14-Year-Old Sienna Toohey Comes Within a Tenth of Leisel Jones’ Australian Age Record

By Braden Keith on SwimSwam

2024 New South Wales Country Championships

• February 16th-18th, 2024
• Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre
• Long Course Meters (50 meters), Timed Finals
• Meet Results

With injuries to Australia’s top breaststrokers Chelsea Hodges, Abbey Harkin, and Jenna Strauch, the Dolphins are digging deep into their bench to look for backup options to fill that leg of their otherwise gold-medal-worthy women’s medley relay.

14-year-old Sienna Toohey continues to bully her way into that conversation, and last week made a statement by swimming a 1:08.39 in the 100 breaststroke at the New South Wales Country Championships in Sydney. Her previous best was a 1:08.98 from August.

That makes her the second-fastest Australia ever at that age, just .09 seconds behind the legendary Leisel Jones, who swam 1:08.30 in April 2000. Just five months later, Jones dropped that to a 1:07.49 to take Olympic silver in the 100 breaststroke, and the rest was history.

Toohey, who is now about the same distance away from the 2024 Olympic Games, is on a similar trajectory, though Australia will need more than an eight-tenths drop for her to have the necessary impact their Olympic gold medal chances.

She now becomes the second-fastest Australia this calendar year, surpassing Harkin’s 1:09.01 from the World Championships. The leader, Kaylee McKeown, who swam 1:07.01 in Melbourne on Friday, also happens to be the world’s best backstroker at the moment.

Hodges was 1:09.38 in her last outing in October, and Strauch was 1:07.30 in her last outing in December.

SwimSwam: 14-Year-Old Sienna Toohey Comes Within a Tenth of Leisel Jones’ Australian Age Record