Team Australia Ready on Eve of FINA World Championships

by Olivier Poirier-Leroy

The 42 member strong contingent of Australian swimming stand ready on the eve of the 2013 FINA World Championships in Barcelona. With six newcomers to the national team, including budding distance star Jordan Harrison, the Australians are sending a powerhouse team that leads the world in no fewer than seven events.

Aussies Without Live TV Coverage of Championships

In a surprise move, World Championships will not be broadcast live in Australia. Viewers down under will still be able to view the Championships however – although only limited to highlight packages – via Fina’s website. For a country that has deep, immense pride in its competitive swimming program this comes as a surprise. Particularly in a year in which they lost a major sponsor, president Barclay Nettlefold resigned last month, and of course, the Stilnox scandal.

With seven swimmers going in ranked number one in the world in their respective events, Swimming Australia has a chance to atone for a disappointing London Games, and doing so on the sets in Australian living rooms would have done much to repair the beleaguered image of Aussie swimming power.

Magnussen Seeks Atonement

James Magnussen’s world leading 47.53 makes him again the fastest man in the world at this event this year. He narrowly lost out to Nathan Adrian last year in London, being out-touched by 0.01 in the Olympic final.

Perhaps more devastatingly, the Aussie men also placed outside of the medals in the 4×100 freestyle relay after being considered a slight favorite to win gold. He is also the only swimmer on the team who won an individual event at the Shanghai Worlds in 2011.

Notes:

Youngest swimmer on the team is Chelsea Gubecka (Mountain Creek Mooloolaba) at 14 years old.
Oldest swimmer on the team is Brenton Rickard (Southport Olympic). At 29, he was also at Worlds the last time they were held in Barcelona ten years ago.
Average age is just a shade over 21 years of age.
There are two pairs of siblings going to Barcelona. Cate and Bronte Campbell, and then David and Emma McKeon (plus their dad Ron McKeon who is going as a coach).

The 2013 FINA World Championships start tomorrow in Barcelona with the men’s and women’s open water events.

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Olivier Poirier-Leroy

Olivier Poirier-Leroy is the founder of YourSwimLog.com. He is an author, former national level swimmer, two-time Olympic Trials qualifier, and swim coach. Olivier is the author of the books YourSwimBook and Conquer the Pool. He writes all things high-performance swimming and is passionate about helping swimmers, swim coaches, and swim parents master the pool. His articles were read over 4 million times last year and his work has appeared on USA Swimming, SwimSwam, STACK, NBC Universal, and more. He's also kinda tall and can be found hitting noon-hour lap swims. You can learn more about Olivier here.

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Olivier Poirier-Leroy Olivier Poirier-Leroy is the founder of YourSwimLog.com. He is an author, former national level swimmer, two-time Olympic Trials qualifier, and swim coach.

Germans Struggle in the Pool at World Champs in Barcelona

Sure, things could have been worse. After all, they were worse last year in London when the Germans went home empty-handed. But that had been seen as a one-off, a momentary blip in the long-standing tradition of powerhouse German swimming. But then Barcelona happened. The Germans would secure one medal