Australian swim team are exhausted and need a break following the Olympic Games
The Australian swim team has scaled the heights in Paris, but they don’t even want to consider what’s next right now after an exhausting three years.
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Don’t expect Australia’s Olympic swimmers to be back at work first thing Monday morning. They’re exhausted.
They might have looked a picture of health when they were standing on the blocks in the French capital but the reality is Australia’s swimmers are knackered.
The shortened three-year cycle between the delayed 2021 Tokyo Olympics and this year’s Paris Games has taken an enormous toll, leaving almost everyone in the sport fatigued and desperately needing a rest.
“I think we all deserve a break,” Australian swim star Mollie O’Callaghan said.
“Everyone’s got different decisions with if they want to continue, but personally, I just need to have a good mental break. I reckon I can physically do it, but mentally, I just need a reset.”
O’Callaghan, who won three gold, one silver and one bronze medal in Paris, isn’t alone in needing a timeout.
Ariarne Titmus has also announced she is taking a long break to recharge the batteries while Kaylee McKeown won’t even talk about the next Olympics at Los Angeles in 2028 because she’s so worn out.
“I hate being asked this question because I’m just here right now. I just want to enjoy my moment, enjoy what I’ve done,” she said.
“I don’t want to think about what I’m going to be doing in the next four years. It’s already just so draining having constantly been asked that question. So I’m going to give you the answer again, I have no idea what I’m doing, and I probably won’t until January, February next year.”
The uncertainty about what everyone will do next isn’t just confined to Australia’s swimmers.
It’s still unknown if the Commonwealth Games — the traditional mid-Olympic cycle competition — will take place in 2026 after Victoria reneged as host and organisers haven’t been able to find a replacement.
The Pan Pacs are due to take place in 2026 with world championships scheduled for Singapore (2025) and Budapest (2027).
Master coach Michael Bohl is taking an indefinite break and is unsure if he will ever return while Dean Boxall is also stepping away from the pool deck. Even the head coach Rohan Taylor doesn’t know whether his contract will be extended and said he’s taking a well earned holiday with his family before knowing whether he’s still in charge.
“I will find that out when I get home.” he said. “We’ll see.” It’s a no-brainer that Taylor will be reappointed given the incredible job he’s done turning the team around after the disappointing results under his predecessors at London 2012 and Rio 2016.
Swimming Australia chief executive Rob Woodhouse said it was common practice for everyone involved in high performance to be contracted through to the end of major competitions so they will all be reviewed in due course,
“We’ve not even looked at that yet,” Woodhouse said.
“But we’ll sit down and review everything and look at where we need to find better support and where we could do better so we can set him and his team up for success for the next four years.”
Despite the unknowns, the framework for Los Angeles is already being mapped out.
Taylor will soon start looking at what the Dolphins need to do to match or better the team’s performance in Paris, where the Australians finished second to the United States on the swimming medals table, capturing sevens golds and 18 medals in total in the pool.
“On reflection, I’ll sit back and I’ll look at where we’re going to improve. The beauty is we have four years to get to LA,” he said. “We’ve got a young team of really good young studs that are coming through. We’ve got some young ones that maybe didn’t get the best out of themselves here that are really hungry to get back.
“We’ve got an extra year, so we’ll just keep building and we’ll go back to the drawing board.”
Taylor said while part of the planning includes bringing through the next wave of stars, it also involves giving the experienced swimmers an extended rest so they can peak when it matters.
“It’s been a hectic three years. We’ve all been part of this treadmill. It’s been three years of just going flat stick so some of them need to take a year off,” he said.
“We’re going to focus on the World Cups next year. So we’ll probably send a World Cup team. We’re talking about things like that.
“So there’ll be a lot of opportunities for athletes to re-engage competition when they’re ready, if they want to take time out.
“We know we’ve seen athletes have done that and they’ve come back and been able to do it so I’m all supportive of it and I think we have the system in place to support that.”
A number of swimmers have already hatched their own plans. Emma McKeon and Bronte Campbell are both retiring. Titmus, McKeown and O’Callaghan are all taking extended breaks but plan to swim at LA.
Kyle Chalmers is ploughing ahead, planning to race at the World Cup in October and the world short-course. He says he hopes to go to LA if his body can hold up.
Elijah Winnington is also targeting the world short-course championships but is considering mixing things up by going overseas to train while his regular coach Boxall is on leave.
There are some good signs for the future.
More than half of the 41-member squad for the pool events in Paris were rookies, while eight were teenagers.
Around two-thirds of the squad came away with medals, with Australia getting on the podium in six of the seven relays,
“We were one short of getting a medal in every relay and that’s something I want us to be able to do,” Taylor said. “So that’s going to be a goal about how we can get better but first of all we really reflect on what we’ve done here.” If the team does need a reminder about the benefits of taking a break to foster longevity they only need to look at Cameron McEvoy.
The first Aussie male swimmer to compete at four Olympics, the 30-year-old defied Father Time to win his first gold medal in the 50m freestyle. His secret? Training less but training smarter and getting his head in the right space. There’s obviously something in that.
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