By Tom Decent
After a delayed Olympics in Tokyo last year, the sporting world is finally back on its axis. Last year there was a Winter Olympics in Beijing, a Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, plus the usual athletics, swimming and cycling world championships, among other major events.
With less than two years to go before Paris 2024, athletes from all sports are slowly building towards the Olympics in the city of love. The below is by no means a definitive list – given the number of athletes across multiple disciplines – but a reminder of who triumphed and who left a little to be desired in 2022.
Word of the year
Brum. The colloquial name for Birmingham was heard everywhere you went during a 12-day jam-packed Commonwealth Games program.
Many athletes, particularly Australia’s swimmers, prioritised the Commonwealth Games over other major meetings throughout the year.
Birmingham, the forgotten cousin of London and Manchester, was a terrific host city as athletes were welcomed with open arms by “Brummies”. All in all, there were very few major hiccups, which after COVID-19 was a welcome relief for organisers.
Gold medalists Kaylee McKeown, Chelsea Hodges, Emma McKeon and Mollie O’Callaghan after the women’s 4 x 100m medley relay.Credit: Getty
The winners
Australia. Whether it was swimming, athletics or other traditional Olympic sports, Australia aimed up and delivered on the biggest stages. Australia will have fond memories of Birmingham after topping the medal tally with 67 gold medals, 57 silver and 54 bronze. England looked like trumping their arch-rivals at one point before finishing second on the list, with 57 gold medals. There were excellent Australian performances at the athletics and swimming world championships. Australia picked up its second-highest gold medal tally at the recent world short-course championships in Melbourne.
Eleanor Patterson and Kelsey Lee-Barber. It was a brilliant year for Australian athletics, with Patterson and Lee-Barber winning gold medals at the World Athletics Championships in Oregon. Patterson cleared 2.02m to become the first Australian to win world championship gold in the high jump, before snaring a silver at the Commonwealth Games. Lee-Barber defended her world javelin title with a throw of 66.91 metres on her third attempt.
Special mention to Brett Robinson and Sinead Diver, who broke Australia’s long-standing marathon records within a few hours of each other.
Jakara Anthony. The Victorian won Australia’s only gold medal at last year’s Winter Olympics, doing so in the moguls. She broke a 12-year gold medal drought for Australia at the Winter Olympics.
The losers
Scott Miller. The former Olympian, who won a silver medal in the 100m butterfly at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, was sentenced to more than five years in jail for his role in a drug supply operation. Miller was found guilty of supplying commercial quantities of ice and heroin.
Isaac Cooper. There’s a major asterisk next to this one. The young Australian swimmer, now 18, was sent home from a Commonwealth Games training camp for a misuse of prescription medication as well as wellbeing issues. The teenager is yet to explain exactly what took place in France. Cooper swapped training programs and set his sights on rebounding at the World Shortcourse Championships in Melbourne. He broke multiple personal bests, won two relay gold medals, and was robbed of a gold medal in the 50m butterfly. Cooper won the final but the race had to be replayed due to a technical fault. In the re-swim, Cooper finished second. To say he was unhappy would be an understatement.
Rohan Browning. Australia’s sprint king had high hopes heading into the Commonwealth Games but couldn’t improve on his personal best from the Tokyo Olympics. In Birmingham, Browning won his heat in 10.10 seconds, clocked 10.17 in a semi-final, then came a disappointing sixth in the final in 10.2. It was 0.19 outside his Tokyo time. To make matters worse, Browning tripped over while receiving the baton as Australia’s last runner in the 4 x 100m relay heats. He apologised to teammates for the incident. There is no doubt Browning is Australia’s premier sprinter and you’d be bold to back against him heading into the Paris Olympics.
Controversy corner
The Australian swim team was embroiled in a “love triangle” saga, which prompted Kyle Chalmers to lash out during the Commonwealth Games. It started in Adelaide when Chalmers changed his mind and decided he was going to swim butterfly events in a bid to qualify for the world championships. That meant a swim-off against Cody Simpson, the former pop star turned Olympic hopeful, who was now dating Emma McKeon. “You can’t make me out to be the villain,” Chalmers said at the time.
Cody Simpson and Kyle Chalmers.Credit: Getty
Chalmers took umbrage to a story at the Commonwealth Games suggesting he refused to congratulate McKeon after their relay victory and that there was tension between him and Simpson. The South Australian went nuclear afterwards by putting the story to bed and opening up on the toll it had taken on his mental health. He says he nearly quit swimming but the fire is certainly burning brightly for Paris 2024.
Man and woman of the year
It’s a difficult task to pick just two across multiple sports but it’s impossible to split Chalmers and McKeon after the year they’ve had. Chalmers’ shoulder issues almost caused him to hang up the goggles. Instead, he powered to victory in the 100m freestyle at the Commonwealth Games in a hotly contested field. He also helped Australia win gold in two relays.
A few months later, Chalmers asserted his dominance as Australia’s sprint king by winning a four-lap dash in his favoured 100m freestyle event at the world short-course championships in front of a home crowd in Melbourne. Despite plenty of hype about Romanian rising star David Popovici, Chalmers touched the wall first and celebrated accordingly. But perhaps his most thrilling contribution was anchoring Australia’s 4x50m relay. When Chalmers entered the water, Australia were fifth and trailing Italy by 0.62 seconds. Chalmers went past Italy’s Manuel Frigo in the last few metres to give Australia a thrilling victory by 0.04 seconds.
Meanwhile, McKeon showed there was no lull after her superb Tokyo Olympics. McKeon didn’t compete at the long-course world championships in Budapest in a bid to focus on the Commonwealth Games. She dominated, winning six gold medals, one silver and a bronze medal to become Australia’s most decorated athlete in Birmingham. She also starred in Melbourne recently, with a blistering sub-50 second split in the 4x100 freestyle relay to bring Australia home. It was another brilliant year for a swimmer whose best might still be to come.
The moment of the year in the pool, however, was arguably when Ariarne Titmus shaved 0.06 seconds off Katie Ledecky’s six-year-old 400m freestyle world record at the Australian trials in May.
Quote of the year
“I went to bed early and many children in the hallway of my room found it necessary to knock on the door. After a few times I was done with it. I did not kindly ask to stop. Then the police were called.”
Dutch cycling star Mathieu van der Poel didn’t take too kindly to a couple of kids playing knock-and-run at a Sydney hotel before his UCI Road World Championships race. After pleading guilty to assaulting two teenagers, van der Poel later had his convictions quashed on appeal.
Crystal ball
Although no Commonwealth Games or Olympics are scheduled in 2023, next year shapes as an important year heading into Paris 2024. Swimming, athletics and cycling world championships will all take place.
Mollie O’Callaghan will have a breakthrough year at the World Aquatic Championships in Fukuoka in July.
Brisbane 2032 organisers will hit a snag in plans to redevelop the Gabba into a bigger stadium.
Rohan Browning will become the second Australian – after Patrick Johnson in 2003 – to break the magic 10-second mark in the 100m.
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