The Australian swim team has wrapped up their 2016 Olympic campaign with a total of 10 medals including three gold, four silver and three bronze – five from relays and five in individual events.
The swim team won medals in five of the six relays; gold in the women’s 4x100m freestyle, silver in the women’s 4x100m medley and in the women’s 4x200m free, bronze in the men’s 4x100m free and in the men’s 4x100m medley.
This says an enormous amount for those swimmers who had disappointing individual campaigns to step up and perform in relays.
Our individual medals came from Kyle Chalmers (gold 100m freestyle), Mack Horton (gold 400m freestyle), Mitch Larkin (silver in the 200m backstroke), Madeline Groves (silver in the 200m butterfly) and Emma McKeon (bronze in the 100m butterfly).
This saw our Aussie team finish a credible second on the swimming medal tally behind the USA and with four of our five individual medallists Olympic debutants, the future of swimming is looking bright.
Who are our medallists and where did they come from?
Mack Horton
Age: 20
Medal: Gold 400m freestyle
Time going in: 3:41.65 – ranked first in the world for 2016
Time at Olympics: 3:41.55 (Personal Best)
Fun Fact: Horton’s other major hobby is photography and filming. He has documented much of his journey in Rio on a hand held camera.
Horton’s journey to the Olympics was four years longer than he had hoped, but the delay in making the team seems to have been a blessing in disguise.
After narrowly missing the team in 2012 he turned his attention to race practice and worked his way through the junior ranks to finally make his first senior team at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
In 2012 he set a new meet record in the 1500m freestyle at the Junior Pan Pacific Championships and won silver in the 400m freestyle. In 2013 he dominated the Junior World Championships winning five gold medals and breaking five meet records.
Then he started his senior swimming campaign, slowly but surely making himself known on the international scene as a competitive distance freestyler.
At the Commonwealth Games Horton won gold in the 800m freestyle and silver in the 1500m free.
In 2015, Horton’s achievements were interrupted when he contracted a virus that hung around during the World Championships. Despite illness the Melbourne based swimmer dug deep to win a bronze in the 800m freestyle.
Finally, 2016 was Horton’s time to shine; and on day one of the swimming campaign he edged ahead of China’s Sun Yang to steal victory and claim Australia’s first swimming gold medal for 2016 in the men’s 400m freestyle.
“I think for me probably I didn’t really realise the significance of winning the gold medal and what I have done this week,” Horton said.
“Which kind of helped, it is kind of like you’re in a bubble in the Olympic Village and you don’t really realise what you’re doing, especially at your first Olympics. So I think that really helped me handle all the pressure this week."
Horton has a feeling things might change a bit when he gets home, gold medals aren’t easy to come by and he won’t always be the underdog.
“Obviously it will change when I get back to Australia, and going into other meets.”
Horton will have a well-deserved break post-Olympics, travelling with his friend and rival Gregorio Paltrinieri – a fellow gold medallist from the 1500m freestyle – around Italy.
Kyle Chalmers
Age: 18
Medal: Gold men’s 100m freestyle, bronze 4x100m freestyle and 4x100m medley relay
Time going in: 48.03 – ranked eighth in the world for 2016
Time at Olympics: 47.58 (Personal Best)
Fun Fact: Loves Australian Rules Football – only stopped playing competitively in 2015 after a few injuries, always carries an AFL ball with him when he travels.
The ultimate underdog, 18 year-old Kyle Chalmers came from nowhere to win gold in one of the most hotly contested and highly coveted events on the swimming program – the men’s 100m freestyle.
There has been talk of Chalmers’ potential on pool deck for a number years now, as an age group swimmer he was touted as the ‘next Ian Thorpe’ after breaking a number of Thorpe’s age group sprint records.
But as Chalmers said, he “had done nothing in the sport until now”.
And now the something he has done, is incredible. He flew under the radar all the way from the Australian national championships in April through the heats, semi-finals and even the final of the 100m free in Rio.
No one expected him to hold his nerve against the big guys, but the truth was Chalmers had no idea who the big guys even were.
“Going into that heat in the 100m freestyle, I felt very comfortable going in there with Cam. I didn’t know many of the guys either which probably helped me in a way as well because I haven’t really followed swimming a whole lot,” Chalmers admitted.
He ‘didn’t really follow swimming’ because he was engrossed in Australian Rules Football and had thoughts of following in his father’s footsteps to one day become a professional AFL player.
So Chalmers’ journey to the Games saw him make one of the hardest decisions of his life so far, give up AFL to pursue Olympic gold.
The Port Lincoln born teen probably didn’t picture achieving his swimming dream so early on in his career, but said he thoroughly enjoyed the experience and was excited for what was to come.
“Yeah, I just really enjoyed the experience and it helped me perform to my best and I knew that once I got into the final I’d done my job.
“That was mine and Peter’s goal, to make the final and progress through the rounds, and I just gave it my all in the final and it worked out well.”
Head coach of the swim team, Jacco Verhaeren said, “It seems that sometimes ignorance is a blessing, and that is good if you don’t know who you’re racing or are just new in the sport.
"Of course you would like that approach, it’s what champions are made of and I am privileged to have met a few of those and they have their own stories and their own journeys. It’s not the same for everyone but it worked out well for Kyle.”
With a return to AFL not entirely off the cards, Chalmers also wants to return to school and continue his studies.
We have a feeling you could be seeing more of this South Australian superstar on pool deck in the future too.
Madeline Groves
Age: 21
Medal: Silver in the 200m butterfly
Time going in: 2:05.47
Time at Olympics: 2:04.88 (Personal Best)
Fun Fact: Has a pet rescue puppy called Maggie that is the apple of her eye.
‘Mad-Dog’ Madeline Groves as she would like to be referred to, isn’t a stranger on the international swimming scene but made her Olympic debut in Rio in peak condition.
The 21 year-old has been in fine form over the past few years but struggled to convert these at the major meets until this year.
After making her Australian swim team debut in 2014 at the Commonwealth Games, Groves won bronze in the 200m butterfly but despite posting fast times at the national championships in 2015, Groves missed the final in her pet event at the World Championships.
Coming in with the top ranked time for 2016 Groves used advice from past swimmers to help her hold her ground on a competitive field.
“I felt absolutely and perfectly prepared in what to expect in just about every aspect and I really tried to take every bit of advice that he and everyone else that we have been very fortunate to listen to along the way, just really listened and take on board what they say,” Groves said about her preparation.
“I feel that this year is the first year I’ve actually utilised what I have learned from already being on the team, how to get excited before the race and use that pressure to my advantage really to race really well. I just think that all went perfectly according to the plan I tried to apply and the pressure helped me race well in that final.”
Groves stuck to her race plan and it paid off, winning silver at her first Olympic Games in a personal best time.
“We saw many, many times over this week that not necessarily the fastest time from the heats or the semis or coming into the meet win the race, the Olympics is about racing and being the best on the day and that’s I think what makes it special,” Groves said.
This is just the beginning for ‘Mad-Dog’ Maddie, with courage when it counts and a coach like Michael Bohl, by her side anything is possible.
Mitch Larkin
Age: 23
Medal: Silver in the 200m backstroke
Time going in: 1:53.90
Time at Olympics: 1:53.96
Fun Fact: Built a drone in his spare time.
At just 23 years-of-age backstroker Mitch Larkin was racing at his second Olympic Games in Rio.
The engineering student, has been steadily making his move on the swimming scene since London 2012.
A former medley swimmer, Larkin switched to backstroke in a last ditch effort to make the London Olympics team – it paid off with the young rising star making his debut at the 2012 Games.
Larkin continued to make the senior teams, representing Australia at the 2013 World Championships in Barcelona, the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and the 2014 Pan Pacs on the Gold Coast.
It was 2015 where Larkin announced himself as one to watch, taking two world titles in Kazan in the 100 and 200m backstroke and was an almost unstoppable force on the world cup tour that year too.
He returned confident and hungry for Games success.
The podium was just out of reach in the 100m back with Larkin finishing fourth, but a brave swim in the 200m saw him secure the silver, in a time close to his best.
Although not the coveted gold, Larkin said it was one of the toughest races he had swum and was proud of his silver.
“I suppose we swim in a time when Michael Phelps makes it look easy. I finished this week and it really hit home to me personally how incredibly unique [he is]. He has something that no one eels has been able to capture,” Larkin said.
“To be honest when I stood on that medal dais for the 200m backstroke I honestly didn’t mind that I wasn’t on top.
“It was only a couple of minutes later when the women’s 100 freestyle was in the water and I suppose it really hit home to me that I’m lucky and able to secure a medal and it was a dream come true.”
In peak condition Larkin was clocking times close to the world records in his events and with a competitive fire still burning, this may just be the beginning for the young backstroker.
Emma McKeon
Age: 22
Medal: Bronze in the 200m freestyle
Time going in: 1:54.83, ranked fourth for 2016
Time at Olympics: 1:54.92
Fun Fact: Emma’s brother, mother, father and uncle all represented Australia in swimming
Emma McKeon made her Olympic debut in style and will leave Rio with a total of four medals – a gold as part of the World Record breaking 4x100m freestyle relay, silver in the 4x100m medley relay, bronze in the 4x200m freestyle relay and a bronze in the individual 200m freestyle.
An epic achievement for someone that almost gave up the sport after missing the team in 2012.
McKeon has bounced back and is in the shape of her life making her move onto the podium in an event that head coach Jacco described as a ‘stacked field’.
Ranked fourth in 2016 coming in to the event, it was always going to be tough for the 22 year-old to move into a medal position but she said her coach Michael Bohl had helped her get her head in the game.
“This is my first Olympics so I didn’t really know what to expect,” McKeon said.
“But hearing from other people in the team who have been to the Olympics before and from my brother and my parents and my coach who said it’s hard to step up at the Olympics, it is not necessarily the fastest person but the person who handles the pressure and handles the mental toll of it who will succeed the most.”
And that’s just what she did – coming back from finishing seventh in the 100m butterfly final, McKeon left nothing to chance and raced the race in the final of the women’s 200m freestyle to come away with the win.
Her efforts in the relays were also pivotal and with a new found confidence McKeon could be one to watch in the future.
“I definitely took a lot of that with me and that will definitely help me get through future international meets.”
With the team culture exemplary, and a host of rookies on the rise, the future of the Australian swim team is looking bright.
Kathleen Rayment
olympics.com.au
