Cate Campbell slams American ‘sore losers’ after World Championships act

Four-time Olympic gold medallist Cate Campbell has ripped into the Americans for a petty act at the World Swimming Championships.

Australian swimmer Cate Campbell called Americans "sore losers".

Four-time Olympic gold medallist, Cate Campbell, has slammed the American response to being defeated at the World Aquatics Championships by an emergent Australian team, labelling the nation “sore losers”.

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American broadcaster NBC aired an alternate medal graphic that used the total medal count, rather than the usual order of number of gold medals, which put the USA ahead of Australia despite Australia’s dominance of the swimming events at the Championships.

The USA were also awarded the Best Team trophy at the meet, despite winning less gold medals than the Australians and taking a team of 52 swimmers to the Championships compared to Australia’s 38-strong team.

“Such sore losers,” Campbell said on the Today show on Wednesday.

“I mean Australia coming out on top of the world is one thing, but it is just so much sweeter beating America.

“The first night of competition, we did not have to hear ‘Star Spangled Banner’ ring out through the stadium. I cannot tell you how happy that made me.

“If I hear that song again it will be too soon.

“Bring on Paris. That’s all I have to say to the US. Stop being sore losers.”

Campbell won four Olympic golds and loves beating America. Pics Adam Head

Campbell also said she despised the patriotic cowbell rung by the American team in warm-up areas.

“The US have this internal cowbell they ring,” she said.

“As someone leaves to go to the competition pool, they ring out, ‘USA, USA’.

“I have never wanted to punch someone more and steal the cowbell. I really hope someone did.”

Americans came second to Australians in the finals of nine different events in Fukuoka, and the change in approach from American broadcasters to coming off second best did not go unnoticed.

“Today, NBC and USA Swimming officially waved the white flag at the end of finals by changing their medals table graphic to a total medals sort,” American swimming journalist Braden Keith wrote on Twitter with a photo of the tally.

“That wasn’t their approach at the beginning of the meet. The total medal sort bothers me far less than the “using whichever sort we think we’re going to win does.

“Sports aren’t fun if the same team wins all the time. I understand that people love the home country ‘winning’, but there’s room for a redemption story once in a while too.

“Bigger question is how are the tables being sorted behind closed doors? Is the result going to be brushed away or addressed and learned from?”

The Americans were named the team of the championships despite winning less golds than Australia. (Photo by Philip FONG / AFP)

Fans were scathing of the cheeky move from American broadcasters, with Melbourne artist Callum Shaw saying “even when (the Americans) are not number one, they can confidently rely on the fact that most of their population isn’t data literate.”

Another fan noted that the Americans have traditionally dominated swimming at the Olympics, topping the medal tally at every single Olympics dating back to 1988.

America has not finished outside the top two in the swimming medal tally since 1936, excluding the boycotted 1980 Moscow Games.

Fans have to look back to the 1956 Melbourne Games to find the only time Australia has ever topped the Olympic tally.

Despite this, fans are quietly optimistic, with freestyler Cameron McEvoy hailing the dawning of a new era.

Australian swimmers claimed 13 golds and broke four world records in Japan, leaving nearest rivals China and the United States trailing in their wake.

McEvoy has been part of the Australian team since the 2012 London Olympics and he said this year’s “exceptional” vintage was on a par with the best the country had ever produced.

“I had heard a lot about the golden era, the early 2000s, the late 90s,” said McEvoy, who qualified fastest from the men’s 50m freestyle heats in a time of 21.35sec.

“I didn’t think I would be a part of a team that would replicate that so soon.”

McEvoy said Australia’s showing in Fukuoka “bodes pretty well for longevity”.

“Now, all of a sudden, not only do we have a whole team doing really well, there’s a few people doing absolute insane times, at a young age too,” he said.