Rio 2016: Susie O’Neill to Libby Trickett and Steph Rice: top Aussie female swimmers since 2000

FROM Libby Trickett to Petria Thomas, Jodie Henry and Cate Campbell, Australian women’s swimming has enjoyed an outstanding run of success.

FROM Libby Trickett to Petria Thomas, Susie O’Neill, Jodie Henry and Alicia Coutts, Australian women’s swimming has enjoyed an outstanding run of success.

And with the Campbell sisters — Cate and Bronte — leading the way in Rio, more of the same can be expected.

Here are the top 11 since the turn of the century.

Libby Trickett (Lenton)

The original Aussie flyer, Trickett, a three-time Olympian, won Olympic and World Championships medals, set world records and even made a winning return after 12 months out of the sport. She burst onto the international scene at the 2003 World Championships, picking up two bronze medals and again won bronze 12 months later at the Athens Olympics. Trickett was one of the form swimmers of the 2005 World Championships, winning three gold and two silver, before backing up two years later with two more gold. She won two gold and a bronze at the 2008 Olympics.

Susie O’Neill

O’Neill never failed to not win a medal at an international meet throughout a 10-year career. And she capped it off with a golden performance at the Sydney Olympics. It might not have been her pet 200m butterfly — she was pipped by American Misty Hyman — but she still took gold in the 200m freestyle. She won eight Olympic medals from 1992 to 2000, including gold in the 200m butterfly in the 1996 Atlanta Games. She famously also broke Mary T Meagher’s 19-year 200m butterfly world record in 2000.

Petria Thomas

After playing second fiddle to O’Neill, Thomas eventually enjoyed her success in her own right, culminating in her dominant performance at the 2004 Athens Olympics. She battled serious injury, that included shoulder reconstructions, but her calibre of performance rarely wavered. She won silver at Atlanta in 1996, three medals at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney and then backed it up four years later with three golds, including the 100m butterfly. She also won three gold medals at the 2001 World Championships.

Leisel Jones

The four-time Olympian forged one of the great swimming careers. She won medals in Sydney, when she made her Olympics debut aged 14, Athens, Beijing and London but was arguably at her best in 2008 when she broke her gold medal drought in the 100m breaststroke. She won the 100m breaststroke at the 2005 and 2007 World Championships, was runner up in 2011 and held the world record at both 100m and 200m three times.

Cate Campbell

The 23-year-old sprinting sensation is about to enter her third Olympics. Individually it hasn’t got any better than her 2008 bronze medal-winning performance in the 50m freestyle as a 17-year-old. But she did win relay gold in London and also has an enviable record in world championship races, most notably when she won gold in 2013 in the 100m freestyle. She’s in great form and showed in Adelaide that Rio could be her time to shine.

Emily Seebohm

Backstroke, butterfly, freestyle, individual medley ... Seebohm can nearly do it all. But it’s backstroke and butterfly in particular where she has been a world force for more than seven years. She broke the world record for the 50m backstroke in 2008 as a 17-year-old and has been a regular medal winner at Olympic and world championship level. She actually broke through for her first world title at Kazan last year.

Jodie Henry

Before the Campbell sisters came along there was the Henry-Libby Lenton rivalry. Super sprinter Henry took the 2004 Athens Olympics by storm, winning three gold medals and breaking world records. Her 100m freestyle semi-final time stood for more than two years. She also won medals at the 2003, 2005 and 2007 World Championships and took Australian swimmer of the year honours in 2004.

Stephanie Rice

Perhaps better known for her social media prowess (or lack thereof), there was also no denying her talent in the pool. The crowning glory of her celebrated career was her three gold medals in the 200m, 400m individual medley and medley relay — all in world record time — at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. She actually smashed the 400m IM world record by almost two seconds at that meet.

Alicia Coutts

The versatile 28-year-old is heading off to a third Olympics — and with a genuine chance for more medals. Another in the seemingly endless supply of butterfly stars, she is also an accomplished medley swimmer, as her silver in the 200IM in London illustrates. She has won five Olympic, five world and five Commonwealth Games medals.

Jessicah Schipper

Lost a little bit in the pool of great Aussie butterfly swimmers, Schipper was an Olympic and world champion in a career that spanned almost 10 years. She won two Olympic relay golds and two individual bronze medals in 2004 and 2008 and was also 200m butterfly world champion on three occasions from 2005 to 2009, the final time breaking the world record.

Bronte Campbell

Winning the 50m-100m freestyle double at last year’s World Championships coupled with potentially what lies ahead in Rio demands she makes the list. The younger Campbell sister came of age in Kazan, stunning a class field to take the 100m in one of the fastest times ever. She then proved it was no fluke by winning the 50m.

Originally published as Rio 2016: Susie O’Neill to Libby Trickett and Steph Rice: top Aussie female swimmers since 2000