance the next four years until the Los Angeles Olympics after their performances here in Paris.
After the delayed Tokyo Games we’ve had a bunched up Olympic cycle with multiple world championships and major international events in quick succession.
It’d be good to see some of these swimmers take a year off at some point in the next four years just to refresh a bit and really focus on Los Angeles.
In the past in Australia we have always expected our swimmers to be at every big meet, peaking every single time and swimming fast at trials.
I’d love to see Ariarne Titmus, Cam McEvoy or even someone like Kaylee McKeown even have a year off now so they can refresh their bodies, clear their minds and get everything ready before coming back and having another tilt at the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 2028.
We just witnessed Ariarne and Kaylee both win medals to complete what has been an enormous workload for both of them this week.
You can’t underestimate how physically and mentally demanding that has been on them not just here in Paris but the entire preparation leading up to the Olympic Games.
Kaylee still has the medley relay final and could still add to the two gold and two bronze medals she has already won in Paris.
Ariarne has been just as successful in a massive week. Her two gold and two silver medals is another incredible Olympic performance and you can see she threw absolutely everything she had at Katie Ledecky in that 800m freestyle final.
No doubt she would have been a little bit disappointed with that 200m freestyle silver medal, regardless of the fact she was happy for teammate Mollie O’Callaghan on the day.
To win an Olympic gold medal is incredibly hard, to defend a title is even harder and Arnie achieved that here in Paris with the 400m.
She fought tooth and nail in that 800m, she pushed Katie all the way as much as anybody’s pushed her in a long time, which no doubt resulted in a tougher race than Katie would have liked to win her fourth straight gold medal in that event.
It was a very brave effort and no doubt her coach and all Australians would be very proud of her.
The question will be, now that she’s got Mollie pushing her in the 200m and Katie planning to hang around for Los Angeles 2028, where does Arnie focus for the next four-year cycle?
I’d love to see Arnie give Katie a proper run in the 800m, but I can appreciate the extra training that has to go into the jump up from a 400m to a focus on the 800m. I didn’t even want to go from 100m to 200m.
If I was Arnie, I’d be leaning right into that 200-400m double and forgetting about the 800m – but I’m a sprinter by nature so I’m the wrong person to ask.
I think it’s just her toughness that gets her through that 800m. She obviously has a good fitness base, but I really think that it’s just that mental toughness that keeps her in the race.
What Arnie does next on the road to LA 2028 will be very interesting to see.
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Originally published as James Magnussen: Why Australia’s swim stars would benefit from a year in between Paris 2024 and LA Olympics
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