By Retta Race on SwimSwam
2024 AUSTRALIAN OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Wednesday, April 17th – Saturday, April 20th
- Prelims at 10am local (8pm previous night ET), Finals at 6pm local (4am ET)
- Gold Coast Aquatic Centre, Queensland, Australia
- LCM (50m)
- Non-Olympic Qualifying Event
- Meet Central
- Final Start List
- Live Results
- Livestream
The 2024 Australian Swimming Championships are nearly upon us with most of the nation’s biggest stars heading to the Gold Coast for high-octane action.
Although the 4-day competition is a non-Olympic selection event, the performances will give us glimpses into where key athletes are at along their journey to June’s Australian Olympic Trials.
Youngsters will be racing for potential slots on the Junior Pan Pacific Championships.
But Aussies aren’t the only ones diving in beginning on Wednesday, as the green and gold will be sprinkled with athletes from Korea, Japan, New Zealand and beyond.
We reviewed five must-see races on the women’s side but now let’s take a look at the men’s as we count down to the first heats session.
#1 200 Free
The men’s 200m free will be a potential barn burner as the field is ripe with speed.
Chasing the gold will be Kyle Chalmers, Maximillian Giuliani, Tommy Neill, Elijah Winnington, Flynn Southam and more. Cody Simpson is also lurking, albeit well back as the 34th seed.
At the NSW Championships earlier this month, it was 18-year-old Southam who grabbed the top prize, beating Giuliani 1:48.28 to 1:48.53, respectively. Giuliani remains Australia’s #2 performer in history, courtesy of the 1:44.79 put up last December.
Southam raced at the Aussie Age Championships which just concluded and the Bond athlete punched a result of 1:46.43, the 3rd-fastest time of his young career.
21-year-old Neill owns the fastest time of the season behind Giuliani, having clocked a performance of 1:45.78 at last December’s Queensland Championships. That was just .08 outside his lifetime best of 1:45.70 logged at the Australian Olympic Trials for Tokyo.
Chalmers is making his debut since being forced to change coaches just months out from the Olympic Games and it’s strange to see ‘St. Andrew’s’ next to his name as opposed to ‘Marion’.
As we reported, the 25-year-old gold medalist’s leader Peter Bishop had his coaching accreditation revoked through Paris due to a pending investigation. Since then, Chalmers has moved to St. Andrew’s to work under Ash Delaney, alongside Isaac Cooper.
#2 400 Free
We’ll see the last 3 world champions in the men’s 400m free compete this week as Sam Short, South Korean Kim Woomin and Winnington are all entered.
- 2022 World Championships – Elijah Winington, gold (3:41.22)
- 2023 World Championships – Sam Short, gold (3:40.68)
- 2024 World Championships – Kim Woomin, gold (3:42.71)
These 3 results all represent the athletes’ best-ever performances to leave just about a 2-second spread across the trio.
The only other Aussies in the field who have delved under the 3:50 barrier are represented by SOPAC’s 22-year-old Matthew Galea and Griffith’s 23-year-old Brendon Smith. The former has been as swift as 3:47.54 while the latter owns a PB of 3:48.91.
The Swimming Australia-mandated qualification time needed for the Paris Olympics sits at 3:45.43 so we’ll see where athletes are at in light of this benchmark that needs to be met in June.
#3 50 Free
2023 World Championships gold medalist Cameron McEvoy leads the men’s 50m free field charge, carrying his seed time of 21.06.
In Doha this year, Somerville House Aquatics’ McEvoy settled for silver, clocking 21.45 to fall just .01 behind winner Vladyslov Bukhov of Ukraine. McEvoy’s proven he’s more than capable of beating the Swimming Australia Olympic qualification standard of 21.88.
20-year-old Isaac Cooper was also in this year’s World Championships final, placing 5th in 21.77, just off his lifetime best of 21.65 from last year. He looks primed to be McEvoy’s primary challenger both at this competition as well as at June’s Trials.
South Korea’s national record holder Ji Yuchan will bring an international flair and the 21-year-old has also been under the 22-second barrier, owning a PB of 21.72.
The only other Aussie sub-22-second swimmer in the mix is USC Spartan Thomas Nowakowski, carrying a PB of 21.81 from the 2023 Pro Swim Series.
Additional would-be contenders include Bond’s Ben Armbruster, Somerville House’s Grayson Bell, SOPAC’s William Yang and Chalmers.
#5 Men’s 100 Fly
Matt Temple powered his way to a new Australian Record of 50.25 at last year’s Tokyo Open and is the man to beat for the #1 spot on the Olympic roster.
There is a slew of possibles behind him, however, with 5 swimmers all owning PBs under the 52-second threshold. They’ll need to put up the swims of their lives in June, as the Olympic nomination time is 51.17, a barrier under which just 3 Aussies in history have been.
Top 10 Australian Men’s LCM 100 Butterfly Performers All-Time
- Matt Temple – 50.25, 2023
- Andrew Lauterstein – 50.85,2009
- Grant Irvine – 51.00, 2017
- Kyle Chalmers – 51.37, 2020
- David Morgan – 51.47, 2019
- Shaun Champion – 51.54, 2022
- Jayden Hadler – 51.66, 2015 & Jesse Coleman – 51.66, 2023
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- Chris Wright – 51.67, 2012 & Ben Armbruster – 51.67, 2023 & Cody Simipson – 51.67, 2022
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Armbruster, Chalmers, Shaun Champion, Jesse Coleman and Simpson are all expected to race with the latter recently backed by Aussie head coach Rohan Taylor as a viable challenger.
19-year-old All Saints swimmer Enoch Robb is a possible dark horse, having posted a PB of 52.56 at last December’s Queensland Championships.
30-year-old David Morgan is still bumping along, with the Trinity Aquatic Olympian posting 52.32 at last year’s World Championships Trials.
SwimSwam: Top 5 Men’s Races To Watch At 2024 Australian Open Championships
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