‘Want to kill each other’: Phelps, US swim stars react to Aussie’s ‘sore loser’ sledge
Michael Phelps and America’s swim stars have reacted to an Aussie great’s sledge, lighting the fuse for a red hot Olympic rivalry.
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The fuse has well and truly been lit for the rivalry between Australia and the United States ahead of the Paris Olympics, with America’s swimming stars responding to Cate Campbell’s infamous “sore losers” sledge.
Australia topped the medal tally at last year’s world championships, but American broadcaster NBC caused a stir when they changed their own medal tally graphic to prioritise overall medal total, which put the USA on top. Australia won 13 golds to the USA’s seven.
In a tongue in cheek interview with Today after the world titles, Campbell described the Americans as sore losers and teed off at their routine of ringing a cowbell when each of their swimmers come out to race.
“I mean Australia coming out on top of the world is one thing, but it is just so much sweeter beating America,” the four-time Olympian said.
“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.”
Watch Michael Phelps and Lilly King react to the “sore losers” sledge in the video above
At the time, American breaststroker Lilly King said: “Sorry we aren’t so uptight we can’t cheer for our teammates as they walkout for events. See you in Paris.”
As part of NBC’s coverage of the US Olympic swimming trials that kicked off this week, King and US swimming legend Michael Phelps were shown the clip of Campbell’s comments as part of a package hyping the Australia-USA rivalry.
“Wow. That’s the first time I saw this,” said Phelps, watching Campbell’s comments on a tablet.
“I would watch that thing every single day to give me that little extra (motivation).”
King, Olympic gold medallist and world record holder in the 100m breaststroke, didn’t hold back.
“It’s just funny to me that it gets on their nerves that much. That’s amusing,” she said on NBC’s coverage.
“Is it going to be worse if they beat us than somebody else? Yeah. I’m glad everyone is jealous of the pride that we have for our country.
“We like each other, but we want to kill each other when we’re in the pool.”
Bobby Finke, who won gold in the 800m and 1500m in Tokyo, also weighed in.
“That’s just worlds. This is the Olympics. This is the big game show,” he said.
Backstroker and team captain Ryan Murphy said: “Last summer’s over. It happened. So I love the idea of having an underdog mentality.”
Australia has beaten the USA twice at world championships, in Fukuoka in 2001 and 2023, but hasn’t topped the Americans and the medal tally at the Olympics since Melbourne 1956.
The Aussies won nine gold medals to the USA’s 11 in Tokyo.
Australia’s female swimmers will need to the bulk of the heavy lifting once again in Paris if they are to end American’s dominance in the pool.
Ariarne Titmus (200m, 400m, 800m freestyle), Kaylee McKeown (100m and 200m backstroke, 200m medley), Mollie O’Callaghan (100m and 200m freestyle) and Shayna Jack (50m and 100m freestyle) are gold medal contenders.
On the men’s side, Kyle Chalmers (100m freestyle), Cam McEvoy (50m freestyle), Zac Stubblety-Cook (200m breaststroke), Elijah Winnington (400m, 800m freestyle) and Sam Short (400m, 800m, 1500m freestyle) are medal contenders.
Dolphins head coach Rohan Taylor has a goal of Australia claiming medals in all seven relays at the Olympics. The men’s 4x100m medley relay was the only one not to medal in Tokyo.
“I think this team is going to give it a good shake,” Taylor told reporters at last week’s Australian swimming trials.
“There’s a reason the Americans haven’t been beaten since 1956. They’re just extremely competent when it comes to the Olympics. This is where they step up.
“They’ve got the depth, they’ve got the numbers, they’ve got the experience.
“We’re going to go there and do everything we can to create an environment for these athletes first and foremost to do their best in their individual goals. And a lot of them have rivalries that aren’t just with the US. The US just happen to be in a lot of events.
“I look at 68 years of them topping the Olympic medal tally. It’s almost like an America’s Cup type of thing. No one’s been able to take them down.
“We don’t talk about it internally, I can promise you that. We just talk about what the athletes need to perform. Obviously in retrospect we look at how we performed in Fukuoka last year. “We want the athletes, whatever they swim here (at trials), we want them to swim either on time or improve. If they do that and they’re highly ranked, chances are they’ll get on the podium.
“If we can get a lot of highly ranked athletes there and they perform well, medal tallies fall our way.
“It’s just not just going after (the Americans). Across the board, the Hungarians have some great swimmers. The French with Leon Marchand. It’s going to be interesting. But we’re going to do our best to grab what we can.”
The US trials are in full swing and the Americans look in ominous form.
Gretchen Walsh shattered the women’s 100m butterfly world record, Katie Ledecky qualified for her fourth Olympics and Regan Smith just missed McKeown’s 100m backstroke record in the semi-finals.
King has qualified in the 100m breaststroke and said she does not plan to continue swimming to the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.
She won’t have a face off with Campbell, who missed out on qualifying for a record fifth Olympics in emotional scenes at the trials in Brisbane.
The 32-year-old freestyler was embraced in the pool by her rivals after missing selection in the 50m and 100m freestyle.
Her sister Bronte Campbell qualified for the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay, which Australia has won at the past three Olympics.
The Paris Olympics begin on July 26.
Originally published as ‘Want to kill each other’: Phelps, US swim stars react to Aussie’s ‘sore loser’ sledge
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