Brisbane to host national swimming trials from June 10-15

After producing so many Olympic swimming champions, Australian swimming’s biggest and most pressurised domestic event is returning to Queensland for the first time since 1984.

For the first time in 40 years, Australian swimming’s biggest and most pressurised domestic event is returning to Queensland.

It’s an astonishing fact – especially given how many swimmers from the Sunshine State have worn the green and gold cossies with distinction – but the Australian Olympic swimming trials have not been held in Queensland since 1984.

But that will all change in 2024 after Brisbane was selected to host the national trials for next year’s Paris Olympics and Paralympics.

The six-day meet will take place at the Brisbane Aquatic Centre from June 10-15 and will be the sole selection event for Paris.

With the Dolphins currently boasting the best swim team on the planet – having won a record 13 gold medals at this year’s world championships in Japan – the eyes of the entire swimming world will be focused on the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic host city with the competition for places in the Dolphins team guaranteed to be intense.

The Australian swimming team is packed with star performers. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)

“There’s nothing like the pressure of the trials,” Australian head coach Rohan Taylor said.

“When you go to an Olympic Games, it’s a different vibe because you’ve made the team.

“But the depth that we have in some events is so strong that making the Australian team could be harder than winning a medal at the Olympics.”

Named this week as the Australian Institute of Sport’s coach of the year across all sports, Taylor’s not kidding.

If anything, the mastermind behind the Dolphins’ resurgence since the Rio Olympics is playing down the freakish talent in the squad right now.

At the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo, Australian women won the gold medals in the 50m, 100m, 200m and 400m freestyle races and have remained just as dominant in the years since.

Currently, Australia boasts four of the top seven women in the world rankings for 50m, three of the top five over 100m and three of the top seven for 200m.

But each country can only enter a maximum of two competitors per event at the Olympics so the battle for individual spots will be fierce – though some who just miss out will still qualify for the relays.

Australian head coach Rohan Taylor. Picture: Michael Klein.

The Australian Paralympic swim team will be selected on June 14 with the Olympic team selected 24 hours later – exactly six weeks before the opening day of swimming competition in Paris.

Meanwhile, the Dolphins will select a much smaller team for next year’s world championships in Doha in February.

Because the championships are taking place so close to the Paris Olympics, most of the world’s top swimmers are skipping the event to save themselves for the main event.

With World Aquatics paying $30,000 in prizemoney to any winners, and Australia’s most generous sports supporter Gina Rinehart promising to match their winnings, skipping the meet could it team members in the hip pocket.

Backstroker Kaylee McKeown, who won the 50, 100m, 200m treble in Fukuoka, could stand to win around $180,000 if she repeated the results in Qatar.

Australian superstar Ariarne Titmus has already been ruled out by her coach Dean Boxall and plenty of other big Australian names are expected to stay at home.

Cameron McEvoy has indicated he wants to defend his world title in Doha next year. Picture: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

Newly-crowned 50m freestyle world champion Cam McEvoy is one headline act who has indicated he wants to defend his title but Taylor said a lot of others would opt out.

The team won’t be selected until after next month’s Queensland state championships but is likely to number around 15 or 16 swimmers, less than half the size of a full strength squad, meaning Australia would have no entrants in a stack of events, including relays.

“It’ll be a quality team but some of the big hitters probably won’t take up the opportunity,” Taylor said.

“We’ve left it open so people can change their minds but I’m not going to be taking athletes over for experience, I’m looking for athletes who need to use that competition to get themselves ready for Paris.”